c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Kathleen S. Hurty is general director of Church Women United, a grassroots ecumenical organization of 500,000 Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic women that work on issues of peace and social justice.)

UNDATED _ The horses and buggies were gone, and pantyhose had replaced bustles and bloomers. But for many women who went to Seneca Falls last month, the spirit of the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention was as fresh and vibrant as ever.

That spirit is the essential commitment of women of faith to express their biblical understandings of justice, and see them vigorously applied in a still imperfect and unjust world.

A century and a half ago, when concerned women gathered in the rural New York community of Seneca Falls, the list of rights they sought seemed endless and the probability of gaining them remote: African-American women were enslaved; so-called `privileged’ white women could not vote, hold elected office or work outside the home; poor women and women of color, however, were generally economically forced to work both inside and outside their homes, often in degrading and even dangerous settings.

No reasonable person can look back on this harsh reality without cringing. Back then, however, these injustices were often justified by theological interpretations that concluded slavery was divinely supported and women were chattel.

It fell to women of faith, many of them fervent evangelicals, to proclaim God’s truth. To these women, God’s justice proclaimed liberty to all captives of sin and injustice. It is no accident that the most dramatic liberation movements of the 19th century _ abolition, suffrage, and temperance _ were energized by evangelical Christians who believed God intended humanity to be free of evil powers, whether spiritual or temporal.

It is no accident the 1848 convention was held at Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, a holy setting that, for most of the women who attended the meeting, symbolized their conviction that justice is merely an integral part of living out their Christian faith.

The”Declaration of Sentiments,”read publicly for the first time at Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, is an interesting mingling of both biblical and Jeffersonian language.”We hold these truths to be self-evident,”the 1848 conferees declared,”that all men and women are created equal,”and men who believed women should be kept subservient were singled out for special criticism. That kind of individual, the statement contended,”has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and her God.” The commemorative meeting in Seneca Falls last month brought those sentiments full circle as women leaders came together to demonstrate the women’s movement is alive and well.

United Methodist Women used the occasion to present 10,000 letters addressed to U.S. senators, calling for the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Church Women United local units were strong participants in this campaign. The faith community is still playing a prophetic role in seeking to convince governments to reshape public policy along more just lines.

For women of faith, this isn’t mere politics _ it is the mandatory expression of our moral and ethical consciences.

Recently, an article came across my desk from a well-known conservative”family association”asserting the women’s movement is made up of”shrill lesbians and bra-burners”who do not represent the concerns of Christian women. This simplistic stereotype is being perpetuated as a backlash against ongoing efforts to achieve justice for all women.

In truth, the women’s movement has always offered a venue for the faith ventures of some of the most dynamic Christian women. And while it is true no one Christian activist speaks for the experiences of all Christians, I wonder if those who call upon women to be”graciously submissive”have lost the evangelical thirst for God’s justice that saves souls, heals bodies, and energizes the church of Jesus Christ.

One hundred and fifty years after the Women’s Rights Convention of 1848, the pursuit of basic rights for women is still regarded by some as a radical departure from the ancient concept that women should play a subservient role in the home and in the community. But 100 years from now, those views may seem as barbaric as the biblical justification of human bondage now seems to us.

And it will be up to women of faith to keep alive the notion that the pursuit of justice should never be dismissed because it challenges prevailing social views.

Justice is, and always has been, an integral element of God’s dynamic revelation, and the pursuit of freedom from injustice will be a spark that keeps faith alive.

DEA END HURTY