Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-09-15
MALE AUTOCRACY
in PULPIT DYING.
So Says President Of international
Association of Women Preach
ers To Convention

CHICAGO, Sept. 15.-(By Asso-
ciated Press Male autocracy that
once ruled in every part of life isl
making its last stand in the minis
try, Miss Nj. Madeline Southland, pres
ident of the international Associa-
ton of Women Preachers, told itsi
annual convention here last night.
Miss Southland led the struggle in
the Methodist Episcopal general con
ference last year that obtained Ii
cense for women to preach. Her
home is in Winfield, Kan. Women
preachers of churches, for the asso-
citation is non-denominational, heard
her address,
Our good friends in this land who
oppose woman's admission to the
ministry seem to be serenely uncon-
scous that they are the spiritual de
scendants of those who once held Wo-
men as chattels, who later shut the
schools in their faces, denied them
the ballot, and refused them equal
wages for equal work despite the
/ fact that thousands of them were
the family breadwinners, Miss
Southland said. She then reviewed ar
guments against women preaching,
''The time was when an appeal to
/ Scripture settled the whole ttling,
men of course doing the interpret
ing" she said eve have gone far
! from that now, for every woman's
voice heard in Christian Endeavor,
! Epworth league or Sunday school is
direct violation of the keeping 81
lence in the church, while if women
did no teaching both public schools
and Sunday schools would suffer
considerable loss.
/ Another once overwhelming argu-
ment was that woman was not men
tally capable of presenting the weigh
/ ty themes that must be dealt with
in the pulpit. But since we have had
q single generation of educated w0-
men we hear little more of that.
Again it was. once seriously claim
ed that woman was unequal physical
! ly to stand the strain of pastoral
work-,and that in the day when wo-
men had from ~ to Is children and
did all the work for them We know
of one woman who in the Rocky
Mountains covered a circuit of so
miles and developed several charges,
which / heard her district superin-
! tendent declare, were now able to
support a man as pastor
"One still hears occasionally that
the ordination of women will femin-
ize the church But that is impossible,
/ for a man-monoply of the pulpit has
already accomplished it,
Many of the arguments once used
1 against women's preaching have had
to be abandoned But the opponents
/! still cling to one, the pet argument
/ of 'woman's sphere. Of necessity
i many women are not mothers and
must seek other vocations, while
many thousands of mothers are fore
! ed into the industrial world to sup
port themselves and their children,
| Indeed many of those who remain at
! home give about nine-tenths of then
time to industry and one-tenth of
their time to children. A woman
preacher would have much more time
for children than many housewives.
at has not been proved that
! preaching is IN any way lnimlcal to
motherhood. | know a number of
preaching mothers and will put
their children up against any of the
same number that any group of fam
! lies desire to bring forward
Woman will bring no new Gospel.
just the woman's vision of the old
yet ever new Gospel. And there will
be no rivalry between her and her
brother, but as in other fields so ii
this, each will reinforce and strength
en- the other. For the mans mind and
the woman's mind are ever compile
mentary and only the blended wis
dom of the two can give Wilderness
and symmetry, whether in home or
state or church.