Today’s question in the Californian about women in the churches prompts me to go back in time to a sermon preached following WWII:

    Clearing his throat, Pastor Samuels asked, “Would you all please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 19, verse 14.”

    We all turned to the passage as he read aloud: But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. “My friends,” Pastor Samuels continued, “we all know the verse; we all know how precious the children are in the sight of God. But can we agree that children are the closest thing to the heart of God Himself? We all know the Scripture, that Jesus has said unless we become as little children we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, that their angels always behold the face of our father in heaven.

   “When Jesus said you must be born again, Nicodemus asked Jesus how a man could be born when he is old. We all know how Jesus replied, but I want you to consider this together with what we have just read and know of his feelings about children. And I ask you all to keep in mind, throughout my following words, the fact that Jesus said all the Law and the Prophets is summed up in this: To love God and to love your neighbor as yourself.

    “When meditating on the problem of good and evil, it seems that only children weep over injustice. I recognize this trait in children; a trait that is too soon lost when the realization sinks in that the good that tries to abide by civilized behavior has always seemed impotent in the face of determined evil. But we, as human beings, are the most reluctant when it comes to facing the part we play in the perpetuation of evil.

    “How, you ask, do we, as good people, do this? We do it, my friends, when we refuse to take action against evil. We do it by our fears, ignorance, and prejudices. If we can agree, and all Christians do, that the love of God is manifested by our love for one another, that Jesus himself said that to love God and one another is the True Gospel of life, we must accept as a corollary that anything that denies or works against this is evil and of the Evil One.

    “I think the most important thing I learned in gaining an education was at least some appreciation of my own ignorance. That is a humbling experience. And we need humility, a word not too often heard now. But we are told of God to humble ourselves. God tells us this for our benefit. True education is the dispelling of ignorance. And it is ignorance that leads to the evils of prejudice and bigotry… and underlying such ignorance is the sin of selfishness.

    “Now it is one thing to be honestly ignorant of many things. None of us will ever know it all and you surely know that is not the kind of ignorance about which I am speaking. It is the sinful ignorance of willing to be ignorant, of refusing instruction that, as God says, leads to destruction. To the hard of heart God says, because you refuse instruction, you will surely die in your sins.

    “I was born and have spent my life among the people of Bakersfield. But wherever Dickens' children of Ignorance, of want and poverty exist and hold sway, there will you find lawlessness, cruelty, ignorance, and bigotry. We consider ourselves civilized, a nation of law… And, as the Apostle Paul pointed out, the law is just and good and holy.

    “But the weakness of the law, as he further says, is in the flesh; that flesh which rebels against lawful behavior. Further, the laws of any nation are of no avail unless you have a foundation of true morality in its citizenry… And such a true morality cannot consist of a foundation of ignorance and poverty.

    “It is often too easy to generalize from a single exception to the building of a whole system of belief on that exception; how many a beautiful structure of philosophy and science has fallen to that very weakness. We need another and new Critique of Pure Reason; a rethinking of the muddy thinking of which I believe so much of humankind has been guilty… and, I believe, led to the horrible war just past. And I include myself in that shameful category of such ignorance.

    “For example, the exclusion of women in philosophy and theology, in the decision-making process of government; this, I believe, has cost humankind dearly for it is well said that ‘Woman is the antithesis of war.’ Women do not bear children to sacrifice them on the altars of the wars of men! And are women of lesser importance, of any lesser value to what Jesus said in regard to our neighbor? Are we men to consider only other men in this regard? You would think so by looking at the record of history; and most especially the history of the church.

    “We have recently lived four years in a world at war, a war that caused unimaginable suffering for millions; a war in which millions died. There must come a time when wars cease or humankind has no future as such. Because of the unimaginably horrible weapons we now have, atomic weapons, we have a greater responsibility than ever in history to make wise decisions, decisions that lead to a future for our children, all children, for the sake of all humankind in concert.

    “We must have a Gospel devoid of the kind of dogma that alienates and is effective in the actual living of the Golden Rule, of people treating one another as they would be treated, thus proving their real belief in God… in One who wants to deliver humankind from selfish ignorance, bigotry, intolerance based on prejudice, to deliver us from the wars such things lead to. Simply on the basis of the indisputable fact that men make war, not women, that women attempt to make homes in the face of the horrors of wars perpetrated by men, that woman is the antithesis of war, should make men wake up to this! And women! This, together with failing to make children the proper priority that God Himself ordained they should be, has doomed attempts to quell violence and gain world peace.

    “One of the major obstacles which humankind is going to overcome is intolerance. You know I do not mean the setting aside of proper judgment against those things like perversion, those things that militate against a civilized society. No, I am speaking of the kind of intolerance that leads to the evils of one thinking themselves better than another on the basis of things like race, religion, or politics, even the evil intolerance of men thinking themselves better than women simply on the basis of gender.

    “Why has humankind been devoted to violence, to war, to the ‘musket worshippers’ as Emerson called them? Yes, excluding women by men not considering them of equal value, not giving children the priority needed are the most fundamental factors. But the various hatreds, prejudices, and too all-pervading ignorance that breeds such things as war and violence have a history… and it is the history of evil, the evils of intolerance, self-willed ignorance, selfishness, all of which is paraded in too many cases in the name of some group that believes itself divinely anointed to spread its own peculiar gospel.

    “Thus the need to find the root of these things, the justification for another way, another path to understanding than that which has been followed throughout history. A New Thing is needed… and his New Thing requires a firm grasp and understanding of the history of humankind. It is my conviction that America as the most blessed nation in history has the duty and responsibility to take the lead in the things essential to leading the world out of violence and on the path to world peace.

    “But to do this, it is first essential to understand our own history. And while there is much to be understood from ancient history, it is a record of the failure of humankind to end war and find peace. It is a recorded history of failure that doesn't include women and children on a basis of equal value to men. And understanding this failure and determining to set it right on the part of men may be the answer to our dilemma. And women must accept their distinctive responsibility in helping to accomplish this.

    “We have been taught to believe in the Rapture when Jesus will return and make all things right. But far too many have abused Jesus and this doctrine by abrogating their responsibility to contend against evil. My brothers and sisters, the weight of Scripture, of humankind itself is against such selfish, muddy, thinking. Nowhere in the Scriptures can we find justification to give up without a fight and simply hand the world to the devil and his wicked servants by default.

    “I would leave you with this thought. What if God needs our help in overcoming evil, what if we are failing to do our part by continuing to exclude women on a basis of equal value to men, what if we have failed to make children the priority they are to God Himself? These, my dear brothers and sisters, are the questions I hope you will take home with you and pray about. And be patient with me and pray for me as we seek answers to these questions and honestly face our responsibility in these things, as we search out a course of determined action against the evil.

    “Finally, I would ask you to consider this: If knowledge plus wisdom equals peace, as most would agree, where in history has there been the wisdom that would lead to peace? Knowledge we have in abundance, but it seems wisdom is an orphan, left alone and divorced from knowledge. We now possess the knowledge to destroy ourselves, to destroy the entire earth. But wisdom demands an honest heart. Let us consider how honest we are in our own hearts and minds. Only when we do this are we to have any hope of the answers we need, any hope for peace."