The following essay by Paul Schneible of East Syracuse - Minoa Central High School won first place in the 2010 Matilda Joslyn Gage Essay Contest. He wrote on the assigned topic “If Matilda lived today, in what issues would she become involved? Select one issue and write an essay of up to 1,000 words describing what you think she would be working on today, why you think so, and what she might be doing about the issue.”
__________________________________________
“Had not man been trained by his religion into a belief that woman was created for him, had not the church for 1,800 and more years preached woman’s moral debasement, the long course of legislation for them as slaves would never have taken place, nor the obstacles in way of change been so numerous and so persistent.” — Matilda Joslyn Gage in Woman, Church and State (retrieved from www.matildajoslyngage.org)
Though the idea of separation of church and state dates as far back in American history as Roger Williams and the letters of Thomas Jefferson (Holmes 81-89), there has not been much done to put this idea into practice. Throughout its history, the nation has based its policies and laws on religious doctrine rather than logic and justice, allowing religion to seep into and corrode politics. It was in 1987, in a supposedly tolerant society, that George H. W. Bush said, “No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God” (Robinson). He later won the presidential campaign. Recently, many political analysts believed that Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion would be an obstacle to his campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2008 presidential election (Sullivan). More disturbing still is that Romney countered these allegations by claiming that voters in the United States were concerned about electing a believer, regardless of what religion (Belle). This comment, rather than opposing the allegation that beliefs should have a significant impact on politics, simply transferred the discrimination to nonbelievers. Even in today’s society, religious beliefs continue to have a pervasive influence on public life in America.
To oppose the influence of religion in the 19th century would have required an even greater feat of activism than today. The American mindset was even more thoroughly rooted in religious dogma than it is today (Boyer 644-646), which meant that any socially progressive movement that was opposed to religion faced a significantly augmented opposition. Despite the obvious animosity that her position would cause, Matilda Joslyn Gage included an opposition to religion, especially the Christian religion, on her platform in support of women’s suffrage (Grube). This separates Gage from her contemporaries, many of whom also made great strides in promoting equality for women and African Americans (Boyer 644-646). The unconventional and radical nature of Gage’s attitude toward religion causes it to stand out as her most significant and noteworthy position. Gage was one of the first to realize that placing faith above reason, the cornerstone of religion, is innately counterintuitive to encouraging equality and freedom. Though the Christian faith preached the subordination of women, logical support for this position does not exist outside of religious dogma. In a time when religion was so profoundly important and universally praised, it would have taken little short of genius on the part of Gage to recognize how innately divorced faith is from progress, as well as a level of courage little short of insanity to take such a strong stance on the issue.
Since Gage’s death in 1898, there has been great progress in overcoming many of the problems that she worked to solve during her life. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s resulted in successful reform, women won the right to vote in 1920, and today more women are going to college than ever before. The issues of racial and gender inequality are far from solved, and it is almost unquestionable that Gage would be working to solve what problems remain if she were alive today. However, the issue on which Gage took the most radical stance, separation of church and state, is also the one that has been the most enduring. Because it is the most persistent problem she dealt with, if Gage were alive today she would no doubt focus a large part of her efforts on opposing the continued influence that faith has on government in the United States.
One way that Gage would support this position in a modern context is by supporting the teaching of evolution and opposing ‘Intelligent Design’ (creationism). Gage boldly stated, “That Christianity is false and its foundation a myth, which every discovery of science shows to be as baseless as its former belief that the earth is flat” (Grube). A woman who valued reason over tradition to this extent would no doubt be indignant at the fact that Intelligent Design, a substitute only in name for what she viewed as the Christian mythology of creationism, would be taught alongside evolution, a scientific principle. Claiming in the 19th century, “That every Christian Church is the enemy of liberty and progress and the chief means of enslaving woman’s conscience and reason …” (Grube), she would have been outraged to see that indoctrination had expanded to likewise obscure the reason of children as well as women. It is impossible to significantly stress the importance of being among the first intellectuals to realize that the conservative, authoritarian ideologies of antiquated religions are diametrically opposed to the liberal ideals of equality and reason that bring about constructive societal change. Gage recognized that the subordination of human thinking and reasoning below faith, as by obstructing the teaching of scientific knowledge, is harmful to the cause of feminism and other progressive beliefs because it teaches people to mindlessly accept tradition and the status quo rather than positive new ideas.
Another current controversy, the legality of homosexual marriage, demonstrates the way that religion impairs social progress far more directly. There is no valid secular argument, scientific or philosophical, that can be brought against the case for allowing homosexual marriage. The argument that is used instead it is that the Christian faith considers it to be a sin. This very closely mirrors the opposition that Gage faced from Christianity, which has a very negative view of women as well. Because of how closely the cause for homosexual marriage mirrors Gage’s own cause for women’s suffrage, it is an activist issue on which Gage would likely take a position. Her support of progressive social ideas and disdain for religious zealotry strongly supports this suggestion.
These specific instances are a small picture of the harm that results when religion and politics are not separated. Though the history of the Catholic Church in Latin America has shown that religion can greatly benefit people, it does so best when it is removed from government so political decisions can be made based on the ever changing results of intelligent reasoning rather than immutable religious traditions. A pioneer of the secular movement and a stalwart opponent of the abuses of Christianity, Matilda Joslyn Gage would likely play an important role solving this problem that remains as much an issue today as it was during her lifetime. More so than with any of the numerous other causes that Gage was a champion for, she offered a novel and radical view on reducing the role of religion in government. Because of this, separation of church and State is not only an issue that Gage would be involved it today, but it is the most important one.
Works Cited
Belle, N. (2007, February 18). Romney: “we need to have a person of faith lead the country”. Retrieved from http://crooksandliars.com/2007/02/19/romney-we-need-to-have-a-person-of-faith-lead-the-country
Boyer, P. S., Clark, C., Halttuenen, K., Kett, J. F., & Salisbury, N. (2010). The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People (7 ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
Grube, M. (2009). Challenging the religious right. Retrieved from http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/gage-home/religious-freedom-room/
Holmes, D. L. (2006). The Faiths of the Founding Fathers. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.
Robinson, B.A. (2010, January 07). Non-theistic belief systems. Retrieved from http://www.religioustolerance.org/atheist.htm
Sullivan, A. (2005, September). Mitt Romney’s evangelical problem. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0509.sullivan1.html
