All God’s Children

Galatians 3:26-29
You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now if you belong to Christ, then indeed you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.

On August 26th, 1920, U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the 19th Amendment of the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This landmark expansion of voting rights for women* would have likely taken much longer were it not for the efforts of one very strategic Methodist woman. 

Francis Willard was a devout Methodist at a time when the Methodist Episcopal Church was beginning to get deeply involved in the Temperance movement. In fact, back then The Methodist Episcopal Church Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals was such an influential force in American public life that they built the Methodist Building on capital hill for the purpose of advocating for prohibition–that building is still there today and houses the UMC’s Board of Church and Society right across the street from the Supreme Court.

In 1879, Willard became president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and went to work transforming it into one of the largest women’s organizations in America, as well as one of the largest social safety nets for women at the time. Under Willard’s leadership, the WCTU established some of the first domestic violence shelters for women and children, ran free kindergartens, and ran communal living houses for working girls and women. Willard and the WCTU rallied people to raise the age of consent to prevent the sexual abuse of children, as well as helping to organize for the passage of the eight-hour work day.

As president of the WCTU, Willard poured a lot of the organization’s time and resources into promoting female suffrage. She was able to create a nationwide, organized network of women, train them in public speaking and political organizing, and send them out to promote the gospel value of equality of men and women in public life. 

It’s amazing what can be accomplished by faithful people who make the goal of their lives loving their neighbors as themselves. May it be so with us.

*It would be irresponsible of me not to recognize that the 19th Amendment did not grant voting rights to all women, as most black women in the South would continue to be disenfranchised until the Voting Rights Act 45 years later. However, I am proud to point out that the Civil Rights movement was also led in part by a number of passionate Methodists like the late Rev. Joseph Lowery.

Rev. Ryan Young