40 Years Ago — March 11, 1974
The Equal Rights Amendment had gone to the states for ratification and the church was wrestling with its perspective on the situation. Women bore witness “that in governmental, political, economic, financial and property matters … they have been discriminated against … . There has emerged in our lives a dual system of rights and responsibilities. When a dual system exists, one group dominates and the other group is always oppressed. … In talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus’ identification with her was such that he revealed more to her, an outcast, than to perhaps anyone else up until the experience of the resurrection. … Women were at the cross, women were the testimony of the resurrection. … [T]he church ought to be in the forefront of the struggle for equal rights. … The movement toward liberation … is a movement toward the time when there is neither Jew nor Greek, as Paul said, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, for we are one in Christ.” From the article, “ERA and the Church’s Role” by J. Randolph Taylor.
