Thoughts After Reading 14 The Religion of Woman.”

Southland Times, Issue 19553, 6 May 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

Thoughts After Reading 14 The Religion of Woman.”

(By Florence Dixie.) “ The woman’s cause is man’s : they rise or sink Together, dwarf’d or god-like, bond or (To the Editor). Sir,—The undoubted fact that the leaning tower of Christianity is supported by the buttress of woman’s fidelity is dealt with by Mr McCabe in his new book bearing the title which beads this paper. There is a vein of surprise coursing through its pages at this fidelity, inasmuch as it is given in return for injustice. . ■ . Personally, I am certain of that cause. It is that woman is a slave. Now, the slaves of past days did not emancipate themselves, or even ask for freedom. The few who rose In revolt were flogged and subdued, and it was the free who freed the slaves. It was Mr Gladstone who informed us that the unenfranchised working man was of no account. He had no vote. wherefore he could be safely neglected ; and the same remark applies to woman, not only politically, but in a religious sense as well, thus : “'She is the blind slave of Dogma ; her eyes have been cruelly put out : she cannot see. wherefore is she forced to accept the guidance of her task-master.”

Mr McCabe remarks that woman Ims less independence than man. Naturally she has, being voteless, powerless, ' and mtseducated. She learns the curriculum drawn up for her by her owners who have denied her the rights of citizenship. Her slavish fidelity is the result of ignorance and subjected will. Open her eyes, give her power, and then to herself she will be true. Let men reverse lor two generations the positions of the sexes and see what they would become themselves. What else but as stupid, subjected, and yielding as any roi faineant of the "far long ago” age? Woman’s blindness and fidelity are imposed and exacted by man, who, did he give her fair play, would quickly be shown- what she is capable of becoming. It was only the other day that an eminent London physician, himself an Agnostic, to whom I had written expressing regret that he was sending his son to be educated at a Roman Catholic college, replied, ” Some sort of religion Is necessary for most women and all children to keep them^under control, and so that it accomplishes that object, it matters little the creed.” To the fair, Ih.iiirilr.lid. intelligent mind these words must be woeful reading, yet they accurately represent the attitude of most men on the subject. No wonder women who are thus trained cling, in their ignorance, to the only thing they know. It is tlieir all-in-all. Of all the ghastly enforcements of religion commend me to the marriage law as it is at' present set

forth and buttressed by the fiats ot men. Its cruel conditions prostitute millions of women and seal their doom. Never shall they .be accounted free beings until they have as complete control of their own persons as have men ; and when, as In New Zealand, this is accorded them, then, on perfect equality with her co-mate In all things, shall woman shape her destiny, and in doing so oast down th# idols which, during her long period of serfdom, have been forced upon her adoration. I agree with Mr McGaha's views as to the degradation . brought upon women by Christianity, but ' I must tell him regretfully that in appealing to her sex to cast off this taskmaster, lie is mostly addressing the jbllnd, the deaf, the dumb. They are not permitted, or are unable to read or hear the truth ; and to the few, who feel it, and yearn to alter tha lie iato truth, the power to do so is refused. I truly wish tfi'at Mr McCabe’s book may be read by many women, especially those who, firmly believing in God, spend long hours in either cursing him for their sorrows or praying him to relieve them ot them, or in crying ” Thy will be done.” And yet I fear there are numbers of these who will not touch its pages; even Church and State hav» drilled them into a subjection from which they are too feeble and ignorant to extricate themselves. Nevertheless, let those who can, show it to these slaves, [t is man who must restore to woman her birthright. Meanwhile, let all who can get at the children (except the priests) and may the time soon come when the sexes shall be educated together. Then shall man grow more just and give woman freedom, when the religion of both shall blend In harmony and the laws of superstitious Church and man-ruled State shall die. The children of woman free shall be noble and beautiful, because they shall be the offspring of love, and because the worship of falsehood shall no longer be the religion of woman. These are the news, very much curtailed, of one of England's most active and gifted lady reformers, bent upon lessening some of the evils surrounding her sex. Women of New Zealand who enjoy the franchise should "bestir themselves. The strictly secular instruction in our public schools is in danger.—l am, etc., RATIONALIST. South Invercargill, April 29th.