Guess who said this…

 

 

"All restrictions to positions in the church based on race have been abolished;

it is time then that those based on sex were also abolished.

 

The church has no right to forbid the free exercise of abilities to do good which God has given.  To do so is usurpation and tyranny.

 

Men had better busy themselves in building up the temple of God, instead of employing their time in pushing from the scaffold their sisters, who are both able and willing to work with them side by side."

 

 

 

 

 

C’mon—don’t scroll down yet… guess who said it then scroll down s-l-o-w-l-y reading the unfolding hints

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HINT #1: The quote is not from a feminist woman but a male preacher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HINT #2: This preacher was from the 19th century—he was born in 1823 and died in 1893.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HINT #3: Besides being an advocate for woman’s rights he was also a fervent opponent to slavery.  His uncompromising advocacy for woman and slaves along with his advocacy for labor, farmers, and universal education was so troublesome that he was eventually expelled from the Methodist church who then took a more moderate position. (an expulsion reversed 50 years later by a regretful Methodist Episcopal Church)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HINT #4: In 1866 he founded a college in upstate New York called “Chili Seminary” (later “Chesbrough Seminary”) (later still renamed for this feminist founder)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HINT #5: His picture:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HINT #6: He was elected the first bishop of a newly formed anti-slavery denomination. “The Free Methodist Church.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The answer: B. T. Roberts ardent feminist, founder of Roberts Wesleyan College and first bishop of the Free Methodist Church

 

 

"All restrictions to positions in the church based on race have been abolished;  it is time then that those based on sex were also abolished.  The church has no right to forbid the free exercise of abilities to do good which God has given.  To do so is usurpation and tyranny. Men had better busy themselves in building up the temple of God, instead of employing their time in pushing from the scaffold their sisters, who are both able and willing to work with them side by side."     –B. T. Roberts

 

 

By Keith Drury, September 1, 2005

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