A Crucial Role
I want to share one soul-expanding insight I had on this RubyWoo Pilgrimage: women played a crucial role in all the movements that have set captives free in America.
In Seneca Falls, New York, at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, I learned that women who stood up for what was right, and were consequently deemed troublemakers by good church folk, brought about rights that most of us take for granted. For example, in the 1860s – ‘70s, widows had no right to the custody of their children. When their husbands passed away, the State adjudicated custodial issues.
I cannot imagine not having custody of my daughters were my husband to pass away at an early age. I would experience sorrow upon sorrow. And I cannot imagine remaining penniless because I did not have the right to own property that belonged to my family – simply because I was a woman. Yet that was the way of the world back then.
You and I are indebted to the troublemaking women who refused to remain silent about women’s rights—who stirred the pot—by actively working to change legislation.
Thanks to them, we have rights today, including the right to vote.
Furthermore, many of the abolitionists were women. Frederick Douglas said he could think of no one else who did more for the anti-slavery movement than Harriet Tubman. Along with others, she risked life and limb to save untold numbers of people out of the atrocities of enslavement.
I also heard Civil Rights icon, Ruby Sales, in Harlem. She testified that although men were the faces of the modern Civil Rights movement, women were the force behind it.
Indeed, women have played a crucial role in women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, and in seeking to alleviate numbers of societal, mental, spiritual, and physical ills that afflict us.
Personally, I would love to have a groundswell of support from male evangelical pastors with huge platforms.
It seems like they could quickly help eliminate the horrors that occur because of our broken immigration system. They have the attention of politicians. Right now, with male evangelical pastors’ widespread support, we could have immigration reform. We could easily help stop the human rights abuses that occur when women, children, and men are detained and deported en masse.
But currently, widespread support from them is non-existent. That fact, up until this trip, has demoralized me. However, after the RubyWoo Pilgrimage, I realized we don’t need their support to effect change.
If I am to believe the testimony of history – and I do – transformation will occur when we women come together and demand change.
Yes, our friends and family members might consider us troublemakers. But, that doesn’t matter. Obedience to Christ does. With God’s help and the support of one another, we can change unjust immigrations laws. Will you join me?
