My sermon, update
So I showed my sermon to Heidi, to Chris and to you guys. I got some good feedback. I also had a few ideas of my own in the interim. So I'm gonna make let you read it again for me.
I talk next week. The Men's Club did today's service, and the guy they had doing the sermon talked for 25 minutes. Ha. That won't be happening when I talk. 15 at the MOST. 13 more likely. Depending how nervous I am.
Here it is,
A few years back, the CBC did a series called The Greatest Canadian, that profiled some of Canada's greatest people. They narrowed it down to a top ten group, and then allowed viewers to vote on their number one. The list was full of some pretty amazing men: Tommy Douglas, Terry Fox and Pierre Trudeau were the top three. All of the top ten were all men. In fact, every last person on that list was a man. That's not to say they weren't deserving, but surely there are a few Canadian women who deserved to grace that list. I mean, I think we could have given Don Cherry's spot to Nellie McClung, who fought for women to be considered persons under the law. Don's an entertaining guy, and Coach's Corner never fails to crack me up, but is he a greater Canadian than she was? Or June Callwood, who founded or co-founded over 50 social action organizations including a youth hostel; Nellie's hostel for women; Jessie's, a centre for teenage parents; Casey House Hospice for those with AIDS; the Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation and Feminists Against Censorship. Pretty amazing lady, that one.
When Carol asked me to give this talk today, she told me that my topic was pretty much anything Canadian themed. One suggestion was, “What do you like about Canada” and another was, “What's it like growing up Canadian?” That got me thinking about my experiences growing up, and how they differ from people in other countries. And since I'm a woman, my experiences are coloured by that. So I got on the idea of inspiring women of Canada. There are way too many to list in a single talk, but I'll tell you about a few of my favourites:
In 1921, Agnes McPhail was the first woman elected to parliament. She fought hard for penal reform, to the mockery of the other parliamentarians. She exposed the horrifying and degrading conditions of the prison system, and worked to get it changed. Since then, many women have been elected to parliament, and we briefly even had a female Prime Minister in Kim Campbell, but did you know that Canada ranks 42nd in the world in female representation in government? Pretty shabby. It wasn't until 1929 that women were determined to be persons under the law and allowed to sit in the Senate.
It was Nellie McClung, whom I mentioned earlier, and four of her friends who spearheaded the campaign to have women declared persons under the law. Ms. McClung had already achieved the victory of getting the vote for women - well, white women, anyway. Women of colour had to wait until after World War 2. Anyway, having achieved voting rights, she went to work on mother's allowances, public health nursing, free medical and dental care for children, liberalised birth control, divorce laws, and improved property rights for married women.
Another amazing lady was Dr. Maude Abbott. She was accepted to McGill University in 1885. She received her Arts degree in 1890, winning the Lord Stanley Gold Medal and graduating as class valedictorian, but she wasn't allowed to enter the medical school there. No women allowed. She fought against that sexist rule, gained public support, and still didn't manage to budge the school. But in 1890, she entered the Faculty of Medicine at Bishop's College in Montreal and was the only woman in her class. She graduated with honours in June 1894, won the Senior Anatomy Prize and the Chancellor's Prize. She went on to become a leading international authority on congenital heart disease. McGill, the school who wouldn't even consider accepting her, awarded her an honorary medical degree in 1910.
Canada has come a long way since those women fought so hard for what we now take for granted. A very long way. Canada is one of the best countries on earth for women. We are guaranteed equal treatment under the law by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And there are very few people who would argue that it should be any other way. Thinking back to the Thanksgiving for Canada Day we just had, I can honestly say that I'm really not proud of how hard we've had to fight to achieve equality of the sexes a reality, or how far we still have to go, but I am fiercely proud of the steps we've made so far.
Because it's true, we still have a ways to go. Women in Canada don't have equal representation in government. We don't make the same amount of money. Our work is less respected. Our achievements are less acknowledged. We suffer from poverty at a far greater rate than men. We are less safe on the street. We are less safe in our homes.
As Christians, I think we are called to treat women and men with equal respect, to make our country a place where everyone is safe, where everyone is treated with dignity. Jesus saved a woman from being stoned to death, asking the crowd if any amongst them was without sin. A woman. Think about that for a second or two from a feminist angle. The crowd must have thought he was crazy, stopping a group of men from exercising their right to kill a woman (likely for adultery). He befriended prostitutes (and if you think they're treated badly now, think about how it was for them 2000 years ago!) Women were subject to different laws, and weren't afforded a whole lot of respect in Jesus's time. He didn't care about that. All he cared about was that they were human, God's children, and treated them with respect. Nellie McClung, who I mentioned earlier, she thought so too. She was the first female elder of a United Church congregation, and she spearheaded not only the campaign for the ordination of women, which was granted in 1936, but to allow women to sit on committees as voting members. Think about that guys! No women on the committees?! Without her tireless work, it would have been unthinkable in 1957 for four incredible women to found this very church. Ilene Busby, Elinore Squires, Ellen Foley and Jeanne Moseley. Thank you, ladies, for continuing her work.
The United Church of Canada has been impressively feminist. Thanks to Ms McClung, we were the first to ordain women, and to ensure equal pay for equal work. Even so, I don't think Nellie would be impressed to hear some of the statistics within our church. For example, a survey of clergy with in the United Church showed that while women and men make the same salaries, men get better benefits packages. They have higher travel allowances, higher book and study allowances, better housing allowances. It truly surprised me to hear it. I was sure there'd be better equality within this church.
Now, I know the good people of this congregation aren't actively out there subjugating women. But if you grew up in Canada, you grew up with some pretty ingrained sexist ideas. Let me give you a couple of pretty common examples. I like this joke: What do you call a woman flying a plane? Dunno? Pilot! (Of all the people I've told that to, only Josie has looked at me and said, “Um, pilot”. The closest to that was someone who said, “A female pilot”. Notice that he needed to mention that she was female.
If I said to you, “My brother Todd is a male nurse”, I bet you wouldn't even blink. Isn't male totally redundant there? Doesn't the name Todd kinda give it away that he's a man? Or the term brother? The idea that nurses are women is so ingrained in our culture, that we throw the word male in there, just so that the listener doesn't think my brother Todd is a woman.
These seem like pretty harmless examples, but it's this kind of thinking that enables the status quo. This kind of thinking that keeps women out of engineering and computer science. This kind of thinking that keeps men out of nursing and childcare - well, that and the lower pay.
There are things we can, and really, if we are to call ourselves Christian, things we must do. Little things. I don't expect us all to be the next Nellie McClung or Agnes McPhail. But there are a number of little things you can do.
Got a sexist joke in the email? Don't pass it on. Hit the delete key. Even if it seems funny.
Offer to babysit for a single Mom. A couple of hours here and there can go a long way.
If you see someone on the street being harassed, call the police. Better to over-react than do nothing.
Give a few dollars to a women's centre. They've had DRASTIC cutbacks lately.
Encourage your daughters and grand-daughters to go into politics.
Your grand-daughter wants to be a nurse? Suggest being a doctor instead! She wants to be a teacher? Why not a professor? Not that nursing and teaching aren't great jobs, they are, but put that bug in her ear anyway. Who knows, maybe she's under the impression that girls should be nurses and boys should be doctors. I've heard it on the playground recently enough.
Vote. Vote with your conscience, not your wallet. I cannot stress that strongly enough. Vote with your conscience. Not your wallet.
And if you hear someone being sexist, call them on it. Even if it's a woman. Especially if it's a woman. I know it's a cliché, but if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Don't sit back and rest on the laurels of past achievements. Nellie McClung said, “The women who have achieved success in the various fields of labour have won the victory for us, but unless we all follow up and press onward the advantage will be lost. Yesterday’s successes will not do for today!”
Canadian women impress me with their strength, their courage and their determination. The women I mentioned earlier are the famous examples, but there are many women in my life who impress me almost as much for the things they do for their families and their communities. My Mom, with the way she quietly goes out of her way for the people in her family. My Mother-in-law, who is stronger than just about anyone I know, for the way she supports her small farming community and tiny church and who raised a wonderful man. The women in this church who do so much that it sometimes makes me tired just watching them. Carol Puckett. People, do you know how much work she does around here? It's incredible. Cooking meals, organizing communion, duty elder, chairing the Stewards committee, organizing fundraising events, the list just goes on and on. I think there should be a Carol Puckett Appreciation Day! Terry can organize it. And Heidi. Oh I really love that woman. What an amazingly lucky congregation we are to have snapped her up. She is strong and compassionate, an uncommon combination. She is smart, funny, and gives a great sermon. I'd like to have a fraction of her qualities. And there are so many other women in our congregation I could go on about. Ilene and Helen and Barb and Judy and Vera and Louise and and and. These are the women we disrespect when we pass on the demeaning joke. Suddenly they don't seem so funny, do they? So, let's remember the amazing contributions of Canadian women, honour their achievements and speak up about them. The next time they run one of those 'best people in Canada' contests, let's nominate some women!
I talk next week. The Men's Club did today's service, and the guy they had doing the sermon talked for 25 minutes. Ha. That won't be happening when I talk. 15 at the MOST. 13 more likely. Depending how nervous I am.
Here it is,
A few years back, the CBC did a series called The Greatest Canadian, that profiled some of Canada's greatest people. They narrowed it down to a top ten group, and then allowed viewers to vote on their number one. The list was full of some pretty amazing men: Tommy Douglas, Terry Fox and Pierre Trudeau were the top three. All of the top ten were all men. In fact, every last person on that list was a man. That's not to say they weren't deserving, but surely there are a few Canadian women who deserved to grace that list. I mean, I think we could have given Don Cherry's spot to Nellie McClung, who fought for women to be considered persons under the law. Don's an entertaining guy, and Coach's Corner never fails to crack me up, but is he a greater Canadian than she was? Or June Callwood, who founded or co-founded over 50 social action organizations including a youth hostel; Nellie's hostel for women; Jessie's, a centre for teenage parents; Casey House Hospice for those with AIDS; the Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation and Feminists Against Censorship. Pretty amazing lady, that one.
When Carol asked me to give this talk today, she told me that my topic was pretty much anything Canadian themed. One suggestion was, “What do you like about Canada” and another was, “What's it like growing up Canadian?” That got me thinking about my experiences growing up, and how they differ from people in other countries. And since I'm a woman, my experiences are coloured by that. So I got on the idea of inspiring women of Canada. There are way too many to list in a single talk, but I'll tell you about a few of my favourites:
In 1921, Agnes McPhail was the first woman elected to parliament. She fought hard for penal reform, to the mockery of the other parliamentarians. She exposed the horrifying and degrading conditions of the prison system, and worked to get it changed. Since then, many women have been elected to parliament, and we briefly even had a female Prime Minister in Kim Campbell, but did you know that Canada ranks 42nd in the world in female representation in government? Pretty shabby. It wasn't until 1929 that women were determined to be persons under the law and allowed to sit in the Senate.
It was Nellie McClung, whom I mentioned earlier, and four of her friends who spearheaded the campaign to have women declared persons under the law. Ms. McClung had already achieved the victory of getting the vote for women - well, white women, anyway. Women of colour had to wait until after World War 2. Anyway, having achieved voting rights, she went to work on mother's allowances, public health nursing, free medical and dental care for children, liberalised birth control, divorce laws, and improved property rights for married women.
Another amazing lady was Dr. Maude Abbott. She was accepted to McGill University in 1885. She received her Arts degree in 1890, winning the Lord Stanley Gold Medal and graduating as class valedictorian, but she wasn't allowed to enter the medical school there. No women allowed. She fought against that sexist rule, gained public support, and still didn't manage to budge the school. But in 1890, she entered the Faculty of Medicine at Bishop's College in Montreal and was the only woman in her class. She graduated with honours in June 1894, won the Senior Anatomy Prize and the Chancellor's Prize. She went on to become a leading international authority on congenital heart disease. McGill, the school who wouldn't even consider accepting her, awarded her an honorary medical degree in 1910.
Canada has come a long way since those women fought so hard for what we now take for granted. A very long way. Canada is one of the best countries on earth for women. We are guaranteed equal treatment under the law by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And there are very few people who would argue that it should be any other way. Thinking back to the Thanksgiving for Canada Day we just had, I can honestly say that I'm really not proud of how hard we've had to fight to achieve equality of the sexes a reality, or how far we still have to go, but I am fiercely proud of the steps we've made so far.
Because it's true, we still have a ways to go. Women in Canada don't have equal representation in government. We don't make the same amount of money. Our work is less respected. Our achievements are less acknowledged. We suffer from poverty at a far greater rate than men. We are less safe on the street. We are less safe in our homes.
As Christians, I think we are called to treat women and men with equal respect, to make our country a place where everyone is safe, where everyone is treated with dignity. Jesus saved a woman from being stoned to death, asking the crowd if any amongst them was without sin. A woman. Think about that for a second or two from a feminist angle. The crowd must have thought he was crazy, stopping a group of men from exercising their right to kill a woman (likely for adultery). He befriended prostitutes (and if you think they're treated badly now, think about how it was for them 2000 years ago!) Women were subject to different laws, and weren't afforded a whole lot of respect in Jesus's time. He didn't care about that. All he cared about was that they were human, God's children, and treated them with respect. Nellie McClung, who I mentioned earlier, she thought so too. She was the first female elder of a United Church congregation, and she spearheaded not only the campaign for the ordination of women, which was granted in 1936, but to allow women to sit on committees as voting members. Think about that guys! No women on the committees?! Without her tireless work, it would have been unthinkable in 1957 for four incredible women to found this very church. Ilene Busby, Elinore Squires, Ellen Foley and Jeanne Moseley. Thank you, ladies, for continuing her work.
The United Church of Canada has been impressively feminist. Thanks to Ms McClung, we were the first to ordain women, and to ensure equal pay for equal work. Even so, I don't think Nellie would be impressed to hear some of the statistics within our church. For example, a survey of clergy with in the United Church showed that while women and men make the same salaries, men get better benefits packages. They have higher travel allowances, higher book and study allowances, better housing allowances. It truly surprised me to hear it. I was sure there'd be better equality within this church.
Now, I know the good people of this congregation aren't actively out there subjugating women. But if you grew up in Canada, you grew up with some pretty ingrained sexist ideas. Let me give you a couple of pretty common examples. I like this joke: What do you call a woman flying a plane? Dunno? Pilot! (Of all the people I've told that to, only Josie has looked at me and said, “Um, pilot”. The closest to that was someone who said, “A female pilot”. Notice that he needed to mention that she was female.
If I said to you, “My brother Todd is a male nurse”, I bet you wouldn't even blink. Isn't male totally redundant there? Doesn't the name Todd kinda give it away that he's a man? Or the term brother? The idea that nurses are women is so ingrained in our culture, that we throw the word male in there, just so that the listener doesn't think my brother Todd is a woman.
These seem like pretty harmless examples, but it's this kind of thinking that enables the status quo. This kind of thinking that keeps women out of engineering and computer science. This kind of thinking that keeps men out of nursing and childcare - well, that and the lower pay.
There are things we can, and really, if we are to call ourselves Christian, things we must do. Little things. I don't expect us all to be the next Nellie McClung or Agnes McPhail. But there are a number of little things you can do.
Got a sexist joke in the email? Don't pass it on. Hit the delete key. Even if it seems funny.
Offer to babysit for a single Mom. A couple of hours here and there can go a long way.
If you see someone on the street being harassed, call the police. Better to over-react than do nothing.
Give a few dollars to a women's centre. They've had DRASTIC cutbacks lately.
Encourage your daughters and grand-daughters to go into politics.
Your grand-daughter wants to be a nurse? Suggest being a doctor instead! She wants to be a teacher? Why not a professor? Not that nursing and teaching aren't great jobs, they are, but put that bug in her ear anyway. Who knows, maybe she's under the impression that girls should be nurses and boys should be doctors. I've heard it on the playground recently enough.
Vote. Vote with your conscience, not your wallet. I cannot stress that strongly enough. Vote with your conscience. Not your wallet.
And if you hear someone being sexist, call them on it. Even if it's a woman. Especially if it's a woman. I know it's a cliché, but if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Don't sit back and rest on the laurels of past achievements. Nellie McClung said, “The women who have achieved success in the various fields of labour have won the victory for us, but unless we all follow up and press onward the advantage will be lost. Yesterday’s successes will not do for today!”
Canadian women impress me with their strength, their courage and their determination. The women I mentioned earlier are the famous examples, but there are many women in my life who impress me almost as much for the things they do for their families and their communities. My Mom, with the way she quietly goes out of her way for the people in her family. My Mother-in-law, who is stronger than just about anyone I know, for the way she supports her small farming community and tiny church and who raised a wonderful man. The women in this church who do so much that it sometimes makes me tired just watching them. Carol Puckett. People, do you know how much work she does around here? It's incredible. Cooking meals, organizing communion, duty elder, chairing the Stewards committee, organizing fundraising events, the list just goes on and on. I think there should be a Carol Puckett Appreciation Day! Terry can organize it. And Heidi. Oh I really love that woman. What an amazingly lucky congregation we are to have snapped her up. She is strong and compassionate, an uncommon combination. She is smart, funny, and gives a great sermon. I'd like to have a fraction of her qualities. And there are so many other women in our congregation I could go on about. Ilene and Helen and Barb and Judy and Vera and Louise and and and. These are the women we disrespect when we pass on the demeaning joke. Suddenly they don't seem so funny, do they? So, let's remember the amazing contributions of Canadian women, honour their achievements and speak up about them. The next time they run one of those 'best people in Canada' contests, let's nominate some women!