Custom essays on Pastoral Letter, the Congregational Ministers

1. In their Pastoral Letter, the Congregational Ministers put the issue of women emancipation among the burning problems of their communities. Those problems are of moral character and should be paid due attention to as they may turn out to be a serious hazard to the religious communities. Ungrounded argument between the parishioners, disrespect for the ministers, and lack of moral virtue are really relevant topics for discussion, for any community, be it religious, ethnical or other, needs to be more or less unanimous in its major principles and views, the members should be bound to each other by some common ideas, features or circumstances, the moral and spiritual matters must elevate the minds and souls of the believers, which makes them kinder, franker and sincerer to each other and create a warm and fraternal atmosphere in their mutual relationships. In short, the issues mentioned could be hardly denied by anybody. But why did the emancipation and right for women movement was put here? Is it really added as one of the relevant questions, or maybe it is the main concern of the pastors that is covered and decorated by the discussion of other subjects? There could be several answers to these questions, but one thing is clear – the ministers refer to the female reform efforts as a kind of moral vice that transgresses divine and human laws and endangers the harmony and stability in the society.
The role of a woman is recognized to be important, but still it is subsidiary. The strength of a woman is in her weakness, the power in her obedience, the wisdom in her ignorance – the tunes are identical with those of proslavery discourse. “We appreciate the unostentatious prayers and efforts of women,” they sing their ode to females (318). And a bit later they add the following chorus “[b]ut when she assumes the place and tone of a man […], we put ourselves in self defence against her […], and her character becomes unnatural” (319), this chorus is repeated, explicitly or implicitly, virtually in every line of their letter in order to remind the women their “true place.”
The vision of the clergymen is surely (for themselves) based on Holy Scripture, both on the New and Old Testament, the authority of God, prophets, Jesus, Apostles is attracted to defend “such reformation as we [the ministers] believe is scriptural and will be permanent.”
In other words, the 3rd section of the Pastoral Letter is a collection of arguments, references, thoughts, suggestions, threats, small concessions, compliments, reprimands etc aimed at discouraging women from fighting for their rights and freedoms.
2. Being the ministers of the Christian church, the authors however resort not only to biblical metaphors and authority, they invent their own ones or borrow them from other sources, “[i]f the vine, whose strength and beauty is to lean upon the trellis work and half conceal its clusters, thinks to assume the independence and the overshadowing nature of the elm, it will only cease to bear fruit, but fall in shame and dishonor into the dust” (319). This simile is not taken from Bible, or from Christian classics. The ministers just gave examples of two sorts of plants, one of them strong, another weak, and boldly apply them to men (a strong one) and woman (a weak one) as their symbols.
This phrase is an uncovered threat and intimidation, a woman will not perform her function and will be ashamed and dishonored – if she tries to change her status and position in the social structure. It is an allusion to the parable about a tree – “every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Luke 3.9) – a phrase from the Gospel is twisted up and directed against the suffragettes of 1830s.
This comparison is organically intertwined with the rest of their anti-feminist rhetoric, the dualism of strength and weakness, power and submission, reason and sentiment, wisdom and ignorance is inherent in the metaphor of “the vine” and “the elm” as well. The women are compared to the latter constituent of the duality, that constituent is to be controlled by the first one. It is quite interesting why the pastors did not reach the idea of parity, harmony, without any submission and suppression, but with common consent, reciprocation, equal rights and duties.
The nature of “the vine” presupposes leaning upon, i.e. dependence, concealment, i.e. accepting the destiny of a housewife and no chance to participate in public affairs, bearing fruits, i.e. fulfilling all the duties and obligations imposed by the man dominating society, avoiding shame and dishonor, i.e. conforming to all the criteria worked out by male minds. That is what means to be a true “vine.”
As for the characteristics, rights and duties of “the elm” they are not so scrupulously enumerated, the deep details are not provided, the criticism absent. The only what could be made out in the mentioned comparison is that the key feature of the strong plant is independence, and the main function – overshadowing. To get the rest of properties of the males is possible by reversing the already enumerated “virtues” of the women, and a clear picture will be discerned.
The speech may be characterized as manipulative and addressed chiefly to the male half of the community, the women would hardly accept the arguments supporting the theses of the ministerial congregation, for they know full well what the female destiny, burden and humiliation is by their own experience