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Personhood (Part 1)
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Deborah P. Brunt
I am a person. For awhile, though, other people didn't see me as one.
The delegitimization peaked in my 40s. I had no clue what was happening, or why. When you don't know what's happening, or why - or even when you think you do - here's a good rule of thumb: Follow the Lord. Listen to his voice. Find his eyes up ahead of you on the path. Go that way. He'll take you the right direction even when you can't figure out for the life of you what is going on.
I did not know that the narrow, windy, precipitous path where God took me led me back to full personhood - or rather, into true personhood as I had never experienced it.
Somewhere along the path, I began to realize that Jesus was establishing my identity. Then, it became clear that Holy Spirit was affirming my validity. But only now do I see: Father was doing an even more basic work. Identity and validity mean nothing except in the context of personhood.
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| Fulcrum for our double-mindedness |
Personhood has been a volatile issue from our country's start, a fulcrum for our double-mindedness. In 1776, the founding fathers wrote these noble words into the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
In one way, the Declaration's signers meant precisely what they said. They used the word men in the phrase "all men are created equal," not as a generic term for humankind, but more literally meaning "males." Our founding fathers might have told you that women are just as much persons as men, but deep down they believed women to be "lesser." They demonstrated this belief by legally withholding from women many of the "unalienable rights" they fought a revolution to retain for American men.
Certainly, the two genders are different. Yet both are equally persons in the eyes of the God who created them:
"So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them" (Gen. 1:27).
At creation, God told Adam and Eve together to subdue the earth and the creatures on it. He did not give Adam or Eve dominion over the other. The entry of sin made a mess of all human relationships, beginning with relations between the genders, but Jesus Christ died and rose again in order to restore and to redeem - to reintroduce the original plan and to make it even better. He reinstated both male and female into personhood as neither had known since the Fall. Initially, the church got that; throughout church history, not so much. One litmus test for the Body of Christ in any age and region is its willingness to grant full personhood to women.
Further, our founding fathers didn't really believe that all men are created equal. They didn't confer on any of the native tribes - the persons who had originally inhabited the land - the rights of citizens. And they didn't abolish slavery, by which the colonial slave codes explicitly robbed millions of persons of personhood.
The South Carolina Slave Code of 1740, for example, includes 58 sections that systematically stripped blacks and Indians of inalienable rights endowed by their Creator. Imagine that lawmakers declared it illegal for you to learn to read and write, to leave home without a permit or to gather without a policeman present (controlling all you said and did). The slave codes criminalized a host of activities we would consider it criminal to deny to any person, without a compelling cause.
To get around this sticking point, the code began with this declaration: "all Negroes . . . and all their issue and offspring, born or to be born, shall be, and they are hereby declared to be, and remain forever hereafter, absolute slaves, and shall follow the condition of the mother, and shall be deemed, held, taken, reputed and adjudged in law, to be chattels personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors."[1]
Chattels means "property." Thus, by law, persons were declared non-persons. They were declared personal property. |
| The sisters Grimké | |
In the 1830s, two sisters found themselves in the forefront of the antislavery movement. Sarah and Angelina Grimké had grown up as the daughters of a South Carolina judge, plantation owner and slaveholder. Having observed firsthand what slavery does to the enslaved and to those who participate in the enslaving, the sisters moved north and began to speak out.
They were lambasted as "radical" for calling for an end to slavery in the US. They were also harshly denounced because they were women - and they spoke publicly.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution protects "freedom of speech." Does that amendment apply to women too? Maybe not, some Christians say, pointing to 1 Corinthians 14:34: "the women must keep silent. They don't have the right to speak" (GOD'S WORD).
Okay. But just before that, Scripture says, "So what does this mean, brothers and sisters? When you gather, each person has a psalm, doctrine, revelation, another language, or an interpretation. Everything must be done to help each other grow" (1 Cor. 14:26 GOD'S WORD, emphasis added).
Are women persons, or are they not? Were women, as men, created in the image of God? Are women, as men, renewed in that likeness in Christ? In Him, have women, as well as men, "put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator" (Col. 3:10)? Are women, as well as men, "created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:24)?
If so, we need to go back to God, asking him to reveal by the Spirit the apparent devaluing of women in a handful of New Testament passages. We need to ask: Might the translation of these verses in the context of centuries of gender bias have helped create the confusion? We need to re-examine the apparent silencing of women in 1 Corinthians 14:34 in light of the myriad of verses where God commands, encourages and exhorts his people to speak - and rebukes them when they do not.
With many telling them to be silent and God commanding them to speak, Sarah and Angelina spoke. In 1839, the two sisters, together with Angelina's husband, Theodore Weld, published the authoritative and extremely influential volume, American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. Speaking out in behalf of others whose personhood was being blatantly denied, they wrote:
"He who holds human beings as his bona fide property, regards them as property, and not as persons; this is his permanent state of mind toward them. He does not contemplate slaves as human beings, consequently does not treat them as such; and with entire indifference sees them suffer privations and writhe under blows, which, if inflicted upon whites, would fill him with horror and indignation."[2] |
| Warning cry | |
Three years before the publication of American Slavery and 25 years before the start of the Civil War, Sarah wrote a public letter to the pastors of the South, pleading with them to unite in standing against the slave system. Unlike our founding fathers, Sarah used the term man as a gender-inclusive term. Her words were strong - and compassionate. When you see someone heading for a bridge out, you don't whisper a suggestion. You cry out a warning. Sarah's impassioned plea included these remarks:
"Oh, that I could clothe my feelings in eloquence that would be irresistible, in tones of melting tenderness that would soften the hearts of all, who hold their fellow men in bondage."
"This, my brethren, is slavery - . . . that act, which virtually says, I will as far as I am able destroy the image of God, blot him from creation as a man, and convert him into a thing - 'a chattel personal.' Can any crime, tremendous as is the history of human wickedness, compare in turpitude with this? - No, the immutable difference, the heaven-wide distinction which God has established between that being, whom he has made a little lower than the angels [human beings], and all the other works of this wonderful creation, cannot be annihilated without incurring a weight of guilt beyond expression terrible."
Sarah quoted God's words to Noah in Genesis 9:3: "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you." Then she observed that, after the Flood, the God who created people in his image gave them "permission ample . . . to shed the blood of all inferior creatures." She added, "but of this being, bearing the impress of divinity, God said" - and here she quoted Genesis 9:5-6, King James Version, which I'll quote from a modern translation:
"And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by human beings shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made humankind."
Sarah continued: "Let us pause and examine this passage. - Man may shed the blood of the inferior animals, he may use them as mere means - he may convert them into food to sustain existence - but if the top-stone of creation, the image of God had his blood shed by a beast, that blood was required even of this irrational brute: as if Deity had said, over my likeness I will spread a panoply divine that all creation may instinctively feel that he is precious to his Maker - so precious, that if his life be taken by his fellow man - if man degrades himself to the level of a beast by destroying his brother - 'by man shall his blood be shed.'"
"Oh, my brethren, [God] has stamped with high and holy dignity the form we wear, he has forever exalted our nature by condescending to assume it, and by investing man with the high and holy privilege of being 'the temple of the holy Ghost.' Where then is our title deed for enslaving our equal brother?"
"If ever there was a time when the Church of Christ was called upon to make an aggressive movement on the kingdom of darkness, this is the time. The subject of slavery is fairly before the American public. - The consciences of the slave-holders at the South and of their coadjustors at the North are aroused, notwithstanding all the opiates which are so abundantly administered under the plea of necessity, and expediency, and the duty of obedience to man, rather than to God."
"The times of our ignorance on the subject of slavery which God may have winked at, have passed away. We are no longer standing unconsciously and carelessly on the brink of a burning volcano. The strong arm of Almighty power has rolled back the dense cloud which hung over the terrific crater, and has exposed it to our view, and although no human eye can penetrate the abyss, yet enough is seen to warn us of the consequences of trifling with Omnipotence."
Late in her letter, Sarah quoted this plea of John Wesley regarding slavery: "The blood of thy brother crieth against thee from the earth: oh, whatever it costs, put a stop to its cry before it is too late - instantly, at any price, were it the half of thy goods, deliver thyself from blood guiltiness. Thy hands, thy bed, thy furniture, thy house and thy lands, at present are stained with blood. Surely it is enough - accumulate no more guilt, spill no more blood of the innocent. Whether thou art a Christian or not, show thyself A MAN."
Echoing Wesley's call to "Repent!" Sarah said, "How long the space now granted for repentance may continue, is among the secret things which belong unto God, and my soul ardently desires that all those who are enlisted in the ranks of abolition may regard every day as possibly the last, and may pray without ceasing to God, to grant this nation repentance and forgiveness of the sin of slavery."[3] |
| Stuck on the fulcrum | |
Personhood lay at the heart of the slavery issue. The personhood of blacks was denied. The personhood of whites who could not see other persons as persons was also critically compromised. Those who pointed this out and pleaded for the reinstatement of all persons as persons were called radical and incendiary.
Slavery was abolished in the US nearly 150 years ago. But you tell me: Is personhood still a volatile issue in this nation and in the US church, a fulcrum for double-mindedness?
January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade declared abortion legal in the US. That Supreme Court decision came on the heels of a decade of Civil Rights clashes - violent clashes on the streets and in the courts. Numerous books and movies, including the recently released, The Help, remind us the extent to which African Americans, in my lifetime, continued to be denied full personhood.
If you stop, look and ponder - if you ask God to give you eyes to see - you will discover other appalling instances in which people in our nation and in our churches still today systematically delegitimize other persons or groups, effectually labeling them non-persons. This is a different thing entirely from confronting sin. Calling people to accountability, telling them the truth in love, dignifies them; rejecting or neglecting them as persons dehumanizes them. Remember, though: Whenever any of us participate in that type robbing, we also dehumanize ourselves.
Today, millions of persons struggle to accept their own personhood and don't have a clue why. Many carry the accumulated confusion of generations of ancestors who weren't treated as persons because of their race. Many others carry the accumulated confusion of generations of ancestors who devalued other persons and so dehumanized themselves. Together, we carry the accumulated confusion of a generation that has agreed for almost 40 years to call unborn babies, "fetuses" - for the same reason slaveholders called slaves, "chattels."
Don't think for a moment that the church is the knight in shining armor in this tragic tale. The US church has never sounded a clear call regarding personhood - whether of both genders, or of all races. No wonder we've been stuck on the fulcrum of the abortion issue for 38 years.
Tragically, we can echo almost word for word what Theodore Weld and the Grimké sisters wrote about slavery. "She who counts her unborn baby as 'her own body' and all who count that same baby as 'tissue,' do not contemplate the unborn as human beings, consequently do not treat them as such; and with entire indifference see them suffer privations and writhe under blows, which, if inflicted upon a newborn baby, would fill them with horror and indignation."
Indeed, we who would stand together to applaud Sarah Grimké for her work to end slavery would do well to reread her words quoted above, with the personhood issue of abortion in mind.
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| The path of life | |
A woman who is desperately insecure in her own personhood discovers she is pregnant. She may be wealthy or poverty-stricken, single or married, a mere child or approaching middle age. For reasons that may be quite compelling, she does not welcome the news. The man who got her pregnant, similarly insecure, urges her to "take care of it."
It's an appallingly small step for a desperate man or woman who has never tasted full personhood to deny personhood to someone else, including their own unseen child. Yet, by God's grace, it is possible to break the cycle, to make a different choice.
For our own good, as well as for the good of others, the God who created us in his image cries out, warning us to stop behaviors that destroy. He calls us to go the other way. In the moment we repent, he forgives us for the destruction already done, for Jesus has already borne in his body the terrible price for our crimes. As we press into him, he washes us clean from dehumanization that's accrued from generations of treating and being treated as "less than."
Remember: Jesus Christ came to restore and to redeem - to reintroduce the original plan and to make it even better. No matter what we've done, no matter how others have treated us, if we will worship Christ only and follow him fully, he will lead us into true personhood as we've never before experienced it. Becoming who he created us to be, we will affirm and champion the personhood of all. The path will be narrow, windy, precipitous - but it will be the path of life.
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Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures references are from The Holy Bible, Today's New International Version™ TNIV ® Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society ® All rights reserved worldwide. Also quoted: The Amplified Bible; New American Standard Updated (NASU).
[1]1740 South Carolina Slave Code. Acts of the South Carolina General Assembly, 1740 # 670. Transcription from McCord, David J., ed. The Statutes at Large of South Carolina. Vol. 7, Containing the Acts Relating to Charleston, Courts, Slaves, and Rivers. Columbia, SC: A.S. Johnston, 1840, 397. Emphasis added.
[2]American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1839),110.
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We Confess! The Civil War, the South and the Church
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 God is revealing what we haven't wanted to see, so we can become who we truly are. He holds out this promise:
"I will cleanse them of bloodguilt which I have not yet cleansed" (Joel 3:21 CJB).
Crying to him for a spirit of grace and supplication, we explore how covenant with the Confederacy still hinders revival in the conservative US church culture. As we confess, cleansing, healing, life, identity, oneness, witness and true worship flow.
As we confess, our LORD is honored and his kingdom furthered.
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