{"id":9,"date":"2010-05-07T10:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-07T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html"},"modified":"2010-05-07T10:01:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-07T10:01:00","slug":"mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html","title":{"rendered":"Mother’s Day: Faithful Women of the World Unite!"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

 At first glance, Mother’s Day appears a quaint and
\nconservative holiday, a sort of greeting card moment, honoring 1950s values, a
\nhistorical throw back to old-fashioned notions of hearth and home.<\/p>\n

Let’s correct that impression by saying:  <\/span>Happy Radical Mother’s Day.<\/p>\n

 In May 1907, Anna Jarvis<\/a>, a member of a Methodist
\ncongregation in Grafton, West Virginia, passed out 500 white carnations in
\nchurch to commemorate the life of her mother. A<\/span> year later, the same Methodist church created a
\nspecial service to honor mothers. Many progressive and liberal Christian organizations–like the YMCA and
\nthe World Sunday School Association–picked up the cause and lobbied Congress to
\nmake Mother’s Day a national holiday. And, in 1914, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson made it official and
\nsigned Mother’s Day into law.  <\/span>Thus
\nbegan the modern celebration of Mother’s Day in the United States. <\/span><\/p>\n

For some years, radical Protestant women had been agitating
\nfor a national Mother’s Day hoping that it would further a progressive
\npolitical agenda that favored issues related to women’s lives.  <\/span>In the late 19th<\/sup> century,
\nJulia Ward Howe<\/a> (better know for the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”) expressed
\nthis hope in her 1870 prose-poem, “A Mother’s Day Proclamation<\/a>” calling women
\nto pacifism and political resistance:<\/p>\n

Arise
\nthen…women of this day! ?Arise,
\nall women who have hearts! ?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! ?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Say
\nfirmly…<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

“Disarm!
\nDisarm! ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nsword of murder is not the balance of justice.” ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Blood
\ndoes not wipe our dishonor, ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Nor
\nviolence indicate possession. ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

As
\nmen have often forsaken the plough and the anvil ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

At
\nthe summons of war, ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Let
\nwomen now leave all that may be left of home ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

For
\na great and earnest day of counsel. ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Let
\nthem meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Let
\nthem solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means <\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Whereby
\nthe great human family can live in peace… ?<\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Each
\nbearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, ?But of God – <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Years later, Anna Jarvis intended the new holiday to honor
\nall mothers beginning with her own–Anna Reeves Jarvis, who had died in
\n1905.  <\/span>Although now largely
\nforgotten, Anna Reeves Jarvis was a social activist and community organizer who
\nshared the political views of other progressive women like Julia Ward
\nHowe.  <\/span>In 1858, Anna Reeves Jarvis
\norganized poor women in West Virginia into “Mothers’ Work Day Clubs” to raise
\nthe issue of clean water and sanitation in relation to the lives of women and
\nchildren.  <\/span>She also worked for
\nuniversal access to medicine for the poor.  <\/span>Reeves Jarvis was also a pacifist who served both sides in
\nthe Civil War by working for camp sanitation and medical care for soldiers of
\nthe North and the South. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although I’ve never seen it on a pastel flowered greeting
\ncard, Mother’s Day honors a progressive feminist, inclusive, non-violent vision
\nfor world community–born in the imagination of women who devoted themselves to
\nGod, not Caesar.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Happy Radical Mother’s Day!<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 At first glance, Mother’s Day appears a quaint and conservative holiday, a sort of greeting card moment, honoring 1950s values, a historical throw back to old-fashioned notions of hearth and home. Let’s correct that impression by saying:  Happy Radical Mother’s Day.  In May 1907, Anna Jarvis, a member of a Methodist congregation in Grafton, West…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9,6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-holiday","category-religion-and-politics","category-women"],"yoast_head":"\nMother's Day: Faithful Women of the World Unite! - Christianity for the Rest of Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mother's Day: Faithful Women of the World Unite! - Christianity for the Rest of Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" At first glance, Mother’s Day appears a quaint and conservative holiday, a sort of greeting card moment, honoring 1950s values, a historical throw back to old-fashioned notions of hearth and home. Let’s correct that impression by saying:  Happy Radical Mother’s Day.  In May 1907, Anna Jarvis, a member of a Methodist congregation in Grafton, West…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christianity for the Rest of Us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-07T10:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Diana Butler Bass\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mother's Day: Faithful Women of the World Unite! - Christianity for the Rest of Us","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mother's Day: Faithful Women of the World Unite! - Christianity for the Rest of Us","og_description":" At first glance, Mother’s Day appears a quaint and conservative holiday, a sort of greeting card moment, honoring 1950s values, a historical throw back to old-fashioned notions of hearth and home. Let’s correct that impression by saying:  Happy Radical Mother’s Day.  In May 1907, Anna Jarvis, a member of a Methodist congregation in Grafton, West…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html","og_site_name":"Christianity for the Rest of Us","article_published_time":"2010-05-07T10:01:00+00:00","author":"Diana Butler Bass","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html","name":"Mother's Day: Faithful Women of the World Unite! - Christianity for the Rest of Us","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-05-07T10:01:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-05-07T10:01:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#\/schema\/person\/af0e5483b7a3dbedba88a766dea6dbe2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/05\/mothers-day-faithful-women-of-the-world-unite.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mother’s Day: Faithful Women of the World Unite!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/","name":"Christianity for the Rest of Us","description":"Christianity for the Rest of Us","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#\/schema\/person\/af0e5483b7a3dbedba88a766dea6dbe2","name":"Diana Butler Bass","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/be3\/be314a8e22e069cf178a04394ae14af2x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/be3\/be314a8e22e069cf178a04394ae14af2x96.jpg","caption":"Diana Butler Bass"},"description":"Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of seven books including A People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009) Her best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christian Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality\u00e2\u20ac\u201da project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Diana also serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society. Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/author\/dbbass"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}