Above: The Rev. Dr. Donna Giver-Johnston, director of the Doctor of Ministry program, leads worship.
When I was a young girl, my favorite superhero—besides my mother, of course—was Wonder Woman. I remember being captivated by her power to repel bullets with her cuffs and capture evil ones with her lasso of truth, all in service to restoring good for all. Since I’ve grown, my superheroes have evolved to include real women in history, including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, Ida B. Wells, Anne Frank, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Malala Yousafzai, and many others. Even though all people are complicated and their stories complex, these women used their gifts to make a difference. Their superpower was that they dedicated themselves to making the world a better place for those who came after them, thus leaving an enduring legacy.
In celebration of Women’s History Month, this post focuses on two other superheroes—pioneers of preaching I have researched and written about—Frances Willard and Florence Spearing Randolph. They both lived in 19th-century America, a time when independence was won and rights were established—but not for women and Black people. They had to resist cultural convention and fight for liberty and justice for all, and they had to challenge church canon to claim the call to preach.
Frances Willard (1839-1898)
Against the prevailing cultural forces of the “cult of domesticity” seeking to keep women at home, Florence Willard resisted these constraints to become the first female college president in the United States (Ladies College of Northwestern University). Answering what she understood as her Christian call to “be good and do good,” she became a leader in social reform agencies (such as women’s suffrage and temperance). As the president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), she developed women in philanthropy to improve society and culture, calling them to use their power for good. While she spoke from a public platform, she advocated for women to preach in the pulpit. She wrote Woman in the Pulpit (1888), as a polemic argument for women’s ordination as preachers, asserting, “Shall women preach? Certainly, if God calls them to preach.”[1]
“Shall women preach? Certainly, if God calls them to preach.”
Concerned for the continuance of this essential work, Willard devoted herself to nurturing the next generation of female leaders. In How to Win: A Book for Girls (1886), Willard summoned girls to use their gifts to make a difference in the world: “Cultivate, then, your specialty, because the independence thus involved will lift you above the world’s pity to the level of its respect, perchance its honor.”[2] Throughout the book, Willard’s tone is both religious (“God has given us each a call . . . ours is a high and sacred calling”), revolutionary (“we hear the battle cry . . . we must go forward”), and resounding (“We shall be Christ’s disciples, and so shall we follow on to know the work whereunto we have been called”).[3] Her eulogy captured her contributions, remembering her “as champion of the cause of women, she was foremost in the world.”[4] Surely, Frances Willard was a “wonder woman,” whose powerful legacy to “be good and do good” lives on.
Florence Spearing Randolph (1866-1951)
Following the Civil War, “Black Codes” of the South legalized discrimination and limited economic freedom for Black people. Florence Spearing Randolph resisted by moving north to open and operate a successful dressmaking business. Feeling called to preach, she had to challenge the church canon that prohibited women in the pulpit. Randolph persisted, and in time she was ordained as a deacon (1901) and an elder (1903) in the American Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, with full preaching and ministerial authority. Despite numerous efforts of churches to replace her with “a nice young man,” Randolph became the pastor of Wallace Chapel AME Zion Church in Summit, N.J. (1925-1946). From her pulpit, she preached a social gospel against racism, sexism, and colonialism. In her sermon “Antipathy to Women Preachers” (1930), from Paul’s letter to the Galatians (3:28-29), Randolph preached, “But God, with whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond or free, male or female, in His wonderful plan of salvation has called and chosen men and women according to His divine will as laborers together with Him for the salvation of the world.”[5] (emphasis mine). On Race Relations Sunday (Feb. 14, 1941), Rev. Randolph preached, “If I were white and believed in God, in His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, I would speak in no uncertain words against Race Prejudice, Hate, Oppression, and Injustice.”[6] Rooted in Scripture, inspired by the Spirit, she preached sermons that called her congregation to put their faith in action and to help make God’s kingdom come on earth as in heaven.
“But God, with whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond or free, male or female, in His wonderful plan of salvation has called and chosen men and women according to His divine will as laborers together with Him for the salvation of the world.”
In “Hope” (1945), Randolph proclaimed, “We are in the world to make it better,” summoning all to play their part: “Every man and every woman . . . should seek to find out just what his or her vocation is, and then go to work with a will, resolute and unyielding, and in the fullness of time astounding results will be achieved.”[7] To ensure these results would be achieved, Randolph made a special plea for the care and nurture of girls, contending that they have a critical role to play in the advancement of the African American community. Arguing against individualism, she contends that supporting and nurturing and empowering girls is a communal responsibility. She ends her sermon with this powerful summons: “There is not happiness in a selfish life, we promote our own happiness in the exact proportion we contribute to the comfort and happiness of others. Let it be remembered, no man liveth to himself, but each is his brother’s [and sister’s] keeper.”[8] Without a doubt, Florence Spearing Randolph was a “wonder woman” whose powerful legacy “to make the world better” lives on.
“There is not happiness in a selfish life, we promote our own happiness in the exact proportion we contribute to the comfort and happiness of others.”
The Powerful Witness of Super Women
Frances Willard and Florence Spearing Randolph are “super women”—heroes. Overcoming great obstacles, they each answered their call from God to “be good and do good” and “make the world better.” From their social platforms and church pulpits, they personified a profound witness, proclaimed a powerful word, and left an enduring legacy. Their superpower was that they dedicated themselves to empowering girls and women to believe in themselves and be bold and courageous: “Fear not, women, because you are about a great work.”[9]
[1] Frances E. Willard, Woman in the Pulpit (Boston: D. Lothroph, 1888), 109.
[2] Frances E. Willard, Carolyn De Swarte Gifford, and Amy R. Slagell, Let Something Good Be Said: Speeches and Writings of Frances E. Willard (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007), 108.
[3] Willard, De Swarte Gifford, and Slagell, Let Something Good Be Said, 113-114
[4] Jean H. Baker, The Lives of American’s Suffragists (New York: Hill and Wang, 2005), 180.
[5] Florence Spearing Randolph, “Antipathy to Women Preachers (ca. 1930), in Bettye Collier-Thomas, Daughters of Thunder: Black Women Preachers and Their Sermons, 1850-1979 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998), 127.
[6] Randolph in Collier-Thomas, Daughters of Thunder, 129.
[7] Randolph in Collier-Thomas, Daughters of Thunder, 120.
[8] Randolph in Collier-Thomas, Daughters of Thunder, 122.
[9] Randolph in Collier-Thomas, Daughters of Thunder, 126.
The Rev. Dr. Donna Giver-Johnston is the director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA) and has more than 20 years of experience in pastoral ministry. She is the author of Claiming the Call to Preach: Four Female Pioneers of Preaching in Nineteenth Century America (Oxford University Press, 2021) and Writing for the Ear, Preaching from the Heart (Fortress Press, 2021). Dr. Giver-Johnston’s areas of expertise include homiletics and liturgics, practical theology, feminist scholarship, and theological education. She holds a BA from Westminster College (Pa.), an M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary, both an MA and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, and a certificate of teaching from the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Dr. Giver-Johnston has been recognized by Princeton Theological Seminary with the John T. Galloway Preaching Award.
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