ABOUT THE FIRST SINNER.
Although Mrs. Bloomer was a member of one of the more conservative branches of the Christian community, she was an earnest advocate of woman’s admission to all departments of Christian work. She repudiated the notion that woman was so great a sinner in the Garden of Eden that she should be forever excluded from ministerial work and responsibilities. As to the first sin in the garden, here is her view of it as stated by herself:
“How any unprejudiced and unbiased mind can read the original account of the Creation and Fall and gather therefrom that the woman committed the greater sin, I cannot understand. When Eve was first asked to eat of the forbidden fruit she refused, and it was only after her scruples were overcome by promises of great knowledge that she gave way to sin. But how was it with Adam who was with her? He took and ate what she offered him without any scruples of conscience, or promises on her part of great things to follow—certainly showing no superiority of goodness, or intellect, or strength of character fitting him for the headship. The command not to eat of the Tree of Life was given to him before her creation, and he was doubly bound to keep it; yet he not only permitted her to partake of the tree without remonstrating with her against it and warning her of the wrong, but ate it himself without objection or hesitation. And then, when inquired of by God concerning what he had done, instead of standing up like an honorable man and confessing the wrong, he weakly tried to shield himself by throwing the blame on the woman. As the account stands, he showed the greater ‘feebleness of resistance and evinced a pliancy of character and a readiness to yield to temptation’ that cannot be justly charged to the woman. As the account stands, man has much more to blush for than to boast of.
“While we are willing to accept this original account of the Creation and Fall, we are not willing that man should add tenfold to woman’s share of sin and put a construction on the whole matter that we believe was never intended by the Creator. Eve had no more to do with bringing sin into the world than had Adam, nor did the Creator charge any more upon her. The punishment inflicted upon them for their transgression, was as heavy upon him as upon her. Her sorrows were to be multiplied; and so, too, was he to eat his bread in sorrow and earn it with the sweat of his face amid thorns and thistles. To her, no injunction to labor was given; upon her no toil was imposed, no ground cursed for her sake. * * * * The Bible is brought forward to prove the subordination of woman and to show that, because St. Paul told the ignorant women of his time to keep silent in the churches, the educated, intelligent women of these times must not only occupy the same position in the church and the family but must not aspire to the rights of citizenship. But the same Power that brought the slave out of bondage will, in His own good time and way, bring about the emancipation of woman and make her the equal in dominion that she was in the beginning.”