Who will face Franz Jägerstätter in the Championship Round of Lent Madness 2017? That's the question of the day following Franz's narrow victory over Stephen 53% to 47% in the first of two Faithful Four matchups.
Two things are certain: 1) Franz's opponent will either be Amelia Bloomer or Florence Nightingale. 2) Today's Celebrity Bloggers, Laurie Brock and Anna Courie, are terrific writers and we're grateful for their witness.
To make it to the Faithful Four, Amelia Bloomer stymied Philipp Melanchthon, Fanny Crosby, and Raymond Nonnatus while Florence Nightingale made it past Anselm of Canterbury, Henry Beard Delany, and Martin Luther.
In case you missed the final in-season Monday Madness episode of 2017, watch it here. Tim and Scott are not BOTH in the Holy Land for Holy Week, but one of them is. And it's definitely not Tim. Because he's busy.
Amelia Bloomer
Imagine a world - or a church - without women’s voices.
Without the laughter of Sarah, without the judgments of Deborah, without the mutual joy of Mary and Elizabeth, and without the Easter proclamation of Mary Magdalene.
Amelia Bloomer didn’t have to struggle very hard to imagine. In the 19th century in which she lived, women in the United States were silenced by culture, by law, and by religion. Amelia, however, was not willing to allow others to silence the voice God gave her.
Amelia began using her voice as a leader in the temperance movement, a movement in America that, seen through our own 21st century experiences, can seem extreme. Amelia and those who advocated for temperance wanted alcohol sales banned. Amelia herself would not dine in a home where alcohol was served. Amelia had seen, in a country where women had little if no opportunity to work outside the home, her gender dependent upon wages brought home by husbands, the same wages readily spent at pubs and bars where pay was distributed. Cities and towns encouraged establishments to sell alcohol while spending no money on public wells for clean water. Amelia has heard the voices of women abused and neglected because of alcoholism.
Amelia used her voice to lift up other women. She published The Lily, a newspaper devoted to women’s issues. Its early articles focused on temperance, but as Amelia listened to the voices of other women leaders, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Lily addressed a range of issues, from fashions that allowed better mobility for women to voting rights. Amelia said of her newspaper, “It is woman that speaks through The Lily. It is upon an important subject, too, that she comes before the public to be heard.”
In reading biographies of Amelia, we likely wouldn’t know how the voice of God guided Amelia. She rarely wrote about the influence her Episcopal faith had on her viewpoints or even how her faith molded them. She was, however, a devout member of the Episcopal Church in Seneca Falls and frequently clashed with other women’s rights advocates for her unwillingness to condemn the Church outright, arguing she preferred to reform the Church from the inside as a member.
Throughout her life, Amelia was involved in a vast array of charitable and church organizations. She had sewing parties to make clothes for those in
need. She and her husband welcomed several orphans into their home, worked for church ministries, and continued her dedication to temperance, often lecturing inebriated men on the street of the dangers of alcoholism and offering them help.
What would the world and the church be like without women’s voices?
Thanks to the work of women like Amelia Bloomer and those who continue her work to strive for justice, dignity, and equality for women in the church and the world, may a reality without women’s voices never be.
-- Laurie Brock
Florence Nightingale
The year is 1854……
Florence is tired. And cold. So bitterly, bitterly cold. She pulls her cape around her more tightly with her left arm as her right arm lifts the lamp that lights her way to the infirmary. Florence is lost in her thoughts. She has wondered, yet again, how she can help so many soldiers. They are all so sick. The pain and anguish of their plight sits heavy on her heart. In moments of doubt, she wonders how God can be found on a battlefield…..
Her boot sticks once again in the mud on her way. She is irritated by the inconvenience. Will the weather not even bend to help her improve conditions?
She sighs as she lifts her shoe and shakes off the debris. Tonight will be difficult. A new load of wounded has been delivered to the hospital and Florence knows it will be a long night as walks between the wounded, and teaches the young nurses to wash, wash, wash. Florence wonders how hand washing can be such a foreign concept. She wonders why fresh air, clean hands, and clean linens would be such a revolutionary idea to taking care of their fellow man. She wonders how to teach people the basic necessities of life that should be available to all. She wonders if her fellow doctors and nurses see the face of God in their patients as she does. Florence wonders how to make them see beyond the lumps of misery on their cots.
Florence takes a deep breath as she opens the doors to the ward. She knows from experience that the stench of death, decay, rotting flesh, old (and new) blood will steal her breath and make her stomach heave. Even an old nurse will never forget that unique sickly-sweet smell of skin that is no longer healthy. The skin that seems to turn first bright pink, then green, and finally black as it rots before their eyes. She is frustrated that the hospital does nothing to address the vermin that are attracted to death. She knows that it is vital to the repair of the body that those broken cells be nurtured in an environment that is clean both in air, surroundings, and supplies. Florence knows that in a room that is overflowing with with the sick and wounded, the environment is often the largest hill in her b
attle towards health.
As Florence proceeds, she sees John* lying next to the door. Florence turns to her first patient of the night, smiles, and shares a little of God in that singular moment with her patient, and says, “‘To be a fellow worker with God is the highest aspiration of which we can conceive man capable.’ Come, let’s get you well.”
*John represents one of many patients Florence served and is not to be confused with a specific individual. The writing here is the creative license of the author to best represent the times and environment in which Florence worked. Any errors are my own.
-- Anna Courie
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166 comments on “Amelia Bloomer vs. Florence Nightingale”
Linda Sylvester and Karen Sharp -- Excellent comments!
Remembering the night I made a pre-op visit to a man with gangrene, who welcomed this chaplain and talked for hours...Florence Nightingale was not only the forerunner for today's nurses, but for chaplains as well. How could I vote for anyone else?
The essay for Florence Nightengale was so beautifully written it left me no option but to give her my vote. Thank you. In any case, may a woman win the Golden Halo this year,.
Thank you for your sweet words!
Ok, some probably see Amelia's views on alcohol as extreme. Sometimes we have to find a tactical way to begin to address a systemic problem. Alcohol sucked household money and kept men from home. Changing a culture is the most difficult thing to do. It took tough-minded women to stand up for those who hold up half the sky. Go Amelia!
Amen! It's not too late.
And without the temperance movement, women's suffrage would not have happened then, and one has to wonder if and when (yes: "IF"!!) it would have finally happened.
No temperance movement, no votes for women. No votes for women, no Frances Perkins, no New Deal. FDR without Frances trying to fix the Great Depression -- Lord have Mercy!
This was a hard choice. I believe we have to show a support for women's rights, especially now. In this case, either way you are voting for a woman, so in a sense either way you are voting for women's rights. I went with Amelia, though, because she was the obvious choice in that regard but more to the point because I was afraid more people were voting for Florence. So far, I was right. I don't care which one of them wins, they are both great, but I do hope that Amelia gets a little closer to Florence Nightingale.
As the mother of a daughter who is an Army National Guard medic and whose family tree includes Susan B. Anthony, I am hard pressed to choose between these two heroes. But it will have to be Florence who sees the face of God in the wounded and dying, just as my daughter will if she has to be deployed.
The images for Amelia are uncredited. The writing by Anna about Florence is excellent.
I predict the winner of the Golden Halo have a baptismal name that starts with F and a long last name.
I believe you are prescient, Miss Jan. 😉
You are droll today. I concur.
Yes.
Truly a tough choice today between two very influential and saintly women. And it will be an even tougher decision tomorrow. Kudos to the celebrity bloggers on the write-ups.
As a nurse I once again MUST vote for Flo! She taught her nurses the importance of hand washing between each patient, an idea that doctors of the day didn't quite believe in. Go on Flo and keep washing your hands.
I can't believe this "Madness" is almost over! This was another difficult matchup to choose from. Voted for Flo. And thanks, Diana for the wonderful hymns!
I am heartened to see that Florence is ahead but the day is just nicely beginning. Florence lived out her faith and shared it. Her contributions to modern sanitary nursing and hospital care are so important. I won't get into the women's right issue, but Amelia's temperance efforts anger me. Not eat in home where alcohol is served! Not bake with alcohol (the alcohol is no longer intoxicating in cooked food). This is extremism, always scary. In her day, and still today, it seems to be easier to attack the "thing" causing a social evil -- guns, drugs, alcohol. At least today we have the benefit of psychology. But still, the "thing" is attacked but the root of the evil still remains. I am the grandchild of two Eastern European immigrants of the early 20th century, not much different culturally from the 19th. My grandfather was married at 19 to an 18 year old girl. They had nine children, 7 of whom lived to adulthood. They lived in a tiny mill house in an ugly mill town where the air was permeated with the smell of sulfur from the paper mill my granddad worked in for 50 years.
It was clear from his dress, his table manners, and his social graces that he had come from a wealthy and educated family. But these were evident only when he was sober, which was rare till he retired and finally got to live with a daughter in Tampa . Why was he an alcoholic? I am convinced he was for the same reason that thousands and thousands of the men Amelia lectured were alcoholic. Many of them were uprooted from their home and culture, did not have the opportunity or time to learn English as they worked tiring, boring jobs in a factory. Their tiny homes were full of babies and children and teens, their tired wives were often angry and nagging. And the local bar was an escape where they could speak their language, have "guy talk," and assuage their loneliness, anger and frustration. I would have more respect for Amelia if she had addressed the reasons why so many men were alcoholic and mistreated their wives. No one seemed to ever look at WHY the men did this. It might not have been true of all, of course, but it certainly would have been a start.
Certainly food for thought. And also appropriate when considering present-day addiction to opiates and/or meth which seem to be the equivalent of the cheap alcohol sold in the 19th century.
So well put. It is so easy to condemn the "thing." and ignore the cause. We are still doing it. Children misuse swings in a school ground, so swings are banned from school grounds. Prohibitionists set my teeth on edge. They are extremists, who make life a lot less pleasant.
Yes, I believe that prudery is NEVER a sign of holiness.
So the temperance movement angers you?
Does it mean nothing at all that were it not for the Temperance movement there would have been no votes for women?
Sorry, but it is necessary to see actions in those times as rooted in the events of those times, and darn it, no "yes, but" about it! Women had no say, and men drank away what wages they had, and, Oh my! It's much too extreme to try to do something about it, isn't it?
After all, we cannot limit the rights of those hard-working men, can we? Men will be men, after all. Women are just chattel, and should darn well know their place. That is the thinking, unfortunately, and we still have a lot of it going around in comments of those who know what they know, and do not want to count the cost.
I don't agree at all with the temperance position, but I can understand it, and I have to respect it, and you ought to also, with all due respect.
Very well put, James!
An incredibly difficult choice today and tomorrow will be more so. While Franz' actions and faith were admirable, they were also more personal. Florence was the Mother Teresa of her time, seeing Jesus in every face, and she made incredibly important contributions to medicine through her teachings on hygiene.
Yes, but did she influence our undergarments?
This was the hardest decision in this year's bracket!!
Congrats to Laurie and Anna for terrific writing this morning. The journalism Pulitzers were awarded yesterday. They missed the genre for evangelism, the good news that, like poetry, stays news we need! Anna's tactile narrative moved me to vote for Florence Nightingale. Her emphasis was the environment, and I comprehend that expansively, as the larger conditions we all live in together: natural, social, technological, and political. In Easter and Pentecost, I hope all our ministries for bringing good news to the world, together, will be blessed.
Yes both of the writers did a superb job.
Anna, beautifully written!!!!
Thank you! ☺️
Just a little hyperbole from one who believes in the germ theory...if you have ever had surgery you might not be alive to vote for anyone without Florence. Then speaking as a Cassandran (AKA Radical Feminist Nurse), she inspired generations of feminists and continues to have an influence in nursing and feminism in 2017. Going for the Golden Halo...Go Flo!
Evan as a nurse, I'm voting for Amelia. Maybe especially as a nurse. Alcohol abuse was the "opioid epidemic" of her day, and she addressed it. And she gave women a voice in an era in which they were routinely silenced.
With such descriptive writing, how could we not choose Florence?! That really put us in her shoes and helps us understand her better.
Part of me wants Amelia to go all the way just to see how the SEC would honor her -- because a pint glass would be singularly inappropriate for Amelia the teetotaler. And Golden Halo bloomers...no. Just no.
But please no more coffee mugs. Most people who like coffee (or tea or cocoa) already have a favorite mug and those who don't like hot beverages don't need yet another mug.
Tee hee!!
;=)
.
I think I would have to buy Golden Halo bloomers, how could I not?
Both Celebrity Bloggers have done a beautiful job today. It appears that Florence is going to win in a landslide, but I have cast my vote for Amelia. It would be easy to dismiss her temperance activities (and many have) as prudery, but Laurie Brock's description of true conditions lends an important light to the issue. Her willingness to stay in the church and work for change also speaks strongly to me. Well done, Amelia, well done! And thanks for the underwear!
Florence! "... fresh air, clean hands, and clean linens... She wonders how to teach people the basic necessities of life that should be available to all." Go with the Flo!
One post said the writer was a nurse but was voting for Amelia. I'm a journalist but voted for Florence, although all I really wanted to do was vote "yes" for both. What a choice. And I think it's going to get even harder. The Celebrity Bloggers have been outstanding the whole way.
What a difficult choice today. Both women deserve votes. I finally went with Flo as she was dealing with actual hands-on help for all her work. This season, it seems we have had more of people who were actual "saints" in the traditional definition. So many great examples for us.
As a deacon I am bummed Stephen did not make it to the final round
Still going with the Flo.. . . Where are all the 'brethren?' Their voices seem to be missing in today's comments. . . just saying.
Florence today but I think it's going to be Franz in the long run. Tough choices.
Another difficult decision today. Wonderful write ups from the celebrity bloggers, as has been true throughout. I cast my vote for Florence, who was denied the opportunity to serve God within the church, yet undaunted used her gifts in his service.
For my mother, nurse and healer, I voted for Flossie.
Such lovely write ups, Laurie and Anna. Go with Flo!
Deciding between these two women was difficult; it hadn't occurred to me that they were contemporaries and that, in their different ways, both did a lot to bring about changes that I take for granted. Hats off to the celebrity bloggers who have brought me to tears today: I identify strongly with Amelia and my mom was a nurse. Today's vote pushed me to independent research but I voted with my heart and let myself go with the Flo. It could have happened that these two women served as inspiration for each other during their lifetimes!!