Africa’s Women: A Journey of Hope

by Marta D. Bennett


Originally from Seattle (USA), Marta Bennett has been teaching full-time at Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya since 1994. Most recently, she has served as Dean of Postgraduate Studies, and is the adoptive mother of three Kenyan children. Prior to Kenya, she served at Seattle Pacific University (1982-1994) as Director of Campus Ministries and adjunct professor in religious studies, and urban ministries.


My daughter’s Kenyan classmate is named “Good News.” A university student from the Democratic Republic of Congo is called “Faida” meaning “good fortune” or “profitable.” “Victory” teaches Sunday school at our local church, and “Grace” and “Charity” served me in government offices the other day. While world news may or may not cover the most recent African disasters, hope refuses to be quenched on the African continent, as evidenced in these cited names. Visitors from outside, coming to meet their sponsored child or traveling on tourist safari, more often than not comment, “People are so warm, so hospitable and generous. They have ‘nothing’ and yet they are so friendly! I am overwhelmed!” Both on-going tragedy and local hospitality make up the reality of the African people, whether they are the vast numbers living in abject poverty, the growing professional middle-class, or the materially wealthy and powerful few. Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania is oft quoted as saying, “In Africa we have problems, but we remain cheerful.”1

Much has been written about the crises of the African continent, a region of the earth that does indeed seem to continue to receive more than its share of natural as well as humanly-inflicted disasters. Some in the West have written it off as beyond hope, all 52 nations of it. In the midst of the rampant challenges of poverty, disease, unemployment, drought, ethnic clashes, and wars, injustices against women rank high in the scope of atrocities.

It is true that a higher percentage of HIV/AIDS victims in sub-Sahara Africa are women; they are biologically more vulnerable, and men who have multiple partners then bring the virus home to the women, who have no rights to refuse their husbands. Rape cases have increased, against younger and younger victims, some in the hope that sexual relations with a virgin will cure HIV/AIDS. Female circumcision is not as rare as government law would suggest. Women have less access to education, and less than one-fourth of Kenyan women are found in the formal work sector. Women tend to lack collateral to access financial loans for economic ventures, and in Kenya, they rarely inherit land. The girl-child is often kept home to haul water, carry wood, care for her younger siblings, and then sent off to become the second or third wife of the elderly village patriarch, in exchange for bride-wealth paid to her family. In Africa, women make up the largest number of refugees, and/or are left behind to care for the children, the sick and the wounded, and to recover from gang-rapes by the rebel armies. The problems faced here are neither few nor trivial.

Yet there is hope. In the face of all this, children are being named Good News, Faida, Victory, Grace, and Charity. There is hope in Africa, and for African women.

Women are beginning to rise up to make a difference. Professor Wangari Maathai, once vilified by the former government, now serves as the Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife. Upon receiving the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, she has become a role-model, a hero, and the pride of the continent. What was her motivation? She states, “Women are responsible for their children; they cannot sit back, waste time and see them starve...African women in general need to know that it’s OK for them to be the way they are – to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence.”2 On another occasion, Prof. Maathai stated, “Every one of us can make a contribution. And quite often we are looking for the big things and forget that, wherever we are, we can make a contribution…. Sometimes I tell myself, I may only be planting a tree here, but just imagine what’s happening if there are billions of people out there doing something. Just imagine the power of what we can do.”3

Trained as a nurse and mid-wife, the leading short story and novel writer in East Africa, Grace Ogot, has served as Minister of Parliament, has represented Kenya in the United Nations, and became Assistant Minister of Culture and Social Services. She noted, “Being a mother, you are not only a mother of your children, you are also a mother of the husband and another to his people…I think that in motherhood you can change the course of life for a society and for a people…The main issue is equal opportunity and respect.”4 She went on to assert that “The difference between my actions and what western women are doing, even when I am an activist within my political life, is that I must remember that…what I do affects the status in society of my husband, my father-in-law, my mother-in-law…Therefore a Kikuyu woman or a Luo woman…will always look back and ask, ‘am I carrying the family with me?’”5

Charity Ngilu, business woman and current Minister of Health in the Kenyan government, in 1997 became the first woman to run for an African presidency. As one commentator observed, “Charity Ngilu had a vision, a vision for the people of Kenya. It is her burning desire to achieve her vision that drove her to seek the presidency. She wanted the office to accomplish her vision; she did not need or want the office itself.”6 Her vision was of a Kenya that addressed the injustices against women, women who were walking in tatters, carrying sick children on their backs, from homes that had holes that can be seen through, because of poverty.

These are but a few examples of women who are publicly rising up to speak out, to mobilize others, and to work for positive societal change. Within religious circles, members of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, with its various country chapters, are writing and publishing from a holistic approach. While addressing social injustices and gender-based violence from a faith perspective, they are assisting in giving voice to the voiceless through a theology of lamentation,7 as well as being bearers of hope and life. As Nyambura Njoroge writes, “We have chosen to touch the cloak of Jesus and to hear his voice calling us to arise! We have chosen to participate fully in God’s mission and to name the missing links in African theology, mission, and life…”8

In terms of women’s roles in church leadership, a female seminary student at Nairobi International School of Theology recently researched African views of women in ministry for her M.A. thesis. From her interviews, she concluded that in spite of patriarchal cultural realities, the issue of women serving in ministry was a Western, not an African concern. If any believer has gifts in ministry, he or she must use them in whatever way possible. Together, male and female form the image of God. All must lend their hands, their gifts, to build up the Body of Christ and to extend God’s Kingdom. Christ, not any human vessel, is head of the church. Under him, we are all servants, leading God’s people towards him.9

On the ground, numerous examples of African women can be cited, those who, in a response of faith, have looked to see what they hold in their hand.10 What they hold they have used to transform realities of despair into models of hope. Muthoni, one of seven children by different fathers, raised by her grandmother in rural Kenya, now a university graduate, felt compassion for teen girls at risk in the informal settlements of Nairobi. Under the umbrella of our local church she began with ten at-risk girls referred by slum churches, to live-in with her in the slum for a year, for discipleship, life-skill training, and vocational training. At the end of the first year, the girls were sponsored and re-integrated into schools at the level where they had left off, and some were reconnected with their families. Then ten more girls were taken in. Four years later, forty girls now call Muthoni “Mom,” with a fifth group soon to start. A second home is about to be opened, and a team of volunteer staff oversee and mentor the girls, helping them to get on their feet, learn to make wise choices, and become equipped to contribute back into church and society. Muthoni is one of many such young women who are rising up, working towards the turn-around of the African continent.

The church in Africa is one of the fastest growing portions of Christ’s Body in the world.11 Its impact is not only spiritual, but also social and economic. In 2002, I undertook field research exploring of the role of the church in the economic development of marginalized peoples of Nairobi. By the end of three weeks of steady interviews and site visits, I came away so encouraged by the multitude of micro-enterprise projects, micro-finance schemes, and community-based organizations initiated by local church congregations, in squalid informal settlements up to prestigious denominational headquarters. From a group of seventeen women who collect garbage paper and then shred, soak, pound, and transform it into designer cards sold at luxury hotels, enabling them to raise and educate their own families, to the groups of 15 to 60 neighbors who serve as collateral for each other to access loans, receive training and begin small businesses, the church is actively involved in promoting holistic development of not only its own members, but also of its neighbors and the wider community. The needs are vast and over-whelming, but by “small wins” advances are being made, one woman, one child, one family at a time.

“Jitegemea” or “self-reliance” is the motto of one of the mainline denominations in Kenya,12 declaring its commitment to promote its ministries without relying on external donor support. This portrays a healthy understanding that the church in Africa is not dependent on missionary founders or foreign donors, but is able to stand as a partner in ministry, both locally and globally. To a Western point of view, this may be a paradigm shift, considering the dismal portrayal of Africa in the media. One East African student, however, came back from studies in North America with a poignant observation. She did not deny the technology and efficiency of Western culture. She admired the accessibility of education for all, up through high school. She admitted that there is a mind-boggling amount of material possessions owned by each individual. But when she reflected on the terms “developed” vs. “under-developed” or “developing” world, she noted that she wasn’t sure which was which. Materially, America may be very developed, but in other aspects of life, Africa has significant contributions to offer.

In Africa, the elderly don’t die alone. If an extended family member is in need, others in the family with their own meager resources make sure the need is met. In the African context, there is no such concept as “inconvenience.” Unexpected visitors are blessings, and there’s always room at the table for one or two more. Older siblings help with school fees for the younger ones. Here people know how to celebrate, to dance, to sing, without spending a fortune to do so. Yes, life is hard, but people know how to find and express joy in the midst of what they have, with each other. People greet each other with “God is good…” to which is replied, “…all the time, and all the time…” “God is good!” concludes the first. Is this simplistic optimism…or is it a view of reality which addresses life from the perspective of eternal priorities?

In spite of the many grand-scale challenges, there is hope. A proposed new national constitution is to be voted on in Kenya at the end of November 2005, in which rights of women are upgraded and reinforced. Whether or not the referendum is passed, a groundswell of popular concern is demanding that attention be given to human rights, including those related to gender equity and advocacy. Multi-party politics are beginning to focus more on issues than on mere power jockeying, and attempts to provide free primary education and accessible health care are positive steps forward. More and more women are stepping to the forefront to take their place in decision-making bodies, media and commerce, and in so doing, are providing role-models for the younger generations who are watching.

The road is not smooth. The set-backs are many. While monetary capital may seem in short supply, social capital, when valued, can balance the deficit. With life-giving communal ties and resilient attitudes, there is hope rooted in pockets of progress, and grounded in the ability to savor life with dignity, and to use what one has in one’s hand. Two recent book titles reinforce this perspective: one is entitled The Poor Discover Their Own Resources, describing a practical approach to poverty reduction in urban and rural areas in Africa.13 The other is entitled, Africa is Not a Dark Continent,14 contradicting of the stereotype shaped by early European explorers. God is at work in the people of Africa. When tempted by cynicism as one views the challenges, it can be remembered that one day at a time makes up life. “Most of all, life in Africa is the joy of people- the spontaneous welcome for an unexpected visitor, a beaming mother with her newborn child, the joyful response of small children when greeted by name, the ululation (a special trilling sound made in the back of the throat) of women and girls… Despite the stark hardships that often accompany daily life, African people show remarkable resiliency and an ability to celebrate life. There is deep wisdom in the saying, ‘The poor celebrate best.’”15


Endnotes


1Healey, Joseph G. (2005), Once Upon a Time in Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, Introducton x.

2http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/wangari_maathai.htm.

3http://www.sgi.org/wssd/02quietr/main01/htm.

4Kuria, Mike (2003), Talking Gender: Conversations with Kenyan Women Writers. Nairoib: PJ-Kenya, 92.

5Ibid. 93.

6Adler, Nancy J. (2002), International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior, 4th edition. Canada: South-Western Thomson Learning, 358.

7Kalu, Ogbu U. (ed.)(2005), African Christianity: An African Story. Pretoria: University of Pretoria, 465.

8Ibid, 467.

9Muhinda, Anne (2004), unpublished Masters thesis, at Nairobi International School of Theology, Nairobi, Kenya.

10Taken from the image of Moses’ staff in Exodus 4:2

11Jenkins, Philip (2000), The Next Christendom. New York: Oxford University Press.

12The Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA)

13Stenger, Fritz and Maria Teresa Ratti (eds.)(2002), The Poor Discover Their Own Resources. Nairobi: Paulines Publications.

14Stenger, Fritz (ed.) (2005), Africa is Not a Dark Continent. Nairobi: Paulines Publications.

15Healey, Joseph G. (2005), Once Upon a Time in Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 85.

2008-09 Eng.: Euthanasia: Nuclear Giants and Ethical Infants

This is an old essay that I never got around to finishing the draft of. This isn't my post for the week, but maybe you'll find it interesting. 

Jessica Beebe
Mr. Littlefield
English 11
19 October 2008


Nuclear Giants and Ethical Infants

In the fourth century B.C., doctors were expected to pledge these words: “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but I will never use it to injure or wrong them. I will not give poison to anyone though asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a plan… But in purity and in holiness I will guard my life and my art” (Hippocrates). Why is this not the noble badge of humanity today? Why instead, has the social order made it acceptable, nay, admirable, to end the life of another human being? Society has strayed much. Rather than guarding life, it is questioned whether causing or allowing death is really the higher moral calling. The blatant relativity of “mercy killing” goes against absolute truths of Christianity: the sanctity of life, man’s inability to judge right and wrong, and God’s explicit commandment that “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). Drunken ethics cannot dictate whether a life is worth defending and protecting.

The holding of life as sacred and precious is an “absolute and reasonable ethic” (Schweitzer 1936). Ethics can only exist when desire and life are inextricably enmeshed. Our will to live must power our hearts. As a Nobel Peace Prize winner explained, “Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil” (Schweitzer xviii).

Truly, we brought into the world with the God-given instinct to breathe. This is so small an observation that we often miss the profundity of it. Forget not that the Lord Himself is the fountainhead of all goodness; stainless and holy in His glorious existence. Because of this, He wastes not. He does not sketch drafts of a life only to disregard it and crumple it away. It is so very crucial to found our theology on the knowledge of God’s purposefulness. Each day of creation had its place., the Lord looked over the expanses of the earth’s terrain, the forces of nature, the textures, the abstracts, and He finally looked upon the breath of man and said, “It is good” (Genesis 1:31). Because of this, we have an obligation to protect “God's precious gift of life… in law and nurtured in love” (Ashcroft qtd. in Mother Jones). Euthanasia cheapens the sacrosanctity of life and ultimately, God’s sovereignty, when man impatiently decides that God’s timing is far less than perfect.

Further, it must be said that though designed flawlessly, humanity has chosen to be corrupted. Though man has built systems of ethics in the hopes for a truly firm foundation on how life must be managed, the tragic truth is that the source of such systems is hopelessly skewed. One cannot hope to draw a straight line with both eyes closed. Nothing is as threatening to morality as an ethical system fragmented by ambivalence: what one intends to do is not always what one does. Even more dangerous is the fact that the “most decisive actions of our life ... are most often unconsidered actions” (Gide qtd. in “Wisdom Quotes”). How then can we even dare to trust ourselves with something as precious as life? How can we eliminate subjectivity from the practice of mercy killing? If we practice euthanasia when we believe it best and when we think that a person’s time has expired, what is to say that our judgments are safe from all kinds of greed, selfishness, carelessness, anger, etcetera? The truth is that we cannot. Even from a secular view, our subjectivity on this matter is disturbing. The UK Association for Palliative Medicine & the National Council for Hospice and Specialist Palliative Care Services released a statement warning that “euthanasia, once accepted, is uncontrollable for philosophical, logical and practical reasons. Patients will certainly die without and against their wishes if any such legislation is introduced” (PAS 2003). Where a conclusion cannot be drawn with God-given certainty, then it is best that one errs on the side of caution rather than practice the murder of the helpless.

And lastly, God’s Word makes it quite clear that so called “mercy killing” is a savage twisting of biblical morals. First and foremost, our orders are to support the weak, the ill, and the oppressed. How is the dying hospital patient any different? Why do we desperately try to save the lost teenager but then turn away from the lethally depressed man who is at the end of his life? Secondly, we see evidence against suicide throughout the Bible as in the case of Job. As one website explained, Job seemed hopelessly sick and dying. His wife was in favor of self-euthanasia. She told her husband, ‘Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die’ (Job 2:9). How did Job receive that advice? In the next verse he said, ‘But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.’ Job admitted that whether we suffer with pain in life, or whether we do not, is in the hands of God to decide (Liberty Gospel Tracts).

Even more contradiction to the practice of euthanasia can be found in the account of Saul’s suicide. When Saul asked the Amalekite, “Stand beside me and kill me; for agony has seized me because my life still lingers in me” (2 Samuel 1:9), the Amalekite obliged. The Amalekite then came to David, believing that that he aught to be rewarded for this noble gesture. But when King David, a man after God’s own heart, heard this, he declared, “Your blood is on your head, for your mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have killed the Lord’s anointed’” (2 Samuel 1:16). Further, David condemns the Amalekite to death for his crime. The destruction of life is clearly evident throughout the God’s holy word. It is sheer blasphemy to ignore this because we feel compelled to “end suffering”. The truth must be said: suffering does not necessarily end with death.

In the Netherlands, more than two thousand involuntary mercy killings were reported in 2000 (Cohen-Almagor 162). Physicians administered the drug without specific request or consent. The rate of assisted suicides committed because the patient believes that they are a burden has increased incredibly in Oregon (Sullivan 605-607). These statistics are both heartbreaking and undeniably tragic. Omar N. Bradley explained it well when he observed, “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.” It is not too late. This despicable practice can be reversed. As one man once put it, “Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency” (Aesop qtd. in “QuoteWorld”). To be a spectator is also to be a participant.

Works Cited
"Aesop." QuoteWorld.org. 2008. QuoteWorld. 24 Oct. 2008.
Cohen-Almagor, Raphael. Euthanasia in the Netherlands : The Policy and Practice of Mercy Killing. New York: Springer, 2004. 162. Google Books. Google. .
Edelstein, Ludwig, trans. The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, and Interpretation. Baltimore, MA: John Hopkins P, 1943. NOVA Online. Mar. 2001. PBS. 15 Oct. 2008 .
"Euthanasia: What Does It Really Mean?" Promoting the Respect for Human Life. Queensland Right to Life. 15 Oct. 2008 .
Lewis, Jone J. "Life Quotes." Wisdom Quotes. 1995. 15 Oct. 2008 .
The NIV Study Bible. Exod. 20.13. 4th ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan House, 1995. 115.
Reagan, David F. "Four Arguments Against Euthanasia or Mercy Killing." Learn the Bible. 2006. Antioch Baptist Church. 15 Oct. 2008 .
Saletan, William. "Reagan Redux." Mother Jones: Smart, Fearless Journalism (1998). Mother Jones: Smart, Fearless Journalism. 24 Oct. 2008 .
Schweitzer, Albert. "The Ethics of Reverence for Life." Christendom 1936.
Schwietzer, Albert. "Preface." Preface. Civilization and Ethics. By Albert Schwietzer, Charles T. Campion, Charles E. Russell and Lilian M. Russell. 3rd ed. London: A. & C. Black, 1949. Xviii.
Sullivan AD et al. Legalized physician-assisted suicide in Oregon, 1998-2000. New England Journal of Medicine 2001; 344: 605-607
UK Association for Palliative Medicine & the National Council for Hospice and Specialist Palliative Care Services. "PAS." Press release. Oct. 2005. LifeSiteNews.com. 24 Oct. 2008 .
"What Does the Bible Teach About Euthanasia?" Liberty Gospel Tracts. Liberty Baptist Church. 15 Oct. 2008 .

2008-09 Eng.: Censorship: Concerning Huckleberry Finn's Racist Content

Jessica Beebe
Mr. Littlefield
English 11, Period 1H
1 February 2009

The Truest Slavery

Albert Einstein is synonymous with genius. And yet he is quoted as saying that “it is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry” (qtd. in “Wisdom Quotes”). Harsh words for our educational system! But is he in the wrong? Has the teaching of our society become entangled with restrictions? Do journalists and professors fear retribution for what they write and teach? Sadly, the response is yes. We may have freedom of the press, but our right to read these works is threatened. This is demonstrated in the practice of banning books from our institutions and is more specifically addressed in the controversy over The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Though it cited as the modern “Great American Novel” (DeForest 1865) by such literary giants as Ernest Hemmingway, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, and T.S. Elliot; it is countered as racist trash and declared unfit for school curriculums. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be taught on the high school level because of the amount of dignity bequeathed to the African American characters, because a society cannot allow fear to dictate what is taught, and because censorship should be avoided on principle.

In an interview on National Public Radio, Dr. Shelley Fisher Fishkin, director of American studies and professor of English at Stanford University, explained that

In many ways, Jim is a hero of Huck Finn. It is the voice of a very compelling, appealing, and complicated character for whom Twain had enormous admiration and who he wants the reader to admire. He is mature, sensitive, sharp, self-aware.

Mark Twain’s treatment of his character Jim is deserving of accolades. Twain portrays Jim as a good father figure and friend to Huck. Jim is “white inside” (Twain 596) with “an uncommon level head” that was “most always right” (369). Twain was both a man of his times and a forward thinker. In one particular example, Twain desired to help pay for one of Yale’s first black law students, explaining in 1885 that “we [Caucasians] have ground the manhood out of them and the shame is ours, not theirs, and we should pay for it.” Twain’s portrayal of the African American was a conscious step towards granting them their due freedom.

As for the two hundred plus racial slurs included in the novel, the usage of the word “n*****” was both “common speech in South” the historical time period and a racial slur, Dr. Fishkin explains. It became increasingly viewed as a racial slur as time went on and as America very slowly progressed in recognizing the equality of the African American among Caucasians. When one looks at the peer literature at the time—from both white and black writers--“n*****” was used often. What becomes important is the context from which the slur arises—time period or not. To say that Huck Finn is “the most grotesque example of racist trash ever given our children to read. . . . [and that any] teacher caught trying to use that piece of trash with our children should be fired on the spot, for he or she is either racist, insensitive, nave, incompetent or all of the above" (Wallace “Huck Finn is Racist Trash”), is the result of fear and lack of good, literary scholarship. Context and an education in irony are necessary in understanding the novel and, if mastered, lends to profound humor and clever insights that shall continue to charm generations.

Lastly, censorship of any book should be avoided on principle. There must either be enforced awareness or enforced ignorance and silence. So much better the former because,

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education (Griswold qtd. in “Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books”).

Ignorance leads to a cyclical path of trial and error, with human lives as casualties along the way. Racism is defeated not by blindness, but by active condemnation. As one man pointed out, “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself” (Camus qtd. in “Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books”). Twain joins the ranks of true writers by suspiciously prodding at societal assumptions. This testing ground of ideas acts as a counterbalance for what becomes the collective norm. The truth of the matter is that “if we’d eradicated the problem of racism in our society, Huckleberry Finn would be the easiest book in the world to teach” (Bradley qtd. in Mark Twain). This, however, is not the case. Racism is still alive and well. It is the fear of influencing young adults in a negative fashion that causes educators to shrink back from lecturing on the novel. But "what [then] is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist" (Rushdie qtd. in “Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books”). An ability to reason and to interpret what is right and what is wrong must be forever married to the freedom to speak and to hear.

John F. Kennedy once boasted that "we are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people" (qtd. in “Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books”). It would seem that our society has indeed become afraid of its own people and particularly, its youth. One cannot hope for the younger generation to become strong advocates of the weak and oppressed if they themselves are weakened by their censored education and oppressed by silence. The past—and the racism that stains it—cannot be erased simply because it is unpleasant. And indeed, "books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance” (Johnson qtd. in “Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books”). The coming generation must not be left unarmed. And "fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice" (Jackson qtd. in “Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books”). The truest slavery is to cage a man’s thoughts in his mind.

Works Cited
Clemens, Samuel. "Do you know him?" Letter to Francis Wayland. 24 Dec. 1885. Mark Twain Project. UC Press. 1 Feb. 2009.
DeForest, John W. "The Great American Novel." The Nation (1868). Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. Electronic Text Center. Charlottesville. 1 Feb. 2009 .
Einstein, Albert. "Curiosity Quotes." Comp. Jone J. Lewis. 1995-2009. Wisdom Quotes. 1 Feb. 2009.
Fishkin, Shelley. "Was Jim of 'Huckleberry Finn' a Hero?" Interview with Farai Chideya. National Public Radio. NPR. 30 Jan. 2008.
"Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books." Http://quotes.forbiddenlibrary.com. Ed. Janet Y. Elkins. 1998-2008. 03 Feb. 2009.
Leonard, James S. Making Mark Twain Work in the Classroom. New York: Duke UP, 1999.
McArthur, Debra. Mark Twain. New York: Benchmark Books, 2005. Bradley, 2000
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Bantam Classics, 1992.
Wallace, John. Huck Finn is Racist Trash. 2 Feb. 2009.

2008-09 Eng.: Analysis of Arthur Dimmsdale in The Scarlet Letter

Jessica Beebe
Mr. Littlefield
English 11
9 October 2008

A Portrait of Sin in Saint Dimmesdale

If one must describe “sin” with a singular utterance, then it must be the word “twisted”. It is the nature of sin to be subtle, but frighteningly damaging: perverting what seems to be good into something abominable. In the case of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the distortion of his soul is one that takes place where no adoring layperson has the ability to look. Under the guise of angelic perfection, Dimmesdale’s sin is given time to take root in his heart, girded by stubbornness and fastened by the iron grip of his weakness. In the end, it becomes too engrained into his being to be extracted without fatal consequences--consequences that affect not only himself, but also the members of his church.

The Reverend Dimmesdale is “the very asphodel of spiritual perfection, refined till he is almost translucent and glassy” (Lawrence 246). Even Dimmesdale’s personal torturer, Chillingworth, first observes the minister’s “high aspirations for the welfare of his race, warm love of souls, pure sentiments, natural piety, strengthened by thought and study, and illuminated by revelation“ (141). Dimmesdale affects the whole of his congregation with “the speech of an angel” (76) and is viewed as the epitome of saintliness. He is gripping, spiritually compelling, and a source of great comfort and near worship. Yet in Hawthorne’s tale of sanctity and pecado, Dimmesdale is found to be infected by the “poison of that sin [that] had been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system. It…stupefied all blessed impulses, and awakened into vivid life the whole brother hood of bad ones” (237). Dimmesdale’s hypocrisy taxes him furiously, preying upon his unusually active conscience, and draining him of health and vitality.

Dimmesdale is introspective to the point of being egotistical—as oft the case with depressed men. But as also the case with depressed men, all logic and helpful introspection is thrown to Satan’s devils. As the narrator of the tale recounts, “Sad, indeed, that an introspection so profound and acute as this poor minister’s should be so miserably deceived!” (230-31). How ironic! For example, Dimmesdale attempts to shame Chillingworth for urging him to confess when he cries out “But who are thou, that meddlest in this matter?--that dares thrust himself between the sufferer and his God?’” (147).Truth be told, Dimmesdale’s soul-mutilating compromises are more than enough to come between God and himself. He attempts to reason himself out of his guilt, to momentarily numb the pain in wake of his hyperactive conscience. The unconfessed sin warps the very doctrine he was called to preserve. He callously bends Scripture when he explains to Chillingworth that

‘There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that my be buried with a human heart…Nor have I so read or interpreted Holy Write, as to understand that the disclosure of human thought as and deeds, then to be made is intended as a part of the retribution’ (143).

Dimmesdale goes even further to say that to stay silent is to delay gratification of confessing sins on the Judgment Day. When his arguments do hold up to the light of truth, he has “a ready faculty, indeed, [for] escaping from any topic that [agitates] his too sensitive and nervous temperament” (145).

Arthur Dimmesdale attempts to bring a sort of twisted good from his deadly sin. But as with most sins, the ensuing consequence does not fall to Dimmesdale alone, but also to church. Commentator Carol Bensick cites the damage done to Dimmesdale’s congregation when she explains that thenarrator implies that the hypocrite minister has created a hypocrite congregation. They think they love God: but they only love Arthur. All these conversions chalked to his credit are false. Believing they are saved, they have in fact fallen into a sin deadlier than adultery. Not aware of it, they cannot even repent it. Instead of helping his parishioners to heaven, Dimmesdale has put them on the path to hell.

In failing to obey God, Dimmesdale brought upon his beloved parish an even more fertile field for Satan’s subtle seeds of idolatry to be sown. Though this is all obvious to the reader, the theological justification for this heretical worship was “to make his congregation fall in love with Christ… [to act as] Christ for his parish, with the intention that they [would] ultimately shift their love to the divine bridegroom.” Dimmesdale’s attempt to not do ill to others by his confession has ultimately lead to great harm.

Though one quickly jumps to the sin of adultery as the main focus of the novel, is it not true that Satan works best in subtly? How clever of Hawthorne, to place his audience in the place of the sheep-like congregation in their perspective of the esteemed reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale! In the conclusion of the novel, it may be tempting to respond as the blind townsfolk did and paint Arthur as a tragic hero. Readers often believe that Arthur’s grievous sin is singularly sown into the flourished threads of the scarlet letter upon Hester’s chest. Sin, however, is no single-headed monster. Rather, it is a lethal virus, bringing the whole of a being’s soul to its knees with a single blow. The inherent, fallen nature of man, not to be outdone by this attack, responds with rebellion towards the Creator. In The Scarlet Letter’s tale of passion, hypocrisy, sin, and holiness; the hand of the Creator’s wrath is heavily upon the wretched minister. The Reverend Dimmesdale’s judgment is the wreckage of his frail life and the uprooting of truth from the Boston.

Works Cited
Bensick, Carol M. "Dimmesdale and his bachelorhood: 'priestly celibacy' in 'The Scarlet Letter.'" Studies in American Fiction (1993). BNet. 1993. BNET Business Network. 10 Nov. 2008 .
Melville, Herman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mark Twain. Four Great American Classics. New York: Bantam Classics, 1992.
Worthen, John, Lindeth Vasey, and Ezra Greenspan, eds. Studies in Classic American Literature. New York: Cambridge UP, 2002. Google Books. Google. 10 Nov. 2008 .