[photo from wikimedia commons. We'll let the gentleman stand for one of the pastors who visited Joy Fellowship.] Jesus, Others, and You—what a wonderful way to spell joy! That was the motto of the women’s JOY Fellowship at the church. Women in all the Baptist churches I ever knew had no real power. So, women made their own groups, with rules and structures that mimicked those of males. They had officers and a program. At my home church, the Women’s Missionary Society held monthly meetings to read letters from missionaries and to do such work as might be of help, especially to the women missionaries. They tore old sheets into strips for bandages, sending them off to nurses and doctors far away, for instance. I do not remember the J.O.Y. group having any such lofty purpose. Women ate a potluck lunch together; there were indeed forgettable programs—at least, I’ve certainly forgotten them. Not that I attended often; meetings during the school year were impossible. I went because Jean, a woman whom I deeply admired, was heading it. I have a 100-page spiral bound cookbook, Cooking With Joy, compiled in 1975, which I still use, though many of the recipes take more work than I’m willing to do or just aren’t appetizing. The one for rabbit stew begins with cleaning the rabbits, for instance. Another goes on for a page and a half, which is more effort than I want to expend, love food though I do. That recipe also includes a pound of pig mouth and three to four pig tails. For me now, the issue is that the acronym’s stated meaning left women always last. It was one more way to socialize women to take a lower place and be happy about it--how unselfish, how like Christ! Always putting oneself last does not do much good to any person’s health or state of mind. Nor is it generally a way of life to which men aspire, but women were encouraged to adopt it.
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Baptist GirlI was a conservative Baptist girl who grew up to become a career Christian, working first in a Baptist school and then in a Baptist college. For about three decades, it was very good until it wasn’t, and I had to leave. But the Baptists formed me. This is my homage to the good times and good people of the world I left, finally, at forty-three, when I became an Episcopalian. These are my memories; others might disagree with my recollections. So be it. Archives
January 2024
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