Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 34:4 (Autumn 2020)
Article: The Spirit Without Prejudice
Author: Spencer Miles Boersma

PP 34:4 (Autumn 2020) p. 6

The Spirit Without Prejudice

Spencer Miles Boersma

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. (Gal 3:23–4:7 NRSV)

The year is 1591, in Scotland. A woman named Eufame MacLayne is pregnant with twins and goes into labour. The labour is difficult, physically and emotionally taxing. It is painful, so painful that she pleads with the midwives for relief. Out of compassion, they give her a strong pain-relief drug. She delivers her babies. The midwives’ choice seems reasonable to us, but in the sixteenth century it was illegal to use pain medication for childbirth.

The ecclesial authorities learn of this crime and bring the young mother, still recuperating from childbirth, before a tribunal. Her crime? Trying to lessen God’s curse on women. God mandated in Gen 3:16 that women, due to their sin of eating the fruit, should suffer during childbirth, and how dare Eufame MacLayne be so obsessed with her own freedom and bodily autonomy that she would absolve herself of God’s punishment on her gender! The church tribunal deemed her guilty. Her punishment was no mere parking ticket: She was burned at the stake. Let that sink in for a second.

In Gen 3:16, the woman’s pain in childbearing is increased, and this is a sign of the fallenness of our existence. The church in the sixteenth century deemed it their duty to enforce the curse, to...