Women Without Superstition: "No Gods - No Masters," The Collected Writings of Women Freethinkers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Brief Article

This fall, I had a terrible urge to agree with the Promise Keepers. But only about one thing. Whenever they were questioned about their view that men should rule the home, they would say: "Your argument is not with the Promise Keepers. Your argument is with the Bible."

Yes, the Good Book can get in the way. Arguing with the Bible is the theme of Annie Laurie Gaylor's pioneering work, Women Without Superstition: "No Gods--No Masters," The Collected Writings of Women Freethinkers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Freedom From Religion Foundation). This anthology of fifty-one feminists, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Katha Pollitt and Barbara Ehrenreich, shows how the leaders of the women's-liberation movement have long understood the crucial importance of breaking with the Bible. The phrase "No Gods--No Masters" comes from Margaret Sanger, the birth-control crusader. And Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote, "I consider the Bible the most degrading book that has ever been written about women." She noted that "it was hurled at us on every side."

Gaylor's selections of original writings are well chosen, and her introduction is convincingly argued. I found her brief biographical sketches fascinating, especially the ones about feminist...