Stand Up Straight

When I was little my mother use to always tell me to “stand up straight.” It is probably because of my mother’s plea that one particular bible story became one of my favorites. It is a story that comes from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 13. In this story Jesus heals a woman who had been crippled and bent over for 18 years. As he does so he tells her “to stand up straight.” For me, these are some of the most powerful words that Jesus could have spoken to this woman. For not only did they signal that he had freed her from whatever the burden was that kept her hunched over, but they also restored her to a sense of dignity. These are simple, yet powerful words, for the many women in our midst who have for so long have not been able to stand up straight.

I think of the Sarah Baartmans of our world, like a Rachel Jeantel, who are made into a circus act because of their appearance. What happened to Sarah Baartman in 1810 as she was paraded across Europe so that people could examine her buttocks and genitalia—deeming her exotic and erotic, happened to Rachel in 2013 as she gave testimony in an American courtroom while people decried her appearance and mocked her speech—deeming her ignorant and illiterate.

I think of the Linda Brents of our world, like Marissa Alexander, who have endured untold emotional abuse and physical violence because their bodies were not worthy of protection. What happened to Brent because of the laws of a slaveocracy, happened to Marissa because of the laws of a southern state which jailed her for 20 years after she fired warning shots into a wall to fend off a threatening and violent husband.

How is it that we can proclaim to these women, stand up straight? Interesting to note in the gospel story about Jesus is that it was only after he had touched the woman and thus freed her from whatever it was that crippled her for 18 years, that he then could tell her to stand up straight. And so it must be for us. If we are to proclaim to the Sarah Baartmans and Linda Brents of the world to stand up straight, then we first must do what we can to free them from whatever it is that has crippled them for far too long. How do we do this?

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