Over the last few days, a couple of anniversaries happened.  One was remembered by the world, the other remembered in America.  As any student of world history knows, August 15 marked the 75th anniversary of "V-J Day," the day in 1945 on which Japan surrendered to the Allies, thereby ending World War II.  Even though this surrender was undoubtedly accelerated by the horror of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the entire planet nonetheless rejoiced.  War, at least for a moment, was over.

     In America, August 18 marked the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  Although most of us know that, unfortunately, it was to be many more decades before all women were actually able to physically vote, the amendment's passage was nonetheless a signal achievement.  It recognized that, surprise, surprise, women were equal to men and entirely capable of voting in a rational way.

     Theologically speaking, whether the amendment's proponents knew it or not, they were affirming the fact of all humanity's creation in the image of God.  Why?  They were arguing that each person has fundamental worth, a worth exceeding what anyone else might decide it is.  Similarly, in ending World War II (although we can debate almost ad infinitum the ethics of the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan), those involved agreed, again, whether they knew it or not, that humanity had worth exceeding what anyone might assign to it.  Why?  Once more:  people are made in the image of God.

     Remove God and we have only ourselves to measure our worth.  And as World War II amply demonstrates, this rarely ends well.  Likewise, absent God, we really have no reason to give women the vote other than our own biases and predilections.  That's in part in why the men of America took so long to agree otherwise.