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Policy: The Bible and Welfare Reform
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included in her material, Brooten utilizes nonliterary evidence (inscrip-
iions) and finds that some women were leaders of synagogues during the
Roman period.44Apparently a few high-status women exercised a degree
<>l freedom and independence in leadership positions. These examples
among elite Jewish women challenge sweeping generalizations about the
i igidity of patriarchal restrictions over women’s power and public leader
ship in the ancient Mediterranean world. Unfortunately, there is little
direct nonliterary or textual information about the lives of more ordinary
Jewish women, especially those at the bottom of the social hierarchy, such
is enslaved Jewish women.
Though scholars disagree about the average age of first marriage for
Icwish females, there does seem to be some consensus that it was often
between the ages of twelve and eighteen.45 Females became eligible for
be trothal after the onset of menstruation, as early as age twelve.46When
reviewing this cultural information about the social context of the Chris-
iian gospels, I cannot help but be reminded of the vociferous calls for
removal of financial support by welfare reformers of the 1990s that was
leveled against poor, pregnant teenagers and those who were already
mothers. Many of these critics claimed that poor girls have a need for
1moral values” that only Christian nurture can provide. In laying the
igroundwork for what would be called “charitable choice” in the 1996 law,
poor mothers were generally represented as a kind of moral recovery proj
ect to be assigned to churches.
For instance, economics professor Glenn C. Loury invoked the need
l<>rchurch instilled values when he testified during the 1995 congressional
hearings that prepared the way for the welfare reform law.47 Loury advo-
eated
the restoration of moral teaching in the black community to help
stem the tide of “illegitimacy problems and family breakdown.” Without
ihis change in the structure of black families, he argued, “the behavioral
problems which Moynihan first noticed thirty years ago will persist,
ihreatening the survival of the republic.”48Necessary moral guidance, he
argued, could occur most effectively through religious institutions. Since
he identifies them as the most promising source of help, Loury suggests
ihat checks be sent directly to churches, so that these women and girls can
learn
to “change their lives.”
Similarly, in a 1995 speech given to leaders of the Progressive National
baptists, a predominantly black Protestant denomination, President Clin-
ion sought the support and participation of these church leaders in his
wellare reform agenda by linking the entire problem of poverty to teenage
mothers. In this
spe ech ,
he pronounced to black religious leaders that it