The speech had been born from a round of Bible-dipping he’d engaged in earlier that day, a bit of sacred bibliomancy that called for him to close his eyes, let the Good Book fall open, and place his finger upon a verse. 1 TIMOTHY 2:12: BUT I SUFFER NOT A WOMAN TO TEACH, NOR TO USURP AUTHORITY OVER THE MAN, BUT TO BE IN SILENCE. From there, the words had flown from his pen as if guided by the providence of angels.
-- Narrator ("Call and Response")

Importance: Reverend Townsend finds a quote about the problem of intellectual in his Bible. This quote is important because it marks the start of his fascination with ridding the world of modern witches.

Certain kinds of women—proud, godless women—are prone to declare they have a knowing, a feeling, an inkling, that something is right or wrong. They fancy themselves ‘gifted,’ they pronounce themselves ‘intuitive,’ and claim they can...
-- Reverend Townsend ("Call and Response")