I grew up as a Southern Baptist with a lot of structural homophobia around me. Homosexuality was viewed as an irrefutable sin, and nothing else in the Biblical narrative could say otherwise. Over the years, I’ve questioned much about the religious tradition I was handed. I am still a Christian, but my faith takes a much different form that values education, a lack of bias, and a role for history in religion. In fact, now,…
Many of us who grew up in conservative evangelical churches bear stark memories of how a culture can entrap people instead of empowering them. One prime way is through gender roles, in a form of patriarchy where only men are allowed leadership roles and a public voice. Decades ago, Shannon Harris married the best-selling author Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye) and quickly became a silent, unpaid role of a pastor’s wife. In this memoir,…
Many Christian conservatives make a loud case for the social subordination of women through New Testament texts. They argue that women should take neither leadership nor speaking roles. Some limit the reach of these to religion, but others even advance such typology towards all of society. Were women always admonished to submit? And must religion still be an oppressive force today? In this book, Susan Hylen takes on these lingering issues by addressing the historical…