An Ordinary Preaching Woman in a Texas Baptist Church, c. 1930
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An Ordinary Preaching Woman in a Texas Baptist Church, c. 1930

ByBeth Allison Barr

In a 2006 interview, Wayne Grudem argued that female leaders in the church (especially pastors) are disobeying God’s word and thus open to “the withdrawal of God’s hand of protection and blessing.” As Grudem explained: “A woman who serves as a pastor, preaching to both men and women, is disobeying the word of God. There…

The Medieval Counsel of Biblical Womanhood
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The Medieval Counsel of Biblical Womanhood

ByBeth Allison Barr

The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood exploded my twitter feed last week. As a Texan with both friends and family in Houston, I really just wanted to see the update on Hurricane Harvey. But the Nashville Statement dominated my news feed. I confess after scrolling through headline after headline I mostly just felt tired….

Evangelical Silence and Trump: A Reformation Irony
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Evangelical Silence and Trump: A Reformation Irony

ByBeth Allison Barr

“Trump’s religious advisers have been mostly silent.” Tom Gjelten wrote these words for NPR just days ago, in his aptly titled article “Trump’s Evangelical Advisers Stand By their Man.” In the aftermath of Trump’s shocking response to Charlottesville, the silence emanating from his Evangelical Advisory Board screamed. It seemed even louder after prominent business leaders…

Should Women Rule? Netflix’s The Crown and Complementarian Theology
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Should Women Rule? Netflix’s The Crown and Complementarian Theology

ByBeth Allison Barr

Riding the London Eye is deceptively peaceful. The city that slowly unfolds below seems a different place from the noise and heat of the crowded South Bank. I always look first for Cleopatra’s Needle, the 3500 year-old Egyptian obelisk shipped to England in the nineteenth-century and hoisted along the Victorian Embankment Gardens. The startling incongruity…

The Value of Failure in Graduate School
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The Value of Failure in Graduate School

ByBeth Allison Barr

This is from my Anxious Bench archives. I currently am teaching in London and gathering more material for future posts! You can look forward to a guest blogger (I think you will love his forthcoming book) on July 26, and I will return to my posts about medieval Christianity vs. modern Christianity in August. In…

Wonder Woman and Complementarianism
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Wonder Woman and Complementarianism

ByBeth Allison Barr

It probably doesn’t surprise you that I have always loved Wonder Woman. My mother will testify that it is one show my little sister and I refused to miss. It is also my first clear memory of watching TV. The story of Wonder Woman, however, didn’t begin in 1975 with Lynda Carter as Diana Prince….