Sorry, John Piper, (Medieval) Christianity Doesn’t Have A Masculine Feel
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Sorry, John Piper, (Medieval) Christianity Doesn’t Have A Masculine Feel

ByBeth Allison Barr

A carved image, about two feet tall, stands alone in a glass case in the Cluny Museum in Paris. At first it seems a typical image of the Madonna and Child. Both look straight ahead, holding the gaze of the viewer. Their matching golden robes fade so easily into the golden background that it is…

Paige Patterson Is My Fault, Too
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Paige Patterson Is My Fault, Too

ByBeth Allison Barr

For years, I attended complementarian churches. I kept telling myself that maybe things would change. I kept telling myself that I, as a woman who taught and had a career, set a positive example. I kept telling myself that complementarianism wasn’t misogyny. I kept telling myself that no church was perfect. I kept telling myself…

Is There Hope for Evangelical Women?
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Is There Hope for Evangelical Women?

ByBeth Allison Barr

My daughter and I were walking our new puppy when my phone buzzed. It was a twitter notification from my fellow blogger Chris Gehrz. He had tweeted about Beth Moore’s open letter. I stopped dead and started reading.This was a mistake. We had only had our new puppy a few days and hadn’t yet convinced…

Will Beth Moore Help Save Evangelicalism?
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Will Beth Moore Help Save Evangelicalism?

ByBeth Allison Barr

“Lord, I repent of ways I’ve been complicit in & contributed tomisogyny & sexism in the church by my cowardly and inordinate deference to male leaders in order to survive rather than simply appropriately respecting them as my brothers. Forgive me for being part of the problem.” Beth Moore tweeted (@BethMooreLPM) this just last week,…

Jessica Hahn and Evangelical Silence on Sexual Abuse
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Jessica Hahn and Evangelical Silence on Sexual Abuse

ByBeth Allison Barr

We are so pleased to welcome back John Wigger to the Anxious Bench. John Wigger is Professor of History at the University of Missouri and author of PTL: The Rise and Fall of the Evangelical Empire of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. #MeToo #ChurchToo In 1980 Jessica Hahn was sexually assaulted by one of the…

A Serious Proposal for Academic Conferences: Ban Harvey Weinsteins

A Serious Proposal for Academic Conferences: Ban Harvey Weinsteins

ByBeth Allison Barr

It was during a major academic conference. A male colleague alerted me that a female graduate student had left the reception early. A fellow conference attendee had cornered her and began making sexually inappropriate advances—both physical and verbal. Luckily one of her male friends realized what was happening and intervened so that she could escape….