In depth | Evangelicals Now

Christian Afghan women fear ‘double persecution’

Luke Randall

Christian women in Afghanistan are now facing ‘double persecution,’ according to an evangelical mission agency, as draconian new Taliban restrictions take force.

All women have been banned from speaking or showing their faces in public in the Taliban’s latest infringement on women’s rights since reclaiming power in 2021.

She says out loud what many are fearful to say

Rebekah Brown

Book Review SHE NEEDS: Women Flourishing in the church

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How Jesus bucks cultural norms with women

Nay Dawson

In these two short extracts from her new book, She Needs – Women Flourishing in the Church, Nay Dawson writes about how women in Christian contexts can often be patronised and infantilised. She cites Jen Wilkin (an author and Bible teacher from Texas who has led studies for women over many years) who speaks of three female ghosts that haunt the church: the Child, the Usurper and the Temptress. Nay writes, concerning the Child:

Many years ago, I was at a conference. I tried to join a conversation with two male acquaintances, but their response was, ‘Go away, silly little girl.’ I felt sick and stupid, and just wished I could disappear. Women are often treated as children; decisions are made for them, and they are patronised and humiliated in conversations.

‘The central plank of women’s rights is the cross’

Rebecca McLaughlin

Rebecca McLaughlin holds a PhD from Cambridge University and a theology degree from Oak Hill Theological College in London. She is the author of several books including Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion. She spoke to Rebecca Chapman for en.

en: Tell me how you came to faith?

Isn’t it time we start fighting for women rather than against them?

Naomi Dawson

‘The blog made very uncomfortable reading and would be utterly crushing to a pastor's wife’, 'I couldn't even finish this blog, I felt so sick and humiliated', ‘I was left really concerned about the bruising tone of this article'. What are the blogs these women read to leave them feeling like this?

A weird off beat lone ranger Pastor mishandling the Bible? Or blogs posted by well respected mature pastors backed by churches and organisations?

Violence against women: speak up – plea

Iain Taylor

Church leaders must speak out more against violence towards women, an evangelical leader says.

Christian relief agency Tearfund’s Gender and Protection Unit Lead, Sabine Nkusi, says faith leaders around the world must play their part in ending violence against women.

Evangelical Futures: Women - abused, mistreated, belittled and ignored

Rachel Sloan

The topic of women, their value and their roles has never been more furiously debated. In the media the message is clear, too many women have been wounded at the hands of men. The time has come for women to be seen and treated as equals.

Sadly, within the church we haven’t always demonstrated the better story we have regarding men and women. The recent scandals in Evangelicalism have only served to highlight the ways women have been abused, mistreated, belittled, and ignored. A failure to recognise and deal with our blind spots regarding how we value and treat women has led to women feeling hurt, excluded, and not heard.

Call for gifted women to be recognised

FIEC

Gifted women should be more widely recognised in FIEC churches, a key figure in the network says.

Elisabeth Smyth recently retired after more than 20 years of service with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).

Misogyny, rights & Rowling

Sarah Allen

It might have seemed as if the isolation of lockdown was making people mad last month when the stars of the Harry Potter films turned on J.K. Rowling. They denounced the woman who had kick-started their careers, because on social media she had objected to the phrase ‘people who menstruate’.

It wasn’t celebrities going stir-crazy, however, but a public display of an ugly and strange change in our culture. From the time of Rowling’s tweet pushing back against the insistence of many that ‘trans women are women’, and expressing the need to retain some women-only spaces in an eloquent and personal essay, she has faced much worse than negative press statements. Deeply offensive language has been spewed at her online, trans women have posted pictures of their very male anatomy, pornography has been uploaded to the account in which she interacts with her young readers. Then there are the news outlets which will only say that Rowling has written ‘offensive’ tweets but will not expose the horrendous backlash she has faced. Perhaps worst of all have been the ordinary young women I’ve heard lament that they won’t ever be able to read another Potter book again. These young women would call themselves feminists, but have unwittingly absorbed a self-destructive misogyny.

Women: sex-specific persecution

World Watch Monitor / Langham Partnership

A report issued in March on the top 50 countries in which it is most difficult to live as a Christian examined the various ways in which men and women experience different persecution.

Quoted by 84% of respondents, the two most-reported persecutions used against Christian women and girls globally are sexual violence and forced marriage.

Should women teach? Another view

Andrew Bartlett

In a second article on the issue of women preaching in the local church, Andrew Bartlett responds to Tom Schreiner (en March 2020)

Kat spoke up in class at seminary. A male student shouted: ‘Just stop!’ He saw her participation as a danger. ‘I have one question for you,’ he said. ‘Why are you even here?’

Christian women persecuted disproportionately

Kate Ward

The Leuven Consultation, staged in Belgium in early June, heard that 215 million Christians are experiencing high, very high or extreme persecution in more than 50 countries, with women suffering disproportionately.

The conference of academics and activists from 23 nations heard a catalogue of disturbing crimes against women, and a call was made for the church to listen in a radical new way to Christian women who have been driven to silence by persecution and shame.

Women at work

John Benton

The government believes it should be providing pre-school day care for most children.

But what are the issues involved in returning to the workplace for Christian women?

In Depth: women's rights