Thread by @dianabutlerbass

They’ve also successfully ignored, silenced, or punished those who formerly made these same critiques. I know. I’m one of their previous targets. 25 yrs ago they attempted to ruin me.

Social media was unavailable to me then. I had no tools to rally support. They held the cards.

https://twitter.com/drantbradley/status/1478726982741499905

Many - if not most - of the early critics were women. (Which, of course, makes theological and sociological sense.)

But there weren't that many evangelical women with doctorates and we were particularly vulnerable to powerful men running ALL evangelical institutions.

In those days, you had to figure out how to critique and survive.

I was too naive to understand that. I thought that sound academic critique was akin to truthfulness-and the "truth will set you free." So, I wrote, spoke, taught history & doctrine as honestly as possible.

I believed that the powers-that-be would welcome honesty from women. After all, they "welcomed" us to the institutions.

(As far as I know, I was the 1st women to EVER teach theology at any evangelical college. Women w/religion PhDs previously taught XianEd, "women's studies.")

(I was hired in 1991 and survived four years)

I thought that women would be the vanguard of a spiritual and intellectual renewal of evangelicalism - that our care for a life of both heart and mind would energize a new Reformation.

My wide-eyed innocence still makes me wonder what the heck I was thinking.

I trusted them. I trusted Jesus. I did everything they told me to do.

And they knifed me.

They did that a lot to women who asked questions.

@julieingersoll wrote a book on it.

Anyway, becuz there were no real networks for women (there was just one & these fathers of today's TGC worked to undermine that), we were generally isolated. Unaware that other evangelical were doing similar work and suffered similar consequences.

But we all heard the rumors.

And, sitting alone in our offices (our emails were monitored, btw), we were afraid.

A generation of passionate, committed, idealistic evangelical women were controlled, silenced, and made to fit in the system. Or no job. Because guess what? If you once taught at an evangelical college, your chance of getting a job at a secular place was really, really low.

I was lucky (I guess). Somebody (a donor? the gatekeepers? a personal enemy?) decided to make an example of me. So, I was booted. At first, I made a bit of a stink of it, but then I left - and made an entirely new life.

The lucky bit: I didn't grow up in evangelicalism. I was from a mainline Protestant family. They mostly thot evangelicalism was a cult. They were angry that I was hurt but relieved w/my "escape."

My mom was my great cheerleader. "Go for it. Be you. Show those boys who you are."

And so I did exactly what I believed Jesus would have me do. I shook the dust off my feet and went to the next village.

While mainline Protestantism is far from perfect, it can be a really decent village. All the ways I had hoped to "reform" evangelicalism were already there!

There was so much I didn't have to fight - instead, I could contribute with love, appreciation, and expertise in a community that listened to and learned from informed critique!

I could also learn, widen my own view, explore the depth of the spiritual journey...

....make friends with people I'd never otherwise meet, hear stories I never would have heard.

I sometimes wonder who I would have been if I'd stayed.

But I can't imagine because I'm so grateful for the life I've had.

Some women didn't make it though. There was a lot of damage. We know the costs. But, if the pain of an earlier generation of evangelical women has contributed even a shred of courage to the women challenging the system, well, more gratitude.

Our only ask: please remember us.

In memory of her. And her. And them.

Those who went before us. Unnamed. But bearers of truly good news and great joy.

Sidebar: The Danvers Statement was the first organized attempt to take down the one network for evangelical feminists (as we were called in those days).

Danvers codified complementarianism. Evang feminism mostly lost to history. The Reformed guys won that round.

Also, this thread should be a chilling reminder that it isn't really about @kkdumez. It is about a multi-generation challenge to the patriarchal structure of American evangelicalism - and that structure's power to abuse, do violence to, and silence critics.

Especially women who dare step out of place.

Not to be a downer, but they aren't going to give up. The Empire will strike back.

(Final note: There's nothing the evangelical patriarchs hate more than a woman who succeeds without or despite them.)

** side note ** shaking dust off one's feet in this situation was not easy - it took time, courage, trauma work, a big theological journey. Some people might call it "deconstruction." I just called it survival.