Christians have been explaining away the uncomfortable truth of female leadership in the Scriptures for centuries. Deborah (Judges 4:4) was only leading Israel because “there were no worthy men available.” Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2) was just a “helper” and “servant,” not a “patron” and “deacon.” The female pastor whom John writes to in 2 John […] Read more…

by Bridget Jack Jeffries, PhD Student (Church History), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Jump to Series Index) Junia is a first-century woman mentioned in the New Testament, in Romans 16:7. Paul includes her on a long list of greetings to local Christians in Rome: Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison […] Read more…

by Bridget Jack Jeffries, PhD Student (Church History), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Jump to Series Index) If you’ve ever read a serious article on the apostle Junia, you’ve read the following quote from John Chrysostom of Constantinople (c. AD 349 – 407), which says: “’Greet Andronicus and Junia . . . distinguished among the apostles.’ […] Read more…

by Bridget Jack Jeffries, PhD Student (Church History), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Jump to Series Index) Miscellaneous hierarchist (complementarian / Christian male headship) Web sites, blogs, and articles will number Origen among the patristic witnesses who said Junia was a man. For just one example, see this 2007 article by Dr. David W. Jones of […] Read more…

“She needs to get a nose job. That girl has a schnoz.” If I heard it once in my teenage years, I heard it many times. As adolescence descended on me, my nose grew in not just larger than average, but hooked, and not just hooked, but visibly crooked. The first time I saw my […] Read more…

I have a new article at RELEVANT Magazine on people with special needs in church: Special Needs, the Church and the Justice of God Read more…

Here are the wedding vows that we used for our ceremony, as well as the sermon that my friend Katie Langston preached when she married us. Katie and I met online almost 10 years ago when I was mostly blogging about Mormonism, where she was one of the Mormon commentators on my blog. She is […] Read more…

15 years ago, I said, “I do.” 11 years later, I said, “No more.” Something stronger than pain engulfed me. Not just loss of happiness, but the loss of any sense of purpose. I had been Mrs. Interfaith Marriage for so long, I had no idea who I was or who I might be without […] Read more…