From time to time, readers have questioned why Christianity Today would offer coverage focused on women’s perspectives or issues of interest for women in the church. This newsletter is one example. Shouldn’t we get rid of those distinctions and just focus on the church as a whole?

I mostly recognize these concerns. We never wants reduce women’s interests to stereotypical “women’s issues.” But situations keep coming up that remind me that women continue to face unique challenges as they strive to lead and serve the body of Christ. It’s important we have a place dedicated to featuring their voices, for the sake of all readers.

The latest controversy involves remarks made in a Reformed Facebook group targeting author Aimee Byrd that go beyond a critique of her position. Screenshots of the comments have raised broader concerns about some Christians’ willingness to tolerate or perpetuate sexist attitudes.

Ed Stetzer called it out saying, “The Venn diagram of reformed, complementarian, and misogynist has a pretty significant overlap that some people of character—men and women together—need to address in those movements,” and “It’s in far too many places. How many women would feel more affirmed in their faith if they were treated as sisters in Christ rather than slighted for their gender?”

While the Aimee Byrds and Beth Moores of the church remind us that with prominence inevitably comes opposition, there’s another degree of mistreatment suffered by those whose teachings and contributions aren’t given the chance to shine. As Kathryn Freeman wrote last week, “Despite being the most religiously devout Christian demographic in the country, black women are underrepresented in almost every significant public facet of evangelical life.”

Many of the women I’ve encountered as evangelical writers and leaders—even those with successful careers and who celebrate the support they’ve received from their church communities as a whole—have their own accounts of being thwarted, misread, or insulted by male leadership.

Some faced outright offenses like the kinds of lines that could be caught in Facebook group screenshots. Some noticed a lurking suspicion or distrust (Jen Wilkin has chronicled some common attitudes here).

I’ve read some initial response suggesting a handful of comments, especially in online chatter, should not merit such a strong reaction toward the church elders and leaders disparaging Byrd. I think back to what Karen Swallow Prior wrote a few years ago about locker room talk: “But the problem is that what happens in the locker room doesn’t stay in the locker room. Scripture tells us that as a man thinks within himself, so he is. Therefore, we must take even ‘talk’ seriously.”

James tells us that what we say reflects not just a part of ourselves but our very identity. “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be,” he writes. “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water” (3:9-12).

Kate