The Jeff Taylor Scandal: Bad Theology & Sexual Abuse Collide

April 22, 2024 By Talley Cross

My church, The Falls Church Anglican in Falls Church, Virginia, recently hired an outside firm to investigate credible allegations of sexual abuse, occurring in the 1990s, by former youth director Jeff Taylor. The investigator’s report, which is available here, was released late last week. In it, victim after victim tells a similar story: the gateway for abuse was a one-on-one discussion with Taylor on the “sin” of masturbation and managing the “lust” that young men face. jeff taylor It appears... Read more

Elisabeth Elliot: Victim of “Biblical Womanhood”

March 5, 2024 By Talley Cross

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Back in the late 1990s, I burned my copy of Elisabeth Elliot’s Let Me Be a Woman – a story I tell here – along with a copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. While I have nothing against Dracula as a novel, I burned it symbolically as a bad influence on my thinking. I’d read it too young, when I was seven. My grievances with Elliot’s book were more personal. In Let Me Be a Woman, she grossly misapplied Holy Scripture... Read more

ACNA Bishops Rebuke Patriarchy Push at Mere Anglicanism

February 7, 2024 By Talley Cross

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Recently I was shocked to read an email my parents forwarded me: a pastoral letter from Chip Edgar, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, addressing a kerfuffle at this year’s Mere Anglicanism conference. Edgar’s response essentially amounted to a takedown of the patriarchy, and I was inwardly fist-pumping. The context for his email was an explosion of prejudice from Rev. Calvin Robinson, a speaker at January’s Mere Anglicanism conference, a leading conference within the Anglican Diocese of North... Read more

Jesus, Son of Humanity

December 26, 2023 By Talley Cross

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For Advent this year, the children’s ministry at my church, The Falls Church Anglican, had the brilliant idea to create Advent calendars with names of Jesus for each day of the month. When my oldest daughter, who is six, read the name for day 21, she came running to me. “Mommy, what does ‘Son of Man’ mean?” You see, she thought Jesus was the Son of God, so how could he also be the Son of Man? I explained that... Read more

What’s Up With Christian Feminism?

December 4, 2023 By Talley Cross

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Is there such a thing as Christian feminism? I’ve been asked by a couple of readers to delve a bit more into how feminism does (and does not) cohere with Christian principles, as my blog has an unapologetically feminist bent. It’s a fair ask, but rather than comparing/contrasting Christian/feminist perspectives on hot-button social issues, I want to frame my response in terms of perspectives, as I’m fond of doing. What’s Your Feminist Lens? How favorably you view feminism as a... Read more

Virtue Online launches personal attack with “Talley Cross: Raving Feminist”

October 26, 2023 By Talley Cross

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VIRTUE Online? When is it ever OK for Christians to mock and belittle other Christians? Out of curiosity, I Googled myself the other day and found, much to my amazement, the following article on Virtue Online, titled in all caps: “TALLEY CROSS: ANOTHER RAVING FEMINIST.” My initial thought – honestly! – was that I’d love a t-shirt with those words and a giant cross in the background. The article, by Alice C. Linsley, was published as an “Exclusive Report” by... Read more

Peace in the Strife: A Year of Blogging (Mostly) on the Patriarchy

September 19, 2023 By Talley Cross

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Looking back over the past year, it’s hard to imagine a blank space in place of the 15 posts here. None is perfect, but all are special to me. They are canvasses onto which I have poured out my soul, intellect, and imagination pondering the things of God; they have been catalysts for spiritual formation – mine, hopefully others’ – and productive engagement. Blogging (mostly) on the patriarchy has been a burden and a blessing: the burden and blessing of... Read more

Gender Role Theology: A Slippery Slope to LGBTQ+?

July 24, 2023 By Talley Cross

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I know the premise may sound crazy – gender role theology as a slippery slope to LGBTQ+?!? – but bear with me, and I’ll try not to disappoint. In evangelical patriarchy/hierarchalism/complementarianism, it is often assumed that gender role equality in the church is a slippery slope to acceptance of LGBTQ+ ideology. The argument goes something like this: when a woman exercises spiritual authority over men in a church, she rejects her divinely-ordained sexual nature as man’s subordinate. This permissiveness paves... Read more

What Does it Mean to Cleave?

July 1, 2023 By Talley Cross

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No matter how independent you are, if you have a spouse or partner, don’t you depend on them in some way? Is that a strange feeling for you? Maybe you’re experiencing what it’s like to cleave. I take the word cleave from Gen. 2:24, which describes how a man leaves his parents and unites to his wife so that they become one flesh. The basis of this one-flesh union is God’s creation of humankind, in which he separated woman from... Read more

Mary Magdalene: Re-Imagining the Apostle to the Apostles

June 26, 2023 By Talley Cross

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Why did Jesus choose Mary Magdalene to be the first preacher of the Gospel, the “good news” of his resurrection? Shouldn’t he have chosen either Peter – “the rock” (Matt 16:18) – or John, who both ran eagerly to his tomb (John 20:3)? Much has been made of the fact that a woman’s witness at the time would have counted very little, which conversely makes the resurrection story more believable; if Jesus’ followers had been trying to fake his resurrection,... Read more