Rhetoric Race and Religion
Last week, a controversy erupted over Twitter when it came to light that a prominent evangelical conference with 110 speakers only had four women on stage. Journalist Jonathan Merritt did a quick informal study and discovered that out of 34 prominent evangelical conferences, only 19 percent of speakers at plenary sessions were women.
This is a problem.
As a white male evangelical and a black female evangelical who spend a lot of time speaking at conferences, events, and college campuses, we know from experience this is a problem. Conference spaces have become one of the primary discipleship spaces for evangelicals. These are the spaces where evangelicals go to learn all that it means to be a follower of Jesus.
What does it communicate, then, to those who would seek to follow Jesus when the majority of voices, perspectives, illustrations, jokes, and frameworks are delivered to the entire church body by men? Does it communicate that voices of men are universal while women are only capable of communicating to other women (or children)? Does it communicate that women are not created with the capacity or call to lead?
Not all evangelicals believe that women shouldn’t lead. We certainly don’t. One reason that women are underrepresented at these conferences is because many of these groups believe — theologically — that women should not have a public role. These groups should say that publicly and be held accountable for it.
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