(RNS) What a Christian author started on a whim rapidly turned into a whirlwind.
Sarah Bessey, author of “Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Review the Bible’s View of Women,” created a Twitter hashtag on Tuesday (April 18) called #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear. She kicked it off with a couple things that have been addressed to her.
https://twitter.com/sarahbessey/status/854522842121068544
https://twitter.com/sarahbessey/status/854523872212729856
Maybe it was a publicity stunt to drive up sales of her book, or garner more Twitter followers. Certainly, it released a flood of pent-up frustrations from women.
https://twitter.com/Nose_Boop1/status/854783584678408192
It's not that we think women are inferior, it's just that women are called to be submissive to men. #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear
— Margaret 🤦♀️ (@PeriwinkleinOK) April 19, 2017
Men shared things too (when they weren’t trolling the hashtag).
The #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear discussion is a heartbreaking, eye-opening glimpse at how badly American Christians have bungled gender
— Chris Williams (@merechrisianity) April 19, 2017
Another had a message for his brothers in Christ:
https://twitter.com/BarnabasPiper/status/854719471038193664
By Wednesday morning, Bessey took to her Facebook page to reflect on the outpouring (she did not immediately respond to a reporter’s call).
“This hashtag is pulling back the curtain on the everyday lived experiences of women within the Church,” she wrote. She gave thanks that the men in her life encourage her, but then added, “we still need to speak about freedom and expose the lies and amplify the voices of women who have too often been silenced.”
