Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Abby Johnson and the Problem of Biblical Womanhood

Abby Johnson and the Problem of Biblical Womanhood

Last updated on: September 2, 2020 at 11:30 pm by Beth Allison Barr

Abby Johnson and the Problem of Biblical Womanhood 2020-09-02T23:30:20-04:00 Beth Allison Barr

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I checked my map to be certain it was the right stop. It was. Caledonian Road station on the Piccadilly line of the Underground in north London. In 1906, it was brand new. Turn-of-the century glazed tilework spell out “Caledonian Road” on the inner walls while red faience brick frames the large arched windows on the outside. I know now that these distinctive “Edwardian Baroque” architectural features mark the station as one of 40 designed by Leslie Green, Architect to the Underground Electric Railways Co of London between 1903 and 1907. It always seems to me, walking through the tiled corridors of these early tube stations, that the nineteenth-century is not that long ago. I almost expect to see Sherlock Holmes, garbed in Victorian dress and smoking his pipe, waiting on the platform.

The gray light of that late summer afternoon still shone brightly, causing me to blink as I emerged from the dim underground. I walked up the road, turning left on Hillmarton and making my way toward Camden Road. I could see a graffiti-covered church rising over the roof of a nearby gas station, and, as I passed them, I couldn’t help but wonder if the metal arches indicating street numbers were intended to evoke prison vibes. It wasn’t until I saw the Cat and Mouse Library, across the street on Camden Road, that I knew for sure I was in the right place.

The new Holloway Prison, built on the spot of the turn-of-the-20th-century prison.

I was looking for Holloway Prison. And I had just found it–or at least all that remains of it. The faded brick and concrete walls stood silent, framing an abandoned parking lot. Overgrown vegetation shrouded much of the complex from my eyes, but I could make out bits of barbed wire and tall fences enclosing the grounds. The women’s prison officially closed in 2016 and today the empty buildings still sit, quiet and still.

But, in 1906 when Camden Station first opened, the scene was rather different. Holloway Prison towered as the medieval castle it resembled over the neighborhood, housing as many as 435 mostly working-class female inmates (such as those arrested for prostitution) as well as its most famous residents: suffragettes. Just a year before Camden Station opened, Christabel Pankhurst (the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the militant branch of the British suffrage movement) and Annie Kenney found themselves serving jail time in Holloway for disrupting a political rally with their suffrage demands. Between 1906 and 1918, Holloway housed hundreds of suffragettes and became the site of one of the darkest moments of women’s fight for the vote–brutal force feedings of suffragettes on hunger strikes and enforcement of the 1913 “Cat and Mouse Act” in which suffragette prisoners in Holloway were released for a short time to regain their strength after hunger strikes, but then immediately rearrested and reincarcerated. The bright purple, green, and white of the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union) suffragette movement still feature in our voting celebrations today, but I am skeptical of how many of my female peers really resonate with the hard and bitter struggle underlying those colors. The right for women to enter a voting booth and have the freedom to make our own political choice has become so ordinary that we sometimes (often?) take it for granted. We can’t remember anything different.

White, purple, and green flowers left at the grave of WSPU founder Emmeline Pankhurst.

But could we, as women, really ever forget the importance of our right to vote? Abby Johnson’s May 2, 2020 tweet suggests that we could. “I would support bringing back household voting. How anti-feminist of me,” she tweeted with laughing emojis. When I first saw her words, they literally dropped me in my tracks. I just stopped and stared, dumbfounded, after a friend sent me the tweet. What shocked me almost as much as Johnson’s words were the 225 people who liked it, and, while I hope that most of the 274 people who retweeted it did so because of its outrageousness, I suspect some did so because they agreed. Indeed, one woman in direct reply to Johnson, tweeted “I wanted to write that but didn’t want to deal with the backlash you worded it way better than I had in mind.”

For those unaware, Abby Johnson is a controversial but popular pro-life author and speaker. She grew up Southern Baptist (not far from me in Texas, actually), but since has converted to Catholicism. After debuting her deconversion abortion narrative on Huckabee in 2009, Johnson’s story was featured in the 2019 film Unplanned (which was based on her 2011 book by the same name). She currently has 189,100 twitter followers, and spoke just last week at the Republican National Convention. As The 19th newsroom reported, “On eve of suffrage centennial milestone, RNC to feature speaker supporting policies barring women from voting. Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson has advocated for a head-of-household voting system that has historically barred women and people of color from casting ballots.”

Whoa. Just think about that. “Abby Johnson has advocated for a head-of-household voting system that has historically barred women and people of color from casting ballots.” As disturbing as that is, it is actually her follow-up tweet that worries me the most. When asked how to deal with disagreement, if there was only one household vote, Johnson explained the solution: “Then they would have to decide on one vote. In a Godly household, the husband would get the final say.”

I suspect most folk who saw this tweet simply wrote it off as ridiculous. Like anyone does that.

Except some people do. As sociologist Sally Gallagher describes in Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life:

“Hierarchy, Headship, and Having the Final Say. Although a small number of evangelicals reject the notion of husbands’ headship for a model of marriage based on egalitarian partnership, most evangelicals talk about a husband’s responsibility for family leadership as the foundation of evangelical family identity. The cornerstone in that foundation is his responsibility for initiating and moderating family discussions, making final decisions, being primary decision makers, or casting the tie-breaking vote on difficult decisions.”

Evangelical households that adhere to divinely-ordained gender roles often describe the husband’s role with voting language. While this could reflect only his influence in household matters, it does seem to leak out into the political realm. Kristin Kobes DuMez, for example, notes that Paul Coughlin’s No More Christian Nice Guy made a point in 2005 to affirm women’s suffrage. Why did he do this? To push back against the “apparently popular notion ‘within the realm of Christian publishing’ that a man ought to cast the vote for his entire household.”

Indeed, what lays at the heart of Abby Johnson’s tweet is the subject of my forthcoming book–the problem of biblical womanhood. Men lead and women follow, because this (conservative evangelicals believe) is what the Bible teaches.

The Cat and Mouse Library on Camden Road.

Yesterday, in my graduate seminar on Women and Religion, we read Phyllis Mack’s insightful article “Religion, Feminism, and the Problem of Agency: Reflections on Eighteenth-Century Quakerism” (Signs 29:1, 2003, 149-177). Mack argues that, for eighteenth-century Quaker women, evangelical Christianity created a “new agency” that was “generated not by the principle of individual free will but by the freedom to do what reason, the Bible, the meeting, and Friends’ own Victorian consciences said was right.” Agency, in other words, can exist for evangelical women without autonomy. As Mack continues, “Since ‘what is right’ was determined by absolute truth or God as well as by individual conscience, agency implied obedience as well as the freedom to make choices and act on them. And since doing what is right inevitably means subduing at least some of one’s own habits, desires, and impulses, agency implied self-negation as well as self-expression.” Women express their freedom to choose by choosing to submit their freedom to God–and, because of their belief in divinely appointed male headship, to submit their freedom also to their husbands.

Johnson’s seemingly old-fashioned statement about the husband’s voting power in the “Godly household” isn’t as out of fashion as we might want to think. The historical foundations for it are still alive and well in 21st century evangelicalism.

Holloway prison is destined to be torn down; the site has been purchased for a significant development project as a residential neighborhood with more than 1000 homes. While good for the Islington area of north London, protesters have resisted–fearing that if the prison is torn down, it will be forgotten. I don’t worry so much about this. As a historian, I don’t think we will ever forget the suffragettes imprisoned in Holloway–with or without a tangible reminder.

As an evangelical woman, however, I do worry about forgetting. I worry that, because of the emphasis on female submission, evangelicals could be tempted to minimize why the vote matters so much for individual women.

I worry because this is exactly what Abby Johnson has already done.

Previous Post

September 1, 2020

MLK, Mike Pence, and the Great Cloud of Witnesses

Next Post

September 3, 2020 Evangelist Billy Graham’s Granddaughter and Son Rail Against Public Health Measures Older Than Grandpa

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe guest post Guest Post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What sign marked the houses to be spared during Passover?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A dove symbol A red ribbon Blood on doorposts A lit candle