Reader Query: How Do We Crack the Evangelical Bro Code?

Three questions for you, dear readers.

This is the final essay on the evangelical bro code, a series that began last fall when I described how so many talented women are edged out of ministries, churches, and Christian colleges and seminaries. I’ve now heard from more than 170 women sharing their stories of being underpaid for their work; of facing strict rules around meeting alone with male colleagues owing to the Billy Graham Rule; and of being bullied by men in overt and covert ways. I also spoke in depth with Emily Hyland, a former church staff member who was fired without recourse by popular author Dane Ortland, and with

Karen Swallow Prior

, who has faced the bro code in the SBC world.

There’s much more to say about the evangelical bro code, many more threads to pull out from the outpouring of responses I’ve received. In the newest episode of Saved by the City, the podcast I cohost with Roxanne Stone, she and I recount our own experiences with it in two previous Christian workplaces.