Episode 39 – We Promise We Don’t Hate Billy Graham

Kainos Project
Kainos Project
Episode 39 - We Promise We Don't Hate Billy Graham
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We recently published an article that caused a bit of a kerfuffle on social media. That blog post was entitled 4 Reasons We Should Reconsider The Billy Graham Rule. In that post, we outlined that while we don’t want to throw caution to the wind, we might want to take a closer look at the unintended consequences that the Billy Graham Rule culture has created.

Given the great debate, conversation, and criticism that arose from that article, we thought it appropriate to tackle the same question in podcast form, so that we could have a more nuanced conversation about it.

We have nothing but the greatest respect and admiration for Billy Graham, but we do want to reconsider how we might most effectively carry on his legacy of faithfulness and fidelity without putting undo stigma on women or limiting their professional and ministry opportunities.

This conversation is a wild ride. Tamara shares candidly about how this rule has effected her, and we explore together how we might reframe this conversation in the evangelical world.

QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

The Billy Graham Rule is part and parcel of the evangelical culture so much that you'd almost have to be outside the tradition in order to not be following it. Click To Tweet With all the sex scandals in the evangelical world, it's worth considering whether the Billy Graham Rule is working. In most cases, it doesn't seem like it is. Click To Tweet Forbidding cross-gender lunch meetings seems like a short fence to keep leaders from sexually assaulting the people under their power. Click To Tweet In a strange way, the Billy Graham Rule objectifies women, because it refuses to see them as anything other than a sexual temptation. Click To Tweet Accusations of sexual misconduct are true enough, enough of the time, that they should be taken very seriously. Click To Tweet I've been passed up on job opportunities for the explicit reason that I was a woman, and the Billy Graham Rule. Click To Tweet What we need even more than really great rules is really good wisdom. Click To Tweet

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