Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am writing you on behalf of freedom. I am writing you to ask you to stop. I am writing you to plead my case. I am writing you to ask you to consider another side.

Over the past few years, my views on women’s rights and place in society, the church, the home, and the family have been a point of intense scrutiny by many people in my life. I have been “flagged” as the Feminist in my very conservative, evangelical extended family. I have had some friends who even supported this claim. I do not begrudge them or their opinion. However, I do not label myself as a Feminist in the modern sense of the word. I would label myself as a Feminist in the traditional sense of the word. In modern terms, I describe myself as a Women’s Rights Activist. I believe in equality and fair treatment for all people. I do not think that women are better than men, I do not wish to be treated as a man, nor do I wish for special privileges because of the wrongs done to the women before me. I also do not believe in “Rape Culture” as most modern Feminists define the phrase (though I am starting to reconsider that belief). However, I believe that all forms of injustice are wrong and should be fought against. Women being underpaid for the same job as a man is unacceptable. Women being told they have to “stay home” is unacceptable. Women who have to fight to get in a word in a group of male coworkers or classmates is unacceptable. Women who are called wimps if they are quiet and “b*****s” if they are confident is unacceptable. Girls being told that they cannot be in a field because they are female is unacceptable. Girls being told that “modest is hottest” because the only reason to cover yourself appropriately is so that you do not tempt a boy or man is unacceptable. Women being cat-called in public by strangers is unacceptable. Women who are victims of rape being told that they were “asking for it” by cops and judges is unacceptable. Women being terrified to go out alone for fear of being assaulted is unacceptable. Girls being taught that that is “just the way men are” is unacceptable. Women being treated as merely an object for a man’s use is unacceptable. And women who let it happen, women who do not teach their sons to be better, women who teach their daughters that that is “just the way the world is,” are simply continuing a culture that revolves around sex and exploiting women- and that is completely and utterly unacceptable.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is John 8:2-11. It says:

“Early in the morning he [Jesus] came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?’ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’"(ESV)

Now, I am assuming you can see why this is my favorite passage. This is one of my favorite images of Christ-The Protector. This woman was forcefully, involuntarily, and shamefully brought to stand in the middle of a crowd of (seemingly) Alpha-males. She was put on display, not for her own good, not to help her overcome her sin, but to be used by these men as an object and a tool to fulfill their end goal. And yet, Jesus metaphorically steps forward to love and protect her from these men. This is only one of dozens of examples throughout Scripture showing how much God loves women, how they have an equal inheritance in the Kingdom, how they are to be treated, and how through Christ we have Freedom.

So, my question to you is how can you, as conservative evangelical Christians, judge me for valuing the same equality and freedom as our Lord has died to give us?

Where is the Church? Why are all Christians not standing up for equality for women? Specifically, why are Christian women not willing to stand up for their own freedom given to us — not by our fathers, not by our husbands, and not by our country — but by our God? If any woman should be fighting for women’s rights — it should be the Church!

Which leads me to my final question for you: why are women (believers and non-believers) willing to compromise all of that for the sake of Pragmatism? I speak this in love, but if you are a Christian woman who is voting for Trump because he is the “better option” and you just “really do not want Hillary” then you are continuing this culture of unacceptable behavior toward women. Do not misunderstand me, I am 100 percent against Hillary and almost everything she stands for, and I will not be voting for her come November. But I will not compromise myself and my beliefs because I am “scared” of what Hillary may do if she takes office.

If Christians are unwilling to stand up for the Truth, no matter the “practical” consequences, then surely we are undone from within. Trump embodies everything that I, as a woman and a Christian, fight to end every single day. Are you really so afraid of Hillary that you would elect a man who stands against everything that we have fought for in this country to protect and change for the better? Have you forgotten that your God is bigger than any election? Have you forgotten that your God has called you to stand for Truth, no matter the consequences?

May God forgive the American Church for making our own country an idol. May God forgive us.