The New York Times just posted a lengthy oughta-read that will appear in this Sunday's magazine -- a profile of Priscilla Shirer, the Dallas Theological Seminary graduate and DeSoto resident who, with husband Jerry, is the founder of Going Beyond Ministries in Cedar Hill. The author of numerous big-selling Bible studies who spends most of her time spreading The Word cross-country, Shirer, writes Molly Worthen, is quite the contradiction -- a strong woman and growing franchise who splits house-n-kiddie duties with Jerry (who handles most of her bidness affairs) while also preaching to women that "[Satan] wants to make us resent our husband's position of authority so that we will begin to usurp it."
Shirer comes from quite the religious-leader lineage: Her father is Tony Evans, founder of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. And she used to work for Zig Ziglar. Not everyone's a fan of Shirer's style, but the Paper of Record notes that she may indeed be a prophet of things to come:
Conservative Bible teachers like Shirer have built a new paradigm for feminine preaching, an ingenious blend of traditional revivalism, modern therapeutic culture and the gabby intimacy of Oprah. This is the biblical-womanhood-industrial complex: a self-conscious alternative to secular feminism that preaches wifely submission while co-opting some feminist ideas to nurture women like Shirer to take the lead, within limits. This fusion of confinement and uplift may seem like an empowering veneer on the reality of oppression. Or else, if women like Priscilla really are on equal footing with their husbands, it may seem like hypocrisy.
