{"id":4481,"date":"2025-10-15T07:56:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4481\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T07:56:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:56:21","slug":"in-dallas-6700-women-rally-for-culture-war-battles-after-kirks-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4481\/","title":{"rendered":"In Dallas, 6,700 women rally for culture war battles after Kirk\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS (RNS) \u2014 \u201cWelcome to the fight,\u201d said commentator Allie Beth Stuckey as she greeted the 6,700 conservative Christian women<\/a> assembled in the Dallas, Texas, arena on Saturday morning (Oct. 11): \u201cThe fight for truth, the fight for our Christian faith, the fight for our children, the fight for the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among Stuckey\u2019s hundreds of thousands of social media followers, that fight is often waged in podcast recordings, comment sections, PTA meetings and local elections. But this weekend, the battle converged in the Dallas suburbs during Stuckey\u2019s second annual \u201cShare the Arrows\u201d women\u2019s conference, where throngs of Bible-wielding Christian women gathered at the Credit Union Texas Event Center to be inspired in person by their favorite online influencers, including Jinger Duggar Vuolo from the hit show \u201c19 Kids and Counting\u201d and homeschooling \u201cmomfluencer\u201d Abbie Halberstadt.<\/p>\n

Held just one month since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the event also served as a rallying cry for women whose faith has been reignited by the death of the far-right political activist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a new ache in all of our hearts since Charlie passed, and we\u2019re just so excited to keep this fire burning. This is a great way to rekindle that in all of us,\u201d Rachel Jonson, a 28-year-old mother from Corinth, Texas, told RNS as she sat near the back of the arena, rocking the infant wrapped to her chest.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

To these women, Kirk was an evangelist turned martyr who died for defending conservative beliefs about Scripture, family, abortion, gender and sexuality that they, too, hold sacred. In the weeks after Kirk\u2019s passing, the conference saw a swell of more than 2,000 women purchase tickets. And the conference aimed to equip these women to boldly enter the fray of the culture wars. Though Stuckey argues the battle is primarily about defending biblical truths, she says political engagement is a byproduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a fight to which every single Christian is called, and it\u2019s not fought on a physical battlefield or even only in the public square,\u201d said Stuckey from the conference stage. \u201cThis is a spiritual battle that is waged in our homes and in our neighborhoods, at school, at your job.\u201d<\/p>\n

An hour before the event\u2019s 9 a.m. start, thousands of women formed a line wrapping around the event center, clutching notebooks and the clear bags dictated by security protocols. Once inside, attendees were greeted warmly by sponsors in pastel-colored stalls peddling natural cosmetics, Bibles, nutritional supplements and merch with quippy sayings like \u201cyou bet your stretch marks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly everyone who spoke with RNS said they were excited to be with likeminded women. Waiting in her seat before the event, Anna Tumulty, 40, from Springtown, Texas, said she brought her daughter Lily to the conference for her 16th birthday \u201cto help prepare her for her future walk with Christ, and to prepare her to face the problems in today\u2019s culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carolina Graver, 29, flew in from Palmer, Alaska, to see Stuckey in person. Listening to Stuckey\u2019s hit podcast, \u201cRelatable,\u201d in 2020 inspired her to serve on her local city council, she told RNS. Though she attended the conference alone, Graver said her fellow conferencegoers were an \u201cextension\u201d of her local faith community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know them, but they\u2019re still in the same family of Christians as I am,\u201d said Graver.<\/p>\n

The \u201cShare the Arrows\u201d conference was designed with women like Graver in mind. Stuckey, who is best known for her sharp political, cultural and theological commentary and who authored the 2024 book \u201cToxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion,\u201d told RNS that the idea for the event was born in the wake of 2020, when many conservative women feared speaking their minds. Despite President Donald Trump\u2019s 2024 election win, this year\u2019s event wasn\u2019t framed as a victory lap. The phrase \u201cshare the arrows\u201d refers to the idea that when a conservative believer is attacked, likeminded Christians should rally around them. And Kirk\u2019s assassination was cited repeatedly as evidence that conservative views remain under threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pattern that we see of Christianity for the past 2,000 years, much to the disappointment of the tyrants that have tried to stop us, is that Christians tell the truth, Christians are persecuted, Christians multiply,\u201d Stuckey said during the conference.<\/p>\n

The values being targeted, according to the event speakers, include convictions about the dangers of \u201ctransgenderism\u201d and queer identity, the belief that abortion is murder, and the upholding of traditional roles for men and women in marriage.<\/p>\n

Satan was frequently described as the one slinging the \u201carrows,\u201d though it was often fellow Christians, rather than the secular left, who were accused of distorting what the conference framed as objective biblical truths. Alisa Childers, the former Christian musician turned author and apologist, condemned longtime NIH director and evangelical Francis Collins for supporting fetal tissue research, LGBTQ+ rights, DEI and \u201cDarwinian evolution.\u201d Childers then received laughter and applause for calling out evangelical author Jen Hatmaker, who is also LGBTQ-affirming.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have groups of people that call themselves Christians, that will say, \u2018Well, the Bible doesn\u2019t really mean what we thought it meant for 2,000 years. Words don\u2019t have objective meaning,\u2019\u201d Childers said during her talk.<\/p>\n

Hillary Morgan Ferrer, founder of nonprofit Mama Bear Apologetics, described progressives not as enemies, but as captives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to realize that people have ideological Stockholm Syndrome, especially when it comes to the whole alphabet brigade, because they think these ideas are the things that give me purpose. They give me acceptance,\u201d Ferrer said, in reference to the LGBTQ+ acronym.<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s Rights nonprofit founder Katy Faust noted that it\u2019s possible to love gay people without compromising conservative convictions but also framed same-sex marriage as a justice issue that deprives children of a mother or father. She rejected no-fault divorce, IVF and surrogacy, saying these practices prioritize parental preferences over the rights of children.<\/p>\n

The talks took place on the main stage of the arena and were interspersed by worship sets that featured anthems like \u201cIn Christ Alone\u201d and the more recent hit, \u201cHoly Forever.\u201d Twice, Christian musician Francesca Battistelli led attendees in the hymn \u201cThis Is My Father\u2019s World\u201d \u2014 which includes the line \u201cthe battle is not done.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while cultural battles were a throughline of the conference, there were lighthearted moments, too; speakers peppered their conversations with jokes about chicken coops and sourdough starters, and panels on motherhood and health dolled out practical advice on how to control children\u2019s access to social media and avoid processed foods.<\/p>\n

Uniting the speakers wasn\u2019t just a conservative, evangelical worldview, but an aesthetic; all nine featured speakers were white women in their 30s-50s. Most attendees, too, were white women who seemed to embrace an unspoken uniform of jeans or long skirt and casual top, with hair worn down. The event\u2019s sponsors \u2014 including a Texas-based, antibiotic-free meat company; a pro-life, chemical-free baby essentials brand; and a sustainable fashion brand \u2014 revealed a significant overlap with MAHA mothers (Make America Healthy Again) or, as Childers put it, moms of the \u201ccrunchy\u201d variety.<\/p>\n

Stuckey told RNS that \u201cShare the Arrows\u201d has a \u201cpretty narrow\u201d theology and politics, and that unlike other Christian women\u2019s conferences \u201cwho dabble in the social and racial justice,\u201d Stuckey has \u201czero tolerance\u201d for that.<\/p>\n

Despite the specific conservative audience, \u201cthis is probably one of the biggest Christian women\u2019s conferences out there, too, and it\u2019s only our second year,\u201d Stuckey observed. \u201cI do think that tells us a little bit about where Christian women are headed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of Kirk\u2019s passing, Stuckey has joined many conservative faith leaders in talking about the possibility of revival. In her speech, Childers hinted at Stuckey\u2019s role in that movement, describing Stuckey as \u201cexactly like a female Charlie Kirk\u201d who had \u201crallied together 6,500 Charlie Kirks to come together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stuckey, though, insisted that Kirk was an anomaly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI and maybe 100 other people represent a sliver of what Charlie was,\u201d Stuckey told RNS. \u201cIf I am part of the team that takes the baton of evangelizing and being an apologist for the faith in the conservative realm, I will be honored to take that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS (RNS) \u2014 \u201cWelcome to the fight,\u201d said commentator Allie Beth Stuckey as she greeted the 6,700 conservative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4870,4865,963,4868,4866,316,4869,102,104,103,4867,4871],"class_list":["post-4481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-alisa-childers","tag-allie-beth-stuckey","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-christian-faith","tag-christian-women","tag-conference","tag-conservative-women","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-rns","tag-the-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}