If Women’s Lives Were Sacred : Christianity, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Equal Justice

A feminist human rights lawyer exposes the global and domestic realities of gender-based oppression and calls the Church to confront the suffering it too often ignores.

Drawing on decades of work across Africa and the United States, McKinney Timm reveals how abuses such as child marriage, lethal violence against women, culturally sanctioned rape, and the mistreatment of widows devastate communities. Through the stories of survivors she has encountered, she shows how these harms transcend borders—and how Americans often overlook similar injustices in their own communities. Her critique of white saviorism underscores the need for honest reckoning with the roles both church and state play in perpetuating gendered and racialized violence.

Rooted in biblical insight and Christian ethical reasoning, the book argues that securing women’s human rights is the most faithful way to advance scriptural commitments to safety, inclusion, provision, and equity for those pushed to the margins. McKinney Timm highlights how American democracy and dominant church institutions have failed to uphold this mandate, and she points to prophetic voices past and present who illuminate a more just path.

She affirms equality under the law as a principle that honors Christian convictions about God, Christ, and the dignity of every person. True gender equality, she stresses, safeguards all who identify with womanhood or challenge traditional definitions of it—including LGBTQ+ siblings, such as transgender women, who face profound threats to their lives. Human equality before the law emerges as essential to any vision of gender and racial justice aligned with beloved community.

Combining the precision of a lawyer with the moral imagination of a pastor, McKinney Timm offers both analytic clarity and spiritual depth. She gives a compelling account of how greater gender equality can nurture the flourishing of women, girls, and the communities they sustain.