A Christian feminist human rights lawyer exposes global and domestic gender-based oppression, calling the Church to confront suffering it too often ignores.

Drawing on decades of work across Africa and the United States, Allyson McKinney Timm reveals how child marriage, lethal violence, rape, and the mistreatment of widows devastate communities. Through survivor stories, she shows how these harms transcend borders-and how Americans overlook similar injustices at home. Her critique of white saviorism underscores the need for an honest reckoning with how church and state perpetuate gendered and racialized violence.

Rooted in biblical insight and Christian ethical reasoning, If Women's Lives Were Sacred argues that securing women's human rights is the most faithful way to advance scriptural commitments to safety, inclusion, provision, and equity. McKinney Timm highlights how American democracy and dominant church institutions have failed this mandate, pointing to prophetic voices past and present who illuminate a more just path. She affirms equality under the law as a principle honoring Christian convictions about human dignity. True equality, she stresses, safeguards persons of every identity-including LGBTQ+ siblings facing profound discrimination. Human equality before the law is essential to any vision of gender and racial justice aligned with beloved community. In the United States, this begins with the Equal Rights Amendment, a hard-won reform with redemptive potential for righting systemic wrongs.

Combining the precision of a lawyer with the moral imagination of a pastor, McKinney Timm offers 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.

Allyson McKinney Timm is a human rights lawyer, scholar, and faith leader with two decades of experience defending the dignity and rights of those on the margins, in the United States and globally. She is the founder of Justice Revival, a Christian nonprofit focused on advancing human rights in the United States.

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