Read the full story: ARC Magazine
In most job interviews, asking candidates’ wives if they will prioritize their husband’s career, contribute unpaid labor to the organization, and have children would be downright absurd, but for some evangelical churches, it’s the norm. Baylor University historian Beth Allison Barr is a pastor’s wife whose latest book, Becoming the Pastor’s Wife (Brazos, 2025), unpacks how modern expectations of the role have deviated from earlier church history and damned female ordination. We talked in March. This interview has been condensed and edited.