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“Welcome to the fight,” commentator Ellie Beth Stuckey said as she greeted the 6,700 conservatives Christian women gathered dallas, texasSaturday morning (October 11): “The fight for truth, the fight for our Christian faith, the fight for our children, the fight for the nation.”
Among Stuckey’s millions of social media followers, this battle is frequently fought in podcast recordings, comment sections, PTA meetings, and local elections. But this weekend, the fight converged in the Dallas suburbs during Stuckey’s second annual “Share the Arrow” women’s conference, where Bible-using Christian women gathered at the Credit Union Texas Event Center to be personally inspired by their favorite online influencers, including Jinger Duggar Vuolo of the hit show “19 Kids and Counting” and homeschooling “momfluencers.” Abby Halberstadt was involved.
Held exactly one month after the assassination of charlie kirkThe event also served as a rally for women whose faith has been rekindled by the death of the far-right political activist.
“There’s a new ache in all of our hearts since Charlie passed away, and we’re so excited to keep that fire burning. This is a great way to rekindle it in all of us,” Rachel Johnson, a 28-year-old mother from Corinth, Texas, told RNS as she sat in the back of the arena, rocking her infant close to her chest.
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To these women, Kirk was an evangelical who was martyred, who died defending conservative beliefs about Scripture, the family, abortion, gender and sexuality, which they also hold sacred. In the weeks following Kirk’s passing, more than 2,000 women purchased tickets to the convention. And the purpose of the conference was to prepare these women to enter boldly into the culture wars. Although Stuckey argues that the battle is primarily about protecting Biblical truths, she says that political engagement is a byproduct.
“This is a battle to which every single Christian is called, and it is not fought on a physical battlefield or even just in the public square,” Stuckey said from the conference stage. “This is a spiritual battle that is fought in our homes and in our neighborhoods, at school, at your job.”
An hour before the event began at 9 a.m., thousands of women formed a line around the event center, holding notebooks and clear bags as dictated by safety protocols. Once inside, attendees were warmly welcomed by sponsors in pastel-colored stalls selling natural cosmetics, Bibles, nutritional supplements and merchandise including “You Can Bet Your Stretch Marks.”
Almost everyone who spoke to RNS said they were excited to be with like-minded women. Waiting in her seat before the program, Anna Tumulty, 40, of Springtown, Texas, said she brought her daughter Lily to the conference for her 16th birthday “to help prepare her to walk with Christ in the future, and to prepare her to face problems in today’s culture.”
Carolina Graver, 29, flew from Palmer, Alaska, to see Stuckey in person. He told RNS that listening to Stuckey’s hit podcast, “Relatable,” in 2020 inspired him to serve on his local city council. Although she attended the conference alone, Graver said her fellow conference attendees were an “extension” of her local faith community.
“I don’t know them, but they’re still in the same Christian family as me,” Graver said.
The “Share the Arrow” conference was created with women like Graver in mind. Stuckey, who is best known for her sharp political, cultural and religious commentary and wrote the 2024 book “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion,” told RNS that the idea for the event was born in the wake of 2020, when many conservative women were afraid to speak their minds. Despite President Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory, this year’s event was not designed as a victory lap. The phrase “share the arrows” refers to the idea that when an Orthodox believer is attacked, like-minded Christians should gather around them. And Kirk’s assassination has been repeatedly cited as evidence that conservative ideas are under threat.
“The pattern we see about Christianity for the last 2,000 years is, to the frustration of the persecutors who have tried to stop us, that Christians speak the truth, Christians are persecuted, Christians thrive,” Stuckey said during the conference.
According to the program’s speakers, the values being targeted include strong beliefs about the dangers of “transgenderism” and gay identity, the belief that abortion is murder, and upholding traditional roles for men and women in marriage.
Satan was often described as firing “arrows”, although it was often fellow Christians, rather than secular leftists, who were accused of distorting what the conference had framed as objective Biblical truth. Former Christian musician turned author and theologian Alissa Childers condemned longtime NIH director and evangelical Francis Collins for supporting fetal tissue research, LGBTQ+ rights, DEI, and “Darwinian evolution.” Childers then received laughter and applause when she called out evangelical author Jane Hatmaker, who is also pro-LGBTQ.
“We have a group of people who call themselves Christians who will say, ‘Well, the Bible doesn’t really mean what we’ve thought for 2,000 years. The words don’t have an objective meaning,'” Childers said during his speech.
Hillary Morgan Ferrer, founder of the nonprofit Mama Bear Apologetics, called progressives not enemies, but prisoners.
“We 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,” Ferrer said in reference to the LGBTQ+ acronym.
Children’s rights nonprofit founder Katy Faust said it is possible to love gay people without compromising conservative beliefs, but she also framed gay marriage as a justice issue that deprives children of a mother or father. He rejected no-fault divorce, IVF and surrogacy, saying that these practices prioritize parental preferences over the rights of children.
The talks took place on the arena’s main stage and were interspersed with worship sets, which included songs such as “In Christ Alone” and the recent hit, “Holy Forever”. Twice, Christian composer Francesca Battistelli led attendees in the hymn “This Is My Father’s World” – which includes the line “The battle is not yet over.”
But while the culture battles were the focus of the conference, there were lighter moments too; Speakers peppered their talks with jokes about chicken coops and sourdough starters, and panels on motherhood and health offered practical advice about controlling children’s access to social media and avoiding processed foods.
Uniting the speakers was not just a conservative, evangelical worldview, but also an aesthetic; All nine keynote speakers were white women aged 30–50. Most of the attendees were also white women, who seemed to be wearing an unspoken uniform of jeans or long skirts and casual tops, and their hair was cropped. Sponsors of the event – including Texas-based, antibiotic-free meat company; A pro-life, chemical-free baby essentials brand; and a sustainable fashion brand – revealed a significant overlap with MAHA moms (Make America Healthy Again) or, as Childers put it, moms of the “crisp” variety.
Stuckey told RNS that “Share the Arrow” has a “very narrow” theology and politics, and unlike other Christian women’s conferences “that intervene in social and racial justice,” Stuckey has “zero tolerance” for it.
Despite the typical conservative audience, “It’s probably one of the largest Christian women’s conferences, and it’s only our second year,” Stuckey said. “I think this tells us a little bit about where Christian women are headed.”
Since Kirk’s passing, Stuckey has joined many conservative faith leaders in talking about the possibility of revival. In his speech, Childers alluded to Stuckey’s role in that movement, describing Stuckey as “exactly like a female Charlie Kirk” who had “united 6,500 Charlie Kirks to come together.”
However, Stuckey insisted that Kirk was an anomaly.
“I and probably 100 other people represent a part of Charlie’s personality,” Stuckey told RNS. “If I am part of the team that takes over the mantle of evangelization and championing of the faith in the Orthodox field, I would be honored to take it.”