In Dallas, 6,700 women rally for culture war battles after Kirk’s death

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.

“There’s a new ache in all of our hearts since Charlie passed, and we’re just so excited to keep this fire burning. This is a great way to rekindle that in all of us,” 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.

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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’s 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.

“This is a fight to which every single Christian is called, and it’s not fought on a physical battlefield or even only in the public square,” said Stuckey from the conference stage. “This is a spiritual battle that is waged in our homes and in our neighborhoods, at school, at your job.”

An hour before the event’s 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 “you bet your stretch marks.”

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 “to help prepare her for her future walk with Christ, and to prepare her to face the problems in today’s culture.”

Carolina Graver, 29, flew in from Palmer, Alaska, to see Stuckey in person. Listening to Stuckey’s hit podcast, “Relatable,” 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 “extension” of her local faith community.

“I don’t know them, but they’re still in the same family of Christians as I am,” said Graver.

The “Share the Arrows” 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 “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 feared speaking their minds. Despite President Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, this year’s event wasn’t framed as a victory lap. The phrase “share the arrows” refers to the idea that when a conservative believer is attacked, likeminded Christians should rally around them. And Kirk’s assassination was cited repeatedly as evidence that conservative views remain under threat.

“The 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,” Stuckey said during the conference.

The values being targeted, according to the event speakers, include convictions about the dangers of “transgenderism” and queer identity, the belief that abortion is murder, and the upholding of traditional roles for men and women in marriage.

Satan was frequently described as the one slinging the “arrows,” 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 “Darwinian evolution.” Childers then received laughter and applause for calling out evangelical author Jen Hatmaker, who is also LGBTQ-affirming.

“We have groups of people that call themselves Christians, that will say, ‘Well, the Bible doesn’t really mean what we thought it meant for 2,000 years. Words don’t have objective meaning,’” Childers said during her talk.

Hillary Morgan Ferrer, founder of nonprofit Mama Bear Apologetics, described progressives not as enemies, but as captives.

“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 noted that it’s 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.

The talks took place on the main stage of the arena and were interspersed by worship sets that featured anthems like “In Christ Alone” and the more recent hit, “Holy Forever.” Twice, Christian musician Francesca Battistelli led attendees in the hymn “This Is My Father’s World” — which includes the line “the battle is not done.”

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’s access to social media and avoid processed foods.

Uniting the speakers wasn’t 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’s sponsors — including a 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 mothers (Make America Healthy Again) or, as Childers put it, moms of the “crunchy” variety.

Stuckey told RNS that “Share the Arrows” has a “pretty narrow” theology and politics, and that unlike other Christian women’s conferences “who dabble in the social and racial justice,” Stuckey has “zero tolerance” for that.

Despite the specific conservative audience, “this is probably one of the biggest Christian women’s conferences out there, too, and it’s only our second year,” Stuckey observed. “I do think that tells us a little bit about where Christian women are headed.”

In the wake of Kirk’s passing, Stuckey has joined many conservative faith leaders in talking about the possibility of revival. In her speech, Childers hinted at Stuckey’s role in that movement, describing Stuckey as “exactly like a female Charlie Kirk” who had “rallied together 6,500 Charlie Kirks to come together.”

Stuckey, though, insisted that Kirk was an anomaly.

“I and maybe 100 other people represent a sliver of what Charlie was,” Stuckey told RNS. “If 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.”