Podcasts about purity culture

When Latter-day Saints hear the phrase "Purity Culture," they may associate it more with evangelical churches than with our own. LDS talks and lessons focus on words like virtue, modesty, morality, and chastity to describe our ideals. But regardless of the specific words used, the messages are the same. Therapist C.A. Larson points out, "Purity culture is a moral control system that ties worth to sexual behavior, especially for women. [...] Purity culture in the LDS Church is institutional, enforced through interviews, modesty rules, and silence around consent." In Episode 253, Cynthia and Susan welcome C.A. back to ALSSI for a discussion about Purity Culture: what it is, its psychological and emotional impacts, and its systemic connection to sexual abuse. It's a conversation that makes space for grief and anger, and identifies healing paths. C.A. explains, "Healing is not about becoming more sexual or less sexual. It is about embracing our agency...relearning consent, trusting bodily signals, separating worth from obedience, reclaiming choice, going slowly and allowing ambivalence. You don't owe your body to doctrine, and you don't owe your healing to anyone else's timeline."CW: sexual abuse

This week on The Naughty Gym Show, April takes the wheel for a real-time life update that starts with a chaotic wine-night incident (yes—April fell down 13 of 15 stairs in plush slippers… and Scott's first response was to laugh

Send a textAnna Rollins grew up as the kind of girl who took her faith seriously — and that's exactly why it hurt her so much. In this conversation, Anna and I dig into her memoir Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl, where she traces how purity culture's messages about desire, self-denial, and the body quietly fueled decades of disordered eating, compulsive exercise, and sexual pain. What strikes me most is that Anna's parents were loving, her church wasn't overtly abusive — and yet the cumulative message she absorbed was shrink yourself.  I think this conversation is going to resonate deeply with so many of you.THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:To Heal or Harm: Scripture's Use as Poison or Medicine for Abuse Survivors by Dr. Steven Tracy. How to refute it when Bible verses are weaponized! https://amzn.to/4rSYkZuTO SUPPORT US: Join our Patreon for as little as $5 a month to support our workAnd check out our Merch, or any of our courses!Give to the Good Fruit Faith Initiative of the Bosko FoundationJoin our email list!LINKS MENTIONED: Get Anna Rollins' book FamishedFollow Anna on SubstackWatch our Love & Respect Docuseries The Portuguese version of The Great Sex RescueThe Chinese version of The Great Sex RescueThe Spanish version of The Good Girl's Guide to Great SexSupport the showJoin Sheila at Bare Marriage.com!Check out her books: The Great Sex Rescue She Deserves Better The Marriage You Want and the Study Guide The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex and The Good Guy's Guide to Great Sex And she has an Orgasm Course and a Libido course too!Check out all her courses, FREE resources, social media, books, and so much more at Sheila's LinkTree.

Are you as fascinated as I am with the intersection of faith and influence(rs)? In this episode of Culture Changers, I sit down with debut novelist Alli Hoff Kosik, author of the buzzworthy Too Blessed to Stress, for a way deeper conversation that I thought. We are talking Christian megachurches, influencer culture, and the razor-thin line between faith and performance. If you're fascinated (or horrified) by fundamentalist Christianity, religious trauma, sought-after belonging, social media collectives, or how women shape culture from the back pew and the algorithm, let me tell you, this episode is for you. We dig into Allie's process researching evangelical culture, what it's like growing up on the religious outside, and how she crafted four female protagonists who are as complex, messy, and relatable as your own group chat. Plus, we get real about performative faith, power dynamics for women in church, and why changing your mind in public can cost you everything. Whether you're a church kid, a proud skeptic, or just obsessed with pop culture, this is a smart, bold, and oddly comforting conversation about spirituality, social identity, and what true community really looks like. You'll walk away with big questions, fresh empathy, and a new favorite novel to bring to your book club. We talk about: The search for authentic belonging and community Navigating performative faith versus genuine spirituality Social media's impact on religious identity Female ambition and empowerment within church culture Secrets, public personas, and the influencer economy Empathy for differing worldviews and experiences The complexities of institutional religion today Timestamps: 00:00 Too Blessed to Stress 05:42 TLC, Religion, and Influence 08:49 Religious Celebrations and Longing 13:34 Secrets, Faith, and Influencer Struggles 16:52 Trishy: Faith, Friendship, Content 19:37 Faith, Scandal, and Self-Discovery 21:51 Researching Influencers and Communities 26:23 Culture, Media, and Human Context 33:01 The Cost of Public Beliefs 37:41 Belonging, Perception, and Empowerment 43:03 Rethinking Community and Belonging —--------------------------------------------------------- To Connect With Alli: Get Alli's Book: https://allihoffkosik.com/too-blessed-to-stress Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allihoffkosik Website: https://allihoffkosik.com/ To Connect With Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allison__hare LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonhare/ Website: https://allisonhare.com Book a free podcast clarity call with Allison:  https://allisonhare.com/freecall Be sure to rate, review, and follow this podcast on your player and also, connect with me IRL for more goodness and life-changing stuff.Schedule a FREE podcast clarity call with me - Your future audience is out there. Talk to them!Sign up for the free weekly emailAllisonHare.comFollow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.DOWNLOAD the free podcast equipment guide- No guesswork, no google rabbit holes, start recording todayReb3l Dance Fitness - Try it at home! Free month with this link.Feedback and Contact:: allison@allisonhare.com

Hour 1 Segment 1 – Speed, NC at the center of state audit controversy Segment 2 – VP Vance announces plan to withhold Medicaid funding for Minnesota amid state fraud allegations Segment 3 – Live News Conference: Rep. James Comer talks Hillary Clinton deposition today Segment 4 – Live News Conference: Democrats respond to Rep. James Comer ahead of Clinton deposition Hour 2 Segment 1 – Guest: Josh Harris (Former Pastor) - Beyond purity culture Segment 2 – Josh Harris cont. Segment 3 – WBT Text line reacts to interview with Josh Harris Segment 4 – Rep. Janelle Bynum comments on CSPAN, calls Pres. Trump's request to stand during the SOTU, "racist" See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How should Christians handle conflict in the church? Why do Jesus and Paul call us to pursue peace and bear with one another? Pastor Adriel Sanchez and Aaron Simon discuss church hurt, respond to influencers addressing religious trauma, and explore how to pursue reconciliation within the church. PARTNER WITH US - https://solamedia.org/partner/?sc=AS2502V When you become a partner today, you'll receive two remarkable books as our thanks: Rediscovering the Holy Spirit by Dr. Michael Horton and Praying with Jesus by Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We believe these books can guide you into a clearer understanding of the Spirit's work and a richer prayer life. FOLLOW US YouTube | Instagram | X/Twitter | Facebook | Newsletter WHO WE ARE Sola is home to White Horse Inn, Core Christianity, Modern Reformation, and Theo Global. Our mission is to serve today's global church by producing resources for reformation grounded in the historic Christian faith. Our vision is to see reformation in hearts, homes, and churches around the world. Learn more: https://solamedia.org/

This week, Your Favorite Aunties welcome back Christian sexologist Brittany Broaddus-Smith for a real, grown, and necessary conversation the church doesn't always know how to have.We're unpacking sexual hygiene, healthy sexual conduct, and the truth about how purity culture and church messaging have shaped the way many believers experience sex and intimacy. From the gaps in sex education within Christian spaces to the shame many people quietly carry, this episode gets honest about what's helping… and what's hurting.If you've ever struggled with sexual shame, confusion around intimacy, or wondered what healthy, God-honoring sexuality actually looks like, this conversation is for you.Grab your tea, it's time to talk about it.

Happy Black History Month Fatheads! We talk about a few black inventors and their best known inventions.  Black Girls Code: https://www.wearebgc.org/ Write us some of your cringe stories at [nervouslaughterpodcast@gmail.com](mailto:nervouslaughterpodcast@gmail.com) The socials: [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nervouslaughterpodcast) | [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/NervousLaughterPodcast) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/NervouslaughPod) Write us some of your cringe stories at nervouslaughterpodcast@gmail.comThe socials: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

In this episode of The Counseling Psychologist podcast series, Ms. Tessi Muskrat and Mrs. Maddi Worley talk about their article recently published in TCP titled, ""Being Yourself is a Sin": The Impact of Evangelical Purity Culture on Sexual and Gender Minority People Socialized as Women."

What happens when purity culture and diet culture collide? In this episode, Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs sit down with writer Ashley Dunston to unpack the complicated overlap between evangelical theology, fat phobia, and body shame. Ashley shares her story of growing up in Colorado Springs during the peak of 1990s and early 2000s purity messaging, navigating intense pressure to present a “perfect” family image, and being pushed into gastric bypass surgery at just 19 years old. After losing 100 pounds in a year, she faced not only the physical consequences but the emotional and spiritual fallout that followed.Together, they explore how phrases like “your body is a temple” became tools of control, how food and weight were moralized in church spaces, and why purity culture often excluded or invisibilized girls who did not fit a narrow beauty standard. The conversation moves through grief, bodily autonomy, medical fat phobia, and the painful unraveling of a faith identity that once felt essential. Ashley also reflects on healing, learning to trust her body again, reclaiming desire as strength rather than weakness, and the hope she sees in younger generations finding more diverse and affirming representations of their bodies.Guest Info: Website: AshleyDunstonWriter.comSocial Media: Instagram: @ashley_dunston_writer, https://substack.com/@ashleydunstonwriterThis podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups. Follow Andrew on Instagram @andrew_kerbsFollow Andrew's post-SDA account @lifeafteradventismFollow Andrew's account on neurodivergence and high control religion @divergent.faith Join Andrew's Substack (Kerb Your Enthusiasm) www.andrewkerbs.substack.com To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call hereFollow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com Join Laura's Substack (Therapy in the Headlines) www.drlauraeanderson.substack.com To work with Laura as a coach, therapist, consultant, or to inquire about other services, you can do so hereHosts: Laura Anderson and Andrew KerbsMusic by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji 

Diese Folge ist eine fachliche Einordnung dazu, was Faschismus, Rassismus und White-Supremacy Ideologie mit Purity und Rape Culture zu tun haben mit der Theologin und Content Creatorin Dr. Nathalie Eleyth. In dieser Folge tauchen wir in die gnadenlosen Zusammenhänge zwischen Purity Culture, Rassismus und White Supremacy ein. Unsere Expertin erklärt, wie koloniale und rassistische Narrative bis heute unsere Vorstellungen von Sexualität und Reinheit prägen und warum es wichtig ist, diese Zusammenhänge kritisch zu hinterfragen. Danke an Dr. Eleyth, die uns mit hinein nimmt und im deutschsprachigen Raum als einzige Theologin bisher zu diesen Zusammenhängen in Deutschland schreibt und aufklärt. Dr. Nathalie Eleyth @natheology auf Instagram folgen --> https://www.instagram.com/natheology_/?hl=de

In vielen vergangenen Folgen, in denen es um den Umgang in Evangelikalien mit Themen wie Sexualität, Machtstrukturen, Missbrauch oder Diversität ging, tauchte ein Thema immer wieder auf: Die sogenannte Purity Culture, also die Reinheits- bzw. Keuschheitsideologie, die in vielen evangelikalen Gemeinden propagiert und eingefordert wird und die vielerorts darüber entscheidet, wer dazu gehört und wer nicht. Höchste Zeit also endlich ausführlich darüber zu reden. Das tun Jay, Marco und Gofi in der aktuellen Folge mit Nana Myrrhe, die über dieses Phänomen und ihr eigenes Aufwachsen und Erleben in dieser Kultur ein Buch mit dem klangvollen Titel FEUCHT UND FROMM geschrieben hat. Nana ist Autorin, Sozialarbeiterin und Co-Host des Podcasts FCK PURITY. In all diesen Bereichen setzt sie sich für Körperwahrnehmung, sexuelle Selbstbestimmung und die Aufarbeitung spirituellen Missbrauchs ein. In Workshops, Vorträgen und auf Social Media thematisiert sie kritisch die Auswirkungen der sogenannten Purity Culture – insbesondere auf weibliche Sexualität und religiös geprägte Identitäten. Ein feuchtfröhlich-frommes Gespräch ohne Tabus über Freiheit, Sex und Körperlichkeit.

In gay culture, “body count” refers to how many people you've slept with. And whether it's high or low, it often feels like a no-win situation. Have a low body count and you risk being seen as repressed, inexperienced, or undesirable. Have a high one and you're either celebrated… or slut shamed. In this off-the-cuff conversation, we unpack why gay men are stuck between purity culture and performance culture, and how both distort our relationship to sex, desire, and self-worth. We explore: Why body count became a stand-in for confidence and masculinity How sex gets turned into proof of worth instead of a personal choice The difference between sexual freedom and sexual pressure Why sex positivity isn't about having more sex, or less sex What sexual empowerment actually looks like when shame isn't running the show This episode isn't about judging how much sex you've had. It's about reclaiming choice, agency, and a healthier relationship to desire. Join the Sexual Empowerment 101 7-week men's group Link Today's Hosts: Michael DiIorio Matt Landsiedel Support the Show - viewer and listener support helps us to continue making episodes - CONNECT WITH US - Watch podcast episodes on YouTube Join the Gay Men's Brotherhood Facebook community Get on our email list to get access to our monthly Zoom calls Follow us on Instagram | TikTok Learn more about our community at GayMenGoingDeeper.com - LEARN WITH US - Building Better Relationships online course: Learn how to nurture more meaningful and authentic connections with yourself and others. Healing Your Shame online course: Begin the journey toward greater confidence and self-worth by learning how to recognize and deal with toxic shame. Gay Men Going Deeper Coaching Collection: Lifetime access to BOTH courses + 45 coaching videos and 2 workshop series. Take the Attachment Style Quiz to determine your attachment style and get a free report. Chapters (00:00:00) - Gay Culture: Perpetual Sexual Hygiene(00:02:00) - Body Count in Our Culture(00:05:48) - Purity Culture and Performance Culture(00:06:42) - Who Are The People Shaming Gay People Having Sex?(00:08:29) - "Purity Culture" Is Full of Shame For Gay Men(00:09:52) - What Is the Story You Tell Yourself About People Who Have A Lot(00:10:18) - Demisexual Man on His Sexual Preoccupation(00:13:55) - Is Demisexual Love The Same As Sex?(00:16:09) - Straight Guys Think They're More Hot Than Girls(00:18:14) - Sexual Empowerment(00:21:57) - Sexual Empowerment Group and Connection Circle(00:23:31) - Oh My Goodness(00:23:40) - Gay Men's Brotherhood: Connections Circles

Jenny (02:14): I have been thinking about conversations that I've been having and things that I've been seeing lately about this new found anger and rage for MAGA friends and family members. And I think this facade of hope for a long time that I had been called Hyperbolic and I'd been saying I was overreacting or I was paranoid, and then when things continued to escalate, there was the sense of, okay, now they'll see. Now they'll see. And really feeling like there's pretty much not more that could happen that would lift the veil of where we are in this current moment. And so then to still have family members not rejecting Trump, not rejecting Christian nationalism, not rejecting white supremacy, it has been really challenging to think through what does relationship mean right now? What does it mean from a privileged body too? I'm really hesitant, and Danielle and I have talked a lot about this, that it's a very white thing to be like, ah, I'm just going to not talk to you and I don't feel like that's necessary. And if people are saying, you just need to not talk about politics with me, what does it look like to hold my own integrity and be in relationship with people in this moment? I am struggling to know what that looks like and how to do that. Rebecca (04:20): It makes me think I'm getting ready to do, you guys probably saw this, but I'm going to do starting Monday, a group with Jen Murphy, and the name of it is Rebuilding Hope. And I think Hope has something to do with what you just said, Jenny. I am not sure how it plugs in, but I do think there's, what I hear is what do I do? Do I just give into the, they're never going to get there, and what does that mean for our capacity to stay connected in any way? Or do I still hold something of this hope that might even feel foolish in this moment of someday? Maybe somebody's going to get there. (05:18): And it reminds me a little bit of, I probably said this before in here too, there's a podcast between a conversation between Tahi cos and Ezra Klein, and in some ways they end up talking about this question of hope, although I don't think they use the word necessarily, but one of the questions that Ezra Klein it keeps asking is like, why do you keep putting everything in this long historical arc? Every single thing that we're talking about in this moment is sort of this question to Tanya. She comes like, why do you keep putting it in this long arc of history? Because that feels too heavy. It's too much, right? That's too dark. And in part I think at least the way I interpret coats as an answer is because that's where you access this kind of hope that over the long arc of history, something will shift and bend towards something that feels like justice. And that's sort of bringing Martin Luther King into this conversation about the long arc of justice. But I think Coates's answer is something of that's where we gather the capacity and the strength from the past in order to actually stay in the present with the kind of insistence for something good to come out of all of this. So I don't know, there's something in that sort of narrative and that history that I want to borrow from to say, unfortunately, this is not a new conversation in this country. (07:13): It feels that way because it's new in my lifetime. It's new in our lifetime, it's new in our generation, but it's not actually new to the country. And when you look over time, there has always forever been this strain of Christian nationalism and white supremacy, and yet we are still here and we are still here with moments like Bad Bunny in the Super Bowl still happening. And so I think, at least for me, in part, the answer to your question is I have to borrow from that space in order to have the capacity to stay in this one. And it occurs to me that I was born in the seventies post civil rights legislation by the time I was in high school applying to college, affirmative action was the law of the land (08:21): I have lived in. We have lived in the harvest of someone else's labor. We have lived in a time when rights were continually being added to the conversation in our lifetime, women could vote in our lifetime. Women can own property, they can have credit cards, they can hold all of these things. And this is the first time in my lifetime I have lived through a retraction of rights, a retraction of oxygen, a retraction of space, and it feels excruciating, but it's not the first time this country has been through that kind of rhythm and our ancestors survived and we will survive, right? At least for me, that's maybe not an answer to the question of how do you relate to your family? But it's the only way I have to go with it is to just say, somehow we will actually survive this. I don't know how, and I dunno what will be left when we start the process of rebuilding, but I have to borrow from that history to feel like I can breathe on a Thursday morning. Jenny (10:08): Yeah. I think that's part of what I am thinking of, and it's almost this existential, what is relationship if we can't see reality, if we can't acknowledge reality, if you're asking me to swallow my own reality and this collective reality, and I think it feels connected even to what you were sharing, Rebecca is like, there's something I feel particular in this moment where as far as I know, I don't have personal ancestry of resistance. I have ancestry of complicity. And so what does it look like to draw from the past with white ancestors who chose to assimilate to adopt whiteness rather than work against it and resist how we got here? Because it is like I don't want to appropriate the civil rights movement and I don't want to appropriate these resistances that I have so much respect for, and they weren't my collective or my ancestral resistance. And so I feel that even in this moment where there's this tension with my white community, my white family, the white spaces, I know it feels like there's so much tension there. I think Rebecca (11:45): Mean, the thing that I would say is that when I say the word ancestor as a black American person, I don't actually mean bloodline. And even if I did, I likely couldn't prove it because the records are either lost or weren't created. You can only go so far back before lineage because of the slave trade is not reported as people is reported as property. And so you can't track it past, once you run into slave owner, you can no longer track bloodline. I think what's true in collective cultures is this very broad collective tissue that means blood or not. (12:53): You are family that means blood or not. There is a recognition of some connective tissue between us because of our shared collective experience. And so I have no freaking idea if I'm related to Rosa Parks, I'm probably not right. But when I say that I'm borrowing from the strength of my ancestry, I'm still borrowing from her narrative and from what her contribution to our collective narrative. And so I think one of the things that I have noticed in my sort of limited lifespan is that when I say the word ancestry to someone who is white, they hear something very different than what I hear when I say that word. And so I don't feel the restriction of only being able to borrow from the story of people in my bloodline. I feel permission to borrow from the larger, wider collective that is the black American experience, that is the African Diasphoric experience. (14:08): And I would say I even feel permission to borrow things from other cultures. And I say this to Daniel all the time, I'm going to steal that from you, right? I'm going to borrow that, right? And I will give credit where credit is due. I will say, I'm borrowing something from the Latinx experience. If you watch the black interpretation of Bad Bunny, literally there's stuff on social media that's like, why do you care? We're not Latinx. And then it cuts to this clip of this, I don't know what it's, it looks like Bad Bunny in a tiny desk concert, but behind him is this black African drummer who's going off. And then the answer is, because I feel this music in my soul. So you can hear that we are intentionally borrowing something that feels familiar to us because we feel permission to borrow it. (15:13): And then there's a lot of conversations in the black community about Bad Bunny that's like, I don't need to understand Spanish to feel what cultural pride looks like, and I'm down for that all day long. But you can feel that sense of, I feel permission to borrow something that feels familiar. I won't name it as borrowing, so I won't appropriate it, but I do feel that permission. And so that's probably what I would say to you, not as a pass for what might be true in your actual blood lineage, but I think that there's a strong strain of resistance for people of European descent around race and racism in this country. It's buried and it's untold for probably really intentional reasons, but it's there. And what does it mean to actually be given permission to give yourself permission to borrow from that and to name it as, I'm actually going to pull something from someone else and I'm going to borrow their collective strength. I'm going to add it to mine so that we could go in a different direction. Well, first I guess I would have to believe that there was or is an actual political dialogue taking place that I could potentially be a part of. And honestly, I'm not sure that I believe that.

In this episode, we sit down with author Amanda McCracken to explore the "purity to limerence pipeline"—where religious expectations of "the one" collide with the addictive rush of romantic obsession. We discuss how waiting for a soulmate can inadvertently prime us for a life of chronic longing rather than real connection. Join us as we deconstruct the spiritual and feminist implications of choosing fantasy over the grounded, messy reality of being known.

Anna Rollins is the author of Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl. Anna's debut memoir examines the rhyming scripts of diet culture and evangelical purity culture, both of which direct women to fear their own bodies and appetites.Anna is an award-winning instructor who taught English in higher education for nearly 15 years, and her writing has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, Slate, Electric Literature, Salon, Joyland, and more. In today's episode, Anna shares how societal messages around beauty and body image contributed to her struggles with disordered eating. We also discuss Anna's research on purity and diet culture's impacts on women's relationships with their bodies and food, as well as how the concept of self-control might be helpfully framed as we enter the season of Lent.My hope is that as we name and shed unhelpful theologies related to food and our bodies, we might find more freedom, healing, and wholeness.Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

This month we are talking about purity culture and its impact on individuals who grew up male in this system. We are thrilled to have Dr. Bradley Onishi on the podcast today as our professional who has done research on purity culture and client-facing work in this area as well as being a purity culture poster boy himself. Join Brad and Laura as they discuss the unique impacts of purity culture on men, shame, the expectations of being a “Godly man” and what happens when you don't measure up to that, as well as the importance of men learning how to step out of of the prescribed roles and mentality that both purity culture and patriarchy prop up. Resources Mentioned: Fair Play (book and game) by Eve Rodsky Mild at Heart podcast series (can be found on the website below and using “Mild” in the search bar)Guest: Brad OnishiWebsite: https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.comInstagram/TT: @straightwhitejcThis podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups. Follow Andrew on Instagram and TikTok @deconstruct_everything To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call hereFollow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com To work with Laura as a coach, therapist, consultant, or to inquire about other services, you can do so hereHosts: Laura Anderson and Andrew KerbsMusic by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji

In recent weeks, headlines linked James Dobson's name to Jeffrey Epstein. Then came the claim that Dobson and Epstein are “on the same team.”That's a serious accusation.In this episode of Calibrate Conversations, we carefully examine:• What actually happened in the Epstein files• Whether James Dobson was fairly represented• Sheila Wray Gregoire's response• The role of egalitarian theology in this controversy• Claims about purity culture and abuse• Whether guilt-by-association reasoning is creeping into Christian discourseThis conversation isn't about personalities. It's about sound theology, intellectual honesty, and how Christians should handle public accusations.We need clarity. We need discernment. And we need to test all things.Timestamps:0:00 – Why This Matters2:15 – The Epstein Files & James Dobson6:30 – What Actually Happened9:45 – The Media Framing12:20 – Sheila Wray Gregoire's Claim16:10 – Purity Culture & Abuse Accusations21:30 – The Survey Question Concerns26:40 – Misusing Research & Data30:00 – The Deeper Theological Issue33:45 – Why This Is Bigger Than Dobson

In this episode, we review "Dating With a Purpose," which is an IFB purity culture dating manual targeted at teens and young adults in the IFB and at Hyles-Anderson college. It was written by Jack Schaap, who later went to prison for sexually abusing a child who was a student at the high school where he was chaplain.We also discuss Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family's appearance in the Epstein files, and why abusers love purity culture so much.Support the show by going to Patreon.Com/LeavingEdenPodcast!Join our discord server!https://discord.gg/aneFkUJuJoin our subreddit!Reddit.com/r/EdenExodusBluesky:@leavingedenpodcast.bsky.social@hellyeahsadie.bsky.social@gavihacohen.bsky.socialTikTok:@LeavingEdenPodcast@SadieCarpenter1Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/leavingedenpodcast/https://www.instagram.com/sadiecarpentermusic/https://www.instagram.com/gavrielhacohen/Subscribe to Leaving Eden Podcast on YouTube!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ4q94gAnsoW2jME4SvVrrQJoin our Patreon for extended, uncensored, and ad-free versions of most of our episodes, as well as other patron perks and bonus content!https://www.patreon.com/LeavingEdenPodcastJoin our Facebook group to join in the discussion with other fans!https://www.facebook.com/groups/edenexodusJoin our subreddit! Reddit.com/r/EdenExodusBluesky:@leavingedenpodcast.bsky.social@hellyeahsadie.bsky.social@gavihacohen.bsky.socialInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/leavingedenpodcast/https://www.instagram.com/sadiecarpentermusic/https://www.instagram.com/gavrielhacohen/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's Friday, February 6th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus 21 of 22 churches destroyed in Christian town in Myanmar since coup On January 30, the Burma Research Institute released a scathing report detailing destructive attacks, murders, and harassment of Christians and churches since the military coup in 2021 that forcefully took control of Myanmar, reports International Christian Concern. Some of the key findings include: 21 out of 22 churches in Thantlang Town, a majority-Christian town, have been destroyed and the town's population displaced since 2021. More than 340 churches and Christian buildings have been destroyed. 149 Christians murdered and 218 imprisoned from 2022 to 2025. One unnamed church leader, who is still living inside Myanmar, testified powerfully that the faithful are now scattered across jungles, remote areas, and informal shelters, struggling to preserve their faith and communal life under constant threat and insecurity. Pastor in India forced to eat cow dung After accusing a pastor in Odisha, India of forcefully converting Hindus to Christianity, a group of Hindu nationalists forced him to eat cow dung and drink sewer water, reports International Christian Concern. The incident occurred on January 4th, but only became widely known in recent days, prompting nationwide outrage and criticism. A mob of 40 people, reportedly affiliated with the Bajrang Dal — the militant wing of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — stormed a home during a prayer meeting in Parjang village, and accused the pastor of conducting “forced religious conversions.” Pastor Bipin Bihari Naik was dragged from the house and beaten with sticks. His face was smeared with red vermilion. Sandals were hung around his neck. He was then paraded through the village for nearly two hours. Pastor Naik was eventually taken to a local Hindu temple, where his hands were tied to a metal rod, and he was forced to consume cow dung and drink water from a sewer. They also tried to force the pastor to chant Hindu slogans, but he refused to do so. In a statement on X, Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of Kerala, wrote, “Forcing a human being to eat cow dung is a deeply inhuman act, emboldened by the silence and complicity of BJP-led governments.” Landslide in Congo kills 200 miners A landslide last week collapsed several tunnels at a major coltan mine in eastern Congo, leaving at least 200 people dead in the rebel-controlled site, reports the Associated Press. The collapse occurred  Wednesday at the Rubaya mines, controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, after heavy rains caused several hand-dug tunnels in the unregulated mine to cave. The M23 rebels and the Congolese government traded accusations over responsibility as reports from the remote region began to emerge. The collapse is one of the deadliest disasters in years in an area already facing a humanitarian crisis and ongoing conflict. Trump announced prayer gathering to rededicate America to God Appearing at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Donald Trump explained that the Department of Education will protect the right of public school students to pray. TRUMP: “Today, I'm also pleased to announce that the Department of Education is officially issuing its new guidance to protect the right to prayer in our public schools. That's a big deal.” (applause) President Trump also announced that Americans are invited to attend a special prayer event on the 250th birthday of America in our nation's capital. TRUMP: “In the last 12 months, young Americans attended church at nearly twice the rate as they did four years ago to support this exciting renewal. This morning, I'm pleased to announce that on May 17, we're inviting Americans from all across the country to come together on our National Mall to pray. We're going to rededicate America as one nation under God.” (applause) Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance.” NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie addresses kidnappers of her mother In a tearful video posted Wednesday on Instagram, “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie — flanked by her sister, Annie Guthrie, and her brother, Camron Guthrie, pleaded for more information from the possible kidnapper of her 84-year-old mother, saying her family is “ready to talk,” reports NBC News. GUTHRIE: “Our mom is our heart and our home. She is 84 years old. Her health, her heart is fragile. She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine. She needs it to survive. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her. We want to hear from you. And we are ready to listen.” In the Instagram video, Savannah thanked the public for “the prayers for our beloved mom,” Nancy Guthrie, who was last seen Saturday night in her home outside Tucson, Arizona. She was reported missing after she did not show up for church.  Nancy had no cognitive issues, and her disappearance was not linked to dementia. Blood was found on the front porch of Guthrie's house. DNA analysis has confirmed the blood belongs to Nancy Guthrie. A doorbell camera to her home was disconnected and removed at 1:47 local time and at 2:28, Guthrie's pacemaker was disconnected from her phone, an app shows. Fox10 TV reports that investigators are taking seriously a ransom note sent to a handful of media outlets connected to her disappearance. Heith Janke, the FBI chief in Phoenix, announced that they have arrested Derrick Callella in Hawthorne, California. Shocking lessons taught on college campuses today And finally, according to Students for Life's January newsletter, college students are being taught shocking lessons – often paid for by our tax dollars. * Harvard University has a class called, "Come hammered. Get Nailed: Safe Sex Under the Influence.” * Ohio State University features a class entitled, "Fighting Abortion Stigma with Planned Parenthood." * And Grand Valley State University has one called “Breaking Up with Purity Culture.” If that's not enough, they'll be encouraged to write Valentine's Day “thank you” cards to abortionists! The truth is many colleges have turned into little more than recruitment centers for Planned Parenthood's bloody business by first encouraging students to experiment sexually and then funneling vulnerable young women to abortionists to “take care of” or murder the natural consequences of sex – precious little babies. Campus missionaries with Students for Life are confronting the Culture of Death with three outreaches. First, setting up Cemetery of Innocents displays that visually expose the gruesome reality of abortion featuring 1,102 bright pink crosses commemorating the preborn babies aborted by Planned Parenthood every day. Second, hosting table events that spark one-on-one conversations with pro-abortion college students. And third, screening the pro-life movie Unplanned which tells the incredible conversion story of Abby Johnson, who was a Planned Parenthood director-turned-staunch-pro-life-activist, after she witnessed a preborn child squirming for its life away from an abortionist's tools during an abortion. Learn more about the great work of Students for Life at StudentsForLife.org. Proverbs 31:8 says, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Friday, February 6th, in the year of our Lord 2026. Follow us on X or subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

In this episode of Sunday School Dropouts, licensed clinical mental health counselor Michelle Moseley joins Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs to explore the intersection of purity culture and neurodivergence. Michelle shares why rigid religious systems can initially feel safe for neurodivergent people while ultimately causing deep harm through shame, masking, and burnout. The conversation offers insight into why healing often looks less like fixing and more like rest, autonomy, and gently reconnecting with pleasure and self-trust.Share your purity culture stories with us by leaving a voicemail or sending your story to us!Find Michelle at MichelleFMoseley.com Educational Workshops and Seminars:  https://michellefmoseley.com/workshops-seminars/This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups. Follow Andrew on Instagram @andrew_kerbsFollow Andrew's post-SDA account @lifeafteradventismFollow Andrew's account on neurodivergence and high control religion @divergent.faith Join Andrew's Substack (Kerb Your Enthusiasm) www.andrewkerbs.substack.com To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call hereFollow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com Join Laura's Substack (Therapy in the Headlines) www.drlauraeanderson.substack.com To work with Laura as a coach, therapist, consultant, or to inquire about other services, you can do so hereHosts: Laura Anderson and Andrew KerbsMusic by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji 

In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, Brad is joined by Sarah Moslener, author of After Purity: Race, Sex, and Religion in White Christian America and creator of the Pure White podcast. Together, they explore purity culture not as a narrow fixation on teenage abstinence, but as a powerful religious and political system that has long shaped ideas of belonging in the United States. Moslener traces purity culture back to 19th-century slavery, Victorian gender norms, and Protestant theology, showing how it functions to define “good bodies” and “bad bodies,” determine moral worth, and police the boundaries of citizenship. White womanhood, in particular, emerges as a national symbol of innocence and virtue that has been central to sustaining racial hierarchy and social control. The conversation turns to how these myths are playing out in the present, from the aesthetics and behavior of women aligned with Trump-era politics to the legal and media treatment of women involved in January 6. Brad and Moslener examine how white innocence is protected when it reinforces authority and withdrawn when it challenges power, contrasting the treatment of compliant figures with white women who resist authoritarianism and women of color who face state violence. From ICE raids to the killing of Reneé Nicole Goode, the episode highlights how authoritarian systems rely on fear, spectacle, and constantly shifting lines between “good” and “bad” to enforce obedience. The discussion ultimately underscores the high cost—and the necessity—of defecting from whiteness in moments of moral and political crisis. Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 1000+ episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's book: https://bookshop.org/a/95982/9781506482163 Subscribe to Teología Sin Vergüenza Subscribe to American Exceptionalism Donate to SWAJ: https://axismundi.supercast.com/donations/new Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Laura and Andrew sit down with Trisha Wilkerson to explore the powerful intersections between purity culture, diet culture, and body shame. Trisha shares her journey from 25 years in evangelical ministry at Mars Hill Church to becoming a trauma-informed nutrition coach helping people heal their relationship with food and their bodies.Share your purity culture stories with us by leaving a voicemail or sending your story to us!Guest Info: Website: Personal Website: www.trishawilkerson.com. Business: www.theaftermathagency.comSocial Media: IG: @trisharwilkersonBook: Everyday Worship: Our Work, Heart and JesusThis podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups. Follow Andrew on Instagram and TikTok @deconstruct_everything To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call hereFollow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com To work with Laura as a coach, therapist, consultant, or to inquire about other services, you can do so hereHosts: Laura Anderson and Andrew KerbsMusic by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji 

Gaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conservatives for Christian adolescents to publicly commit to practicing abstinence until marriage. Throughout this decade and the next, millions of evangelical teenagers performed their commitment to sexual purity by signing pledges and wearing purity rings. Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture (NYU Press, 2025) by Dr. Lauren D. Sawyer examines the shaping of purity culture in the United States, looking specifically at the experiences of white youth. It shows that white girls and white queer youth were vulnerable to the purity movement, but that they were also complicit in its white supremacist oppressive structure. It makes the case that purity culture follows in the footsteps of other purity movements in the United States, and is very much tied to centuries of anti-Black racism and xenophobia in US social history, seeing white youth as in need of protection, usually from a racialized, sexualized other.While other works have focused on the ways in which purity culture has victimized young people, Dr. Sawyer argues that their perceived status as victims lets them too easily off the hook. White youth have been afforded the privilege of participating in purity culture's harmful behaviors without being called to account. Closely reading adolescents' stories of growing up in purity culture, she uncovers youth as agents, participants, and beneficiaries of its white supremacist framing, even as they were still vulnerable to its harmful teachings. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Gaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conservatives for Christian adolescents to publicly commit to practicing abstinence until marriage. Throughout this decade and the next, millions of evangelical teenagers performed their commitment to sexual purity by signing pledges and wearing purity rings. Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture (NYU Press, 2025) by Dr. Lauren D. Sawyer examines the shaping of purity culture in the United States, looking specifically at the experiences of white youth. It shows that white girls and white queer youth were vulnerable to the purity movement, but that they were also complicit in its white supremacist oppressive structure. It makes the case that purity culture follows in the footsteps of other purity movements in the United States, and is very much tied to centuries of anti-Black racism and xenophobia in US social history, seeing white youth as in need of protection, usually from a racialized, sexualized other.While other works have focused on the ways in which purity culture has victimized young people, Dr. Sawyer argues that their perceived status as victims lets them too easily off the hook. White youth have been afforded the privilege of participating in purity culture's harmful behaviors without being called to account. Closely reading adolescents' stories of growing up in purity culture, she uncovers youth as agents, participants, and beneficiaries of its white supremacist framing, even as they were still vulnerable to its harmful teachings. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/21/ice-arrests-five-year-old-boy-minnesotaUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a five-year-old Minnesota boy on Tuesday as he returned home from school and transported him and his father to a Texas detention center, according to school officials.Liam Ramos, a preschooler, and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway, the superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, said at a press conference on Wednesday. Liam, who had recently turned five, is one of four children in the school district who have been detained by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration's enforcement surge in the region over the last two weeks, the district said. portrait of child wearing black poloLiam Ramos. Photograph: Courtesy of Columbia Heights Public SchoolsLiam and his father had just arrived home when they were detained, according to Zena Stenvik, the superintendent, who said she drove to the home when she learned of the detentions.When she arrived, Stenvik said the father's car was still running and the father and son had already been apprehended. An agent had taken Liam out of the car, led the boy to his front door and directed him to knock on the door asking to be let in, “in order to see if anyone else was home – essentially using a five-year-old as bait”, the superintendent said in a statement. Danielle (00:02):Well, Hey, Jenny, how you doing? I'm hanging in there. How you doing? Same hanging in there a part. I think of it as trying to get in or out of a space and hanging by my fingernails on an edge. That's how I think of it sometimes.(00:27):One time I told a friend, Hey man, I can do a pull up off a door jam. And they were like, really? And I was just like, yeah. And then they tried to do it repeatedly. Their hands were so sore. I was like, I didn't really mean it. I was just joking, but maybe it's like that doing a pull up off a door jam or something. Yeah,Jenny (00:46):I can't even do a normal pull up. I'm working on it. I'm working on my strength.Yeah. I'm trying.Danielle (00:53):Good for you. That's our power.Jenny (00:55):That's right.I am currently in Florida, and so I'm a little worried about this ice storm that's coming through. I think I'm a little bit south of it, so we should hopefully be in the clear, but it's still, you can feel Winter's, the Bruin here.I know. It's a little scary. We're going to just thankfully be parked somewhere where we don't have to drive for at least a few days just in case.Danielle (01:33):Okay, cool. Cool. Will you stay in Florida or what's your trajectory right now?Jenny (01:38):Yeah, we're going to be here probably a couple months, and then we'll probably head over to New Orleans. There's a New Orleans book festival. It's a giant book event, so we're excited for that. And then we'll start probably heading back up to the northeast when it starts to warm up again in late spring, early summer.Yeah. Yeah. So my manuscript is complete and I have sent it to my ideal publisher and they like it and they're going to pitch it by the end of February. So I'm just crossing all my fingers and toes that they all feel like it's a really good fit, and hopefully in about a month from now I'll have a definitive answer, but I have a really good feeling about it. I really value this publisher and yeah, it feels really in alignment with what I'm trying to do with my book.I am trying to help folks understand that their individual body, specifically white cis women in the United States that has been positioned and conditioned within Christian nationalism is just that it is conditioned and positioned by Christian nationalism. And the more that we become aware of that and conscious of that, the more mobility and freedom we can find in our bodies and hopefully in our country and in our world, so that we can move and breathe and have our being in more free sovereign ways.Danielle (03:26):That feels like a little bit of a dream right now, but hey, I'm a dreamer. I'm all over it. Yeah, I'm all over it. I'm all over it. Well, every time we hop on here, I'm always like, oh, what should we talk about? And there's always something really fucked up in the world to dive into, right? Yes.Jenny (03:44):Yeah. Yeah. I think what feels so loud is just in the last 24, 48 hours, I don't know exactly the date five-year-old boy was taken with his dad from Minnesota just immediately basically swept away to another state, and so the family and their lawyer, or even just trying to track down where they are, and I am thinking of four and five-year-olds I know in my life and just how young and how tender and how dependent a child is at that age, and I find myself feeling a lot of rage and a lot of grief and a lot of helplessness, a sense of I want to do something and how do we do something? How about,Danielle (04:40):Let me just read this to us or to us, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ice detained a five-year-old Minnesota boy. On Tuesdays, he returned home from school and transported him and later his father to a Texas detention center. According to school officials, Liam Ramos, a preschooler and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway, the superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, said at a press conference on Wednesday, Liam who had recently turned five is one of four children in the school district who have been detained by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration's enforcement surge in the region over the last two weeks. The district said Liam and his father had just arrived home when they were detained. According to Zena Sten, the superintendent who said she drove to the home when she learned of the detentions. Wow.(05:31):When she arrived, SVI said the father's car was still running and the father and son had already been apprehended. An agent had taken Liam out of the car, led the boy to his front door and directed him to knock on the door, asking to be let in order to see if anyone else was home, essentially using a five-year-old as bait. The superintendent said in a statement, Stenbeck said Another adult living in the home was outside during the encounter and had pleaded to take care of Liam so the boy could avoid detention but was denied. Liam's older brother, a middle schooler came home 20 minutes later to find his father and brother missing. Stenbeck said two school principals from the district also arrived at the home to offer support. Mark Osh, an attorney representing the family, said the family had an active asylum case and shared paperwork showing the father and son had arrived at the US at a port of entry, meaning an official crossing point.(06:22):The family did everything they were supposed to in accordance with how the rules have been set out. He said they did not come here illegally. They're not criminals. He said there was no order of deportation against them, and he believes the father and son have remained together. In detention, school officials released two photos of the encounter, one showing Liam in a blue knit hat outside his front door with a masked agent at his side and another showing Liam standing by a car with a man holding onto his backpack. Why did tain a five-year-old, you could not tell me this child is going to be classified as violent criminal. Stevi said. Tricia McLaughlin, director Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary, said in a statement on Wednesday night that ICE was conducting a targeted operation to arrest Liam's father, who she called an illegal alien. Ice did not target a child, she said McLaughlin also alleged the father fled on foot, abandoning his child, saying, for the child's safety, one of our ice officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended.(07:21):His father. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person. The parent designates. She added the school district provided a statement from Liam's teacher who expressed shock over the boy's attention. Liam is a bright young student. He's so kind and loving, and his classmates miss him. He comes into class every day and just brightens the room. All I want for him is to be back here and safe. The detention of a young child will have ripple effects at Prakash. Once his classmates learned, the government took him away. I'm not qualified to talk about how much damage that is going to cause. It's not just the family. It's the entire community and all those kids who are now going to be facing secondary trauma. Also, on Tuesday, a 17-year-old Columbia Heights student was taken armed by armed and masked agents without parents present.(08:12):Stevi said that student was removed from their car. She said in another case, on the 14th of January, ICE agents pushed their way into an apartment and detained a 17-year-old high school girl. And her mother, Stevi said in a fourth case on January 6th, a 10-year-old fourth grade student was allegedly taken by ice on her way to elementary school with her mother. The superintendent said the 10-year-old called her father during the arrest and said the ICE agents would bring her to school. But when the father arrived at the school, he discovered his daughter and wife had been taken. By the end of that school day, the mother and daughter were in detention center in Texas.(08:48):Vic reported that as school officials are preparing for a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, an ice vehicle drove to the property of the district's school and we're told by administrators to leave ice agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming onto our parking lots and taking our kids stem said the DHS did not respond to inquiries about other arrests and the Port of ICE's arrival on campus. In an interview after the press conference, the superintendent said The arrests and looming presence of vice had taken an enormous toll on students, parents, and school staff. Our children are traumatized. The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken. Stenbeck said, I can speak on behalf of all school staff when I say our hearts are shattered, and our fourth student was taken yesterday. I just thought someone has to hear the story they're taking children. School officials said, some families are choosing to stay home out of fear of ice. Stevi said, school leaders we're working to aid families affected by ice. Our role is to educate children during the school day, but now we're trying to help people navigate this legal system. She added our main priority is to keep children safe. They're children. They're not violent criminals. They're little kids.(10:01):Hey, Rebecca. I was just reading the story of little Liam who was used as bait to get his father and other family members arrested, and I hadn't read the story before, but he had apparently they walked this boy up to the door and asked him to knock on the door so they could see if anybody else was home. So yeah, thoughts Jenny, Rebecca,I think the word ringing in my head is asylum and that this young boy and his family, so many others have already tried to seek out a safer place only to be met with such violence and harmI think I feel this kind of disbelief that we live in a country where this is what happens in broad daylight and that the conversation we're having as a country is all these ways to justify that any of this is legitimate or humane. And then I feel like I shouldn't be surprised, and I wonder if this is what my ancestors felt like in the 1950s or the 1920s or the 1860s. This kind of way that this is woven into the fabric of American life in a way that it never actually disappears. It just keeps reinventing it and reimagining itself and that every generation falls for that every time. And I don't know how to metabolize that. I can access it academically. I know enough history to know that. And if I try to think about what that felt like and why are we here again, why are we repeating this again? Why are we still doing this?Danielle (14:04):Yeah, I guess I used to think, and I think I've said this many times, I just keep repeating it, that some of this would disrupt the MAGA base. And we've even talked a bit together about Marjorie Taylor Green, but I saw a piece on the Atlantic, let me see if I can find the guy's name done by Yer Rosenberg, and it said, the biggest myth about Trump's base and why many believe it, the magma faithful, the MAGA faithful aren't deserting their leader. And it said in fact that it's like over 80% of the same Republican does support this immigration enforcement. They support what the action that happened in Venezuela, they support the hostile takeover, potential hostile takeover of Greenland.(15:07):And that some of the pushback we're hearing, but maybe you've heard it by Tucker Carlson or Marjorie Taylor Green is really politically motivated. So these folks can position themselves as successors to Trump because Trump has such a, they're saying Trump has a firm grip on the Republican party. And I think I want to push back and be like, well, we're all individuals making choices at the same time. And if you have 85% of an entire voting block saying, I'm okay with this, then why would it stop? Like you said, Rebecca, there's no reason this is going to stop. We can't wait. These people are not changing their minds now. They can see the violence. If you grew up in California and someone was in Alabama and there was a lynching in Alabama or vice versa, or the Chinese were attacked in California, et cetera, you might not know about it. That's not what's happening right now. There's freedom of information. There's social media. We can see the images and with the images, people are still saying, yeah, I'm okay with that. I think that's what strikes me.Rebecca (16:27):And again, I think if you look back historically, it's like we've been okay with this as a country for a very long time, since at the inception of the country, there is a category of people that are three fifths a human, and therefore not entitled to the rights listed under the constitution. We've been okay with this since there was such a thing as the United States of America. And that means that Donald Trump is not the problem. He is the symptom of a problem. He's the current forward face of a problem that has been with us since the very beginning, and that the church in America has sanctioned as biblically acceptable from the very beginning.Which is crazy, right? But the notion that somehow God or any version of him, it is on the side of this, it is absurd. It just is. Yeah. But again, that's the argument the church has put forth the inception since the colonies, since before there was a United States. The church has put forward the notion that God is on the side of this. And it was a lie then and it is a lie now, but it's one that this country is used to swallowing.Jenny (19:36):I am thinking about how almost a year ago now, Sean and I were doing sort of a civil rights circuit. We did Memphis and Birmingham and Montgomery and I, Selma, and then we just so happened as we kind of went through that circuit, we just so happened to be in the major cities that ice rates were happening in Nashville, in Houston, in San Antonio, and we were on the same street the day that children were being ziptied and taken from their court hearings in San Antonio. And we went from there to go visit family who grew me up in a Christian tradition to follow a man who proclaimed good news for the immigrant and for the poor. And I was crying talking about what we had witnessed, what we had physically experienced, not what we had just seen on social media, on news, what we had tangibly seen, the people we talked to and one of these family members.(21:07):The next thing they said was, I think I just saw a raindrop and they were so dissociated and disconnected from themselves, from me, from our relational field, from what was going on that I was just like, if we cannot have this conversation, what hope is there? Where do we put our hope in? How, again, I think a big part of why I am so passionate about this is because of the person that I grew up learning Jesus was and trying to emulate that. And then to see this fracture in those that call themselves Christians and Jesus followers unwilling to even engage what's going on right now. It is so distressing. And I honestly, yeah, like you're saying, I don't think it's new though. I think that somehow this marriage of Christianity and militarization and conquest has been a powerful force, I think really since Constantine and there's, I dunno what it will take to reckon with that.Danielle (22:37):I mean, clearly I think Jenny, you point, information is not enough for people to change even what we could call facts. We can't agree on those facts. So if you take the church scene, I watched it. I actually watched it live last weekend. I was interested in it and I saw him say, we don't know where we're going. His car, his jeep actually got caught in a lot of snow and they were pushing it out. They got in, they were very clear like, Hey, we're just here observing this protest. We're here watching. And they watched and they went, and he has it on Instagram and TikTok, I think Don goes up to the pastor that's there, not the pastor that's associated with ice. And the pastor puts his hand on Don and starts to push him and Don says, do not touch me. Don't touch me.(23:34):Don't push me. I'm not invading your space. But I think that's the visceral response. It's like, let me push away this reality. In my mind, that's the actual thing happening. It is not that Don is seen as a person in that moment. I don't believe that. I don't believe he saw him as a person. I think it was more as I thought about it and I got the chills thinking about it. It's like, let me just push away whatever reality you're walking in with, I want nothing to do with it. And I mean, what really struck me about that too was it was black clergymen in there protesting for Renee. Good. I'm like, oh, this is what it is. It's black independent media showing up and doing this reporting. Yeah, it was very interesting. Rebecca, did you watch any of that?Rebecca 24:34):I did. And I saw a clip of a prisoner walking out of the building saying, I just came here to worship God, and that got disrupted and I'm upset about It was the gist. I mean, that's my paraphrase. But again, I don't know what has to happen to a person, to a people theologically, psychologically, emotionally, physiologically for you to not see, not believe, not metabolize, not feel what you're actually witnessing. And the answer to that is rather scary to me. What you have to believe is true about the God that you claim to serve what you have to believe is true about the people that he created in order to turn a blind eye to what you're not only witnessing but actually participating in to the extent that omission or silence or inaction is actually participation. It is a little scary to me what that means about the American church in this moment. I don't know what to say about that.Jenny (27:52):I was going to say last Sunday we had the opportunity to go to Ebenezer Baptist, which was the church that MLK was a pastor of. Did we talk about that on here? Not really,(28:07):Yeah. And Warnock gave the sermon for the day and it ended with Renee good's face up on the screen where the worship music usually shows and him talking about what it means to account the cost in this moment and to stay the course in this battle that we're in. That's very real and very serious. And to be in that place in MLK's old church on the week that Renee Goode was murdered, it just was both kind of just a reality check, but also encouraging to just be as scary and loud and big and gaslighting as all of this is. We've been to 44 states in the last two years, and there are amazing people in every single one of them doing incredible things and looking at the community in Minneapolis with their whistles, with their defiance, with their sledding competitions, just to see the various ways in which defiance and resistance is taking place. I feel like that has been something that has been giving me a thread of hope in the midst of everything.Danielle (29:51):Yeah, I think I was thinking that yesterday. There's so much piled up trauma and so many people that are disrupted by it, as they should be, and so much, I was talking to someone the other day and they're like, I'm anxious. I'm like, I'm anxious too. How could you not be anxious even if you're kind of oblivious? I feel like the waves just travel. But I mean, not to be trite, but I think I listen to Jamar Tse a lot and he was talking about one way to combat despair is building your community has to hold hope. You can't do it by yourself. So taking action or reflection or being with other people or talking it out or showing emotion. I think those are real things. And I dunno, I guess coming back to therapy, just kind of that ingrained sense of you can't take an action to get out of your situation or change things, but I don't know where I learned that or picked that up, but I think that taking an action when you feel like shit actually does help. It's going on a walk or going for a run, and I don't know the chemistry to this, maybe you know it more than me, but something starts busting loose in the chemistry, and even if it doesn't last forever, it changes for a minute.Don't know. Do you know what changes or what the chemistry is for that?Jenny (31:30):Yeah. Well, I think that there are few things more distressing for our nervous system than immobility. So at least when we are protesting or we're running or we're lifting weights or we're doing something, it's letting our body feel that sympathetic fight flight energy that's like, well, at least I can do something and I might not be able to escape this situation. I might not be able to change it, but I can feel a little bit more movement in my own body to figure out how I can maneuver in and through it.(32:14):And so even that, as we do that, when we do move or exercise, we're releasing a lot of adrenaline and cortisol. We're working that through our system, and we're also producing a lot of natural opiates and feel good chemicals. So there is something very real and physiological to lately I've been just needing to go do the stairs machine at the gym, and I've just been like, I need to walk up a mountain and feel my body be able to do that. And yeah, it doesn't last forever, but maybe for a couple hours afterwards I'm like, okay, I feel good enough to stay in this and not check out. And I had a friend send me something today that was talking about how a lot of people think they're overwhelmed and we are going through something that's overwhelming. And a lot of that overwhelm is actually that we're taking in so much and we're not doing anything with it.(33:21):And so whether or not what you do changes or fixes it, you actually need some way to let your body process the adrenaline, the stress, the cortisol, and all of those things. And that, I think helps our body. If we look at cultures across the globe when they've been preparing for war, look at the haka and these dances that are like, they're not in it. They're not fighting the war, but they're doing something to let their bodies feel in connection with other bodies to feel their strength and to get prepared for whatever they need to be prepared for.Danielle (33:59):Right. Yeah. That's so cool. Every time I watch that dance, I'm like, oh, I wish I had that. But I feel like the Seahawks kind of provide that, just that yelling or screaming or whatever.Jenny (34:18):Totally. Or going on a roller coaster. There's not a lot of places we have permission to just scream. I do in the car a lot while I'm driving. I'll just be like, and it really helped a lot.Danielle (34:34):It's so interesting how we can go from that intense story though, hit the church stuff and then the conversation can come back to here. But I do think that's a reflection of how we kind of have to approach the moment too. There's no way to metabolize all the stuff in the article. It's deeply overwhelming. One aspect probably couldn't be metabolized in a day. I dunno. Does that make sense?Yeah. How are you looking at the next week then, Jenny, as you think of that, even that kind of structure we went through, how do you imagine even the next week? It's hard to imagine the next week. I feel like we never know what's going to happen.Jenny (35:15):I know I feel very grateful that we're in a place where we have really good friends and community and support. So this week looks like dinners with our friends, engaging what's going on. We're very close to this really local bookstore that gets letters from folks in prison about what kind of book they want. And then you go find the book and you pack it and you mail it to them. What(35:52):So we're going to volunteer in there and send some books to folks in prison and just do things. And it's not changing everything, but I believe that if everybody focused on doing the right thing that was right in front of them, we would have a much different world and a less associated apathetic world. I plan on going to the gym a lot and working out, getting buff, working out my running may or may not be disrupting some more standup open mic comedy nights. We'll see. PostSpeaker 1 (36:31):What about you? What's your week look like?Danielle (36:39):I tend to set, I tell myself I love the weekends because Saturdays and Sundays are my days full days off. So I tend to tell myself, oh, I can't wait for that. But then in the week I tell myself, these might seem silly, but I say, oh man, there's so much hard stuff. But then I tell myself, I don't want to rush a day because I really like to see my kids. So then each day I think, well, I have work that's cool. I have these other tasks. And then when I get outside of work, I look forward, I try to tell myself, oh, I'm going to eat something I really like. I'm going to give my kid a hug. I'm going to hear about their day.(37:16):I like to lay flat on my back after work, even before I eat, just to kind of reset. I look forward to that moment. Seems silly. I like that at noon every day. Usually reserve my time to work out. And even if I don't push myself hard, I go just to hug the people. And sometimes I get there early and I sit in a corner and they're like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm mentally warming up. So those are the kind of things, it sounds mundane, but I need really basic, dependable rhythms. I know I can execute.Yeah, yeah, yeah. Guess what? I really have to go to the bathroom.   Well, first I guess I would have to believe that there was or is an actual political dialogue taking place that I could potentially be a part of. And honestly, I'm not sure that I believe that.

Gaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conservatives for Christian adolescents to publicly commit to practicing abstinence until marriage. Throughout this decade and the next, millions of evangelical teenagers performed their commitment to sexual purity by signing pledges and wearing purity rings. Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture (NYU Press, 2025) by Dr. Lauren D. Sawyer examines the shaping of purity culture in the United States, looking specifically at the experiences of white youth. It shows that white girls and white queer youth were vulnerable to the purity movement, but that they were also complicit in its white supremacist oppressive structure. It makes the case that purity culture follows in the footsteps of other purity movements in the United States, and is very much tied to centuries of anti-Black racism and xenophobia in US social history, seeing white youth as in need of protection, usually from a racialized, sexualized other.While other works have focused on the ways in which purity culture has victimized young people, Dr. Sawyer argues that their perceived status as victims lets them too easily off the hook. White youth have been afforded the privilege of participating in purity culture's harmful behaviors without being called to account. Closely reading adolescents' stories of growing up in purity culture, she uncovers youth as agents, participants, and beneficiaries of its white supremacist framing, even as they were still vulnerable to its harmful teachings. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Gaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conservatives for Christian adolescents to publicly commit to practicing abstinence until marriage. Throughout this decade and the next, millions of evangelical teenagers performed their commitment to sexual purity by signing pledges and wearing purity rings. Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture (NYU Press, 2025) by Dr. Lauren D. Sawyer examines the shaping of purity culture in the United States, looking specifically at the experiences of white youth. It shows that white girls and white queer youth were vulnerable to the purity movement, but that they were also complicit in its white supremacist oppressive structure. It makes the case that purity culture follows in the footsteps of other purity movements in the United States, and is very much tied to centuries of anti-Black racism and xenophobia in US social history, seeing white youth as in need of protection, usually from a racialized, sexualized other.While other works have focused on the ways in which purity culture has victimized young people, Dr. Sawyer argues that their perceived status as victims lets them too easily off the hook. White youth have been afforded the privilege of participating in purity culture's harmful behaviors without being called to account. Closely reading adolescents' stories of growing up in purity culture, she uncovers youth as agents, participants, and beneficiaries of its white supremacist framing, even as they were still vulnerable to its harmful teachings. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conservatives for Christian adolescents to publicly commit to practicing abstinence until marriage. Throughout this decade and the next, millions of evangelical teenagers performed their commitment to sexual purity by signing pledges and wearing purity rings. Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture (NYU Press, 2025) by Dr. Lauren D. Sawyer examines the shaping of purity culture in the United States, looking specifically at the experiences of white youth. It shows that white girls and white queer youth were vulnerable to the purity movement, but that they were also complicit in its white supremacist oppressive structure. It makes the case that purity culture follows in the footsteps of other purity movements in the United States, and is very much tied to centuries of anti-Black racism and xenophobia in US social history, seeing white youth as in need of protection, usually from a racialized, sexualized other.While other works have focused on the ways in which purity culture has victimized young people, Dr. Sawyer argues that their perceived status as victims lets them too easily off the hook. White youth have been afforded the privilege of participating in purity culture's harmful behaviors without being called to account. Closely reading adolescents' stories of growing up in purity culture, she uncovers youth as agents, participants, and beneficiaries of its white supremacist framing, even as they were still vulnerable to its harmful teachings. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conservatives for Christian adolescents to publicly commit to practicing abstinence until marriage. Throughout this decade and the next, millions of evangelical teenagers performed their commitment to sexual purity by signing pledges and wearing purity rings. Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture (NYU Press, 2025) by Dr. Lauren D. Sawyer examines the shaping of purity culture in the United States, looking specifically at the experiences of white youth. It shows that white girls and white queer youth were vulnerable to the purity movement, but that they were also complicit in its white supremacist oppressive structure. It makes the case that purity culture follows in the footsteps of other purity movements in the United States, and is very much tied to centuries of anti-Black racism and xenophobia in US social history, seeing white youth as in need of protection, usually from a racialized, sexualized other.While other works have focused on the ways in which purity culture has victimized young people, Dr. Sawyer argues that their perceived status as victims lets them too easily off the hook. White youth have been afforded the privilege of participating in purity culture's harmful behaviors without being called to account. Closely reading adolescents' stories of growing up in purity culture, she uncovers youth as agents, participants, and beneficiaries of its white supremacist framing, even as they were still vulnerable to its harmful teachings. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gaining mass popularity in the mid-1990s with the True Love Waits rally on the Washington Mall, purity culture began as an urge from evangelical conservatives for Christian adolescents to publicly commit to practicing abstinence until marriage. Throughout this decade and the next, millions of evangelical teenagers performed their commitment to sexual purity by signing pledges and wearing purity rings. Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture (NYU Press, 2025) by Dr. Lauren D. Sawyer examines the shaping of purity culture in the United States, looking specifically at the experiences of white youth. It shows that white girls and white queer youth were vulnerable to the purity movement, but that they were also complicit in its white supremacist oppressive structure. It makes the case that purity culture follows in the footsteps of other purity movements in the United States, and is very much tied to centuries of anti-Black racism and xenophobia in US social history, seeing white youth as in need of protection, usually from a racialized, sexualized other.While other works have focused on the ways in which purity culture has victimized young people, Dr. Sawyer argues that their perceived status as victims lets them too easily off the hook. White youth have been afforded the privilege of participating in purity culture's harmful behaviors without being called to account. Closely reading adolescents' stories of growing up in purity culture, she uncovers youth as agents, participants, and beneficiaries of its white supremacist framing, even as they were still vulnerable to its harmful teachings. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies

Pastor Nicole takes on a big one: Purity Culture. The purity culture myth shaped an entire generation in ways many of us are still uncovering. What was framed as a path to holiness often became a system built on fear, shame, and strict expectations. It didn't just influence behavior. It reshaped identity, self-worth, and how […] The post Myth Busters // Purity Culture appeared first on Refuge.Church.

Dan Miller is back, and this time we are talking about the side of purity culture that almost never gets center stage: how it messes with men. While purity culture is usually framed around controlling women's bodies and desires, Dan helps us unpack how men and those socialized as male are shaped by shame, fear, and some wildly unhealthy expectations. From being taught they are inherently dangerous to being trapped in rigid ideas of masculinity, this conversation looks at how purity culture limits emotional range, intimacy, and even basic self understanding long after people have deconstructed the theology.We get into everything from the predator versus protector binary to the loneliness epidemic among men, why anger becomes the only socially acceptable emotion, and how the “slippery slope” logic around touch wrecks healthy connection. Dan also walks through what healing can actually look like, including somatic awareness, parts work, and relearning how to experience pleasure and desire without shame. We wrap by talking about what it might look like to raise boys differently, with more room for emotions, curiosity, and care. Equal parts thoughtful, validating, and gently unhinged in the best way, this episode is for anyone trying to unlearn the damage purity culture did to their body, their relationships, or their sense of self.Connect with Dan:Website: CTRR Practitioner bio pageSocial Media: Straight White American Jesus Podcast, Co-Host, Instagram: @straightwhitejc, Twitter: @straightwhitejcEmail: danielmillerswaj@gmail.comResources discussed in this episode: Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen Kobes duMez This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups. Follow Andrew on Instagram and TikTok @deconstruct_everything To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call hereFollow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com To work with Laura as a coach, therapist, consultant, or to inquire about other services, you can do so hereHosts: Laura Anderson and Andrew KerbsMusic by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji 

In this episode of Uncommon Sense, I'm calling out a problem no one wants to confront: the normalization of partying, drinking, and casual sex especially among so-called “conservative influencers.”You cannot claim to defend Western Civilization while publicly celebrating the very behaviors that destroyed past civilizations. Conservatism without morality is just aesthetic rebellion.We don't need more clout, cocktails, or compromised values. We need a return to godliness, self-discipline, and moral responsibility because the future generations watching us will inherit whatever standard we tolerate today.If we want to save the West, we have to get serious about being truly Christian again.--https://www.bible.com/

Lauren Elise Rogers, certified holistic sexuality educator and embodied intimacy coach, shares her powerful journey from wedding night virgin in a high-control religious environment to becoming a leading voice in sexual health and relationship coaching. This conversation explores the lasting impacts of purity culture and practical pathways to reclaiming agency, pleasure, and authentic intimacy.Share your purity culture stories with us by leaving a voicemail or sending your story to us!Connect with Lauren: Website: www.sexedforyou.comYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@sexedforyouInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sex_ed_for_you/Resources discussed in this episode: Jeff Moran - 7 Steps to Sexual HealingNecessary Endings by Henry Cloud Fantasy Bond by Robert FirestoneThis podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups. Follow Andrew on Instagram @andrew_kerbsFollow Andrew's post-SDA account @lifeafteradventismFollow Andrew's account on neurodivergence and high control religion @divergent.faith Join Andrew's Substack (Kerb Your Enthusiasm) www.andrewkerbs.substack.com To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call hereFollow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com Join Laura's Substack (Therapy in the Headlines) www.drlauraeanderson.substack.com To work with Laura as a coach, therapist, consultant, or to inquire about other services, you can do so hereHosts: Laura Anderson and Andrew KerbsMusic by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji 

In this episode of The Open Bedroom Podcast, I talk with show listener Mr. Pollyanna, who shares his journey from an evangelical Christian upbringing and purity culture to embracing emotional vulnerability and polyamory. We discuss the damaging effects of toxic masculinity, religious shame, and emotional abuse, and how these have shaped our relationships and intimacy. Mr. Pollyanna offers insights on breaking free from patriarchal norms, cultivating tenderness, and building healthier, more authentic connections. Our conversation provides practical advice for men seeking emotional growth, highlighting the importance of compassion, listening, and redefining masculinity beyond traditional religious expectations.Guest Introduction & Background (00:01:06)Jen and Mr. Pollyanna share how they met, his Christian upbringing, and his journey to deconstructing faith.Purity Culture and Its Impact (00:02:04)Announcement of the episode's main topic: how purity culture negatively affects men.Mr. Pollyanna's Upbringing & Marriage (00:02:14)He describes his liberal Christian background, marrying into a conservative family, and early relationship challenges.Toxic Family Dynamics & Church Involvement (00:04:37)Explains family abuse, church leadership, and the dysfunction in evangelical communities.Deconstruction & Anonymity (00:06:09)Discusses leaving the church, being anonymous on TikTok, and ongoing family abuse and shame.Purity Culture Guilt & Relationship Roles (00:07:33)Talks about guilt from past relationships, controlling partners, and the “happy dingbat” dynamic.Toxic Faith & Family Control (00:08:40)Describes toxic faith, family control over finances, education, and the struggle to break free.Leaving the Church & Ongoing Shame (00:10:07)Explores the lasting effects of purity culture, ongoing guilt, and the contradiction of forgiveness.Privilege & Abuse in Religious Marriages (00:11:11)Acknowledges male privilege, shares stories of women's abuse, and his involvement in healing communities.Divorce & Breaking Free (00:13:55)Describes the turning point leading to divorce and the relief of leaving guilt and shame behind.Host's Personal Experience with Purity Culture (00:14:40)Jen shares her Catholic upbringing, friends' experiences with virginity, and the shame surrounding sex.Dave Ramsey, Christian Marriages & Sexlessness (00:16:20)Jen discusses Christian influencers, sexless marriages, and questions why men stay in unfulfilling relationships.Why Men Stay in Unhappy Marriages (00:18:38)Mr. Pollyanna explains men's reasons for staying, lack of emotional skills, and societal changes.Generational Masculinity & Emotional Deficits (00:21:23)Explores how past generations shaped men's inability to be loving and emotionally available.Homosocial Behavior & Male Loneliness (00:23:52)Discusses men seeking approval from other men, lack of feminine influence, and self-inflicted loneliness.Religion, Family, and Toxic Masculinity (00:29:17)Examines how religion and toxic masculinity perpetuate control, emotional distance, and family conflict.Nurturing, Intimacy, and Ending Patriarchy (00:30:34)Advocates for nurturing, emotional intimacy, and how this could challenge patriarchy.Post-Divorce Relationships & Deconstruction (00:31:32)Describes dating after divorce, deconstructing faith, and the impact of “the one” narrative.Solo Polyamory & Relationship Dynamics (00:40:16)Discusses life as a solo poly man, benefits of independence, and maintaining multiple relationships.Emotional Intelligence & Being a Better Lover (00:43:19)Talks about emotional IQ, learning from books, and the importance of tenderness in relationships.Advice for Men: Listening & Presence (00:45:18)Offers practical advice for men: listen to women, provide comfort, and be emotionally present.Follow The Open Bedroom podcast:https://www.instagram.com/theopenbedroompodcast/

Courtney Boyer and her husband were married for 17 years when she had a wild idea--what if they had a threesome?When her husband rejects the idea, the conversation takes a turn and they end up in totally new territory, with the agreement that Courtney can have relations--and relationships--with other men.Years after making a decision that opens her up to a whole new world, she sits down with me to talk about what polyamory really is, and how it's made her life better.Check out Courtney's book, "Opened," HERE, and connect with her coaching services and more info about her HERE.

In this week's main episode, Keith chats with Halley Kim and Sara Moslener about toxic purity and how it both stifles and corrupts our true nature. Trigger Warning: topics include SA and marital r*pe.If you want to call in to the Bonus Show, leave a voicemail at (530) 332-8020. We'll get to your calls on next Friday's Bonus Show. Or, you can email Matthew at matthew@quoir.com.Join The Quollective today! Use code "heretic" to save 10% off a yearly subscription.Pick up Keith and Matt's book, Reading Romans Right, today, as well as The UnChristian Truth About White Christian Nationalism.Please consider signing up to financially support the Network: QuoirCast on PatreonIf you want to be a guest on the show, email keith@quoir.com.LINKSQuoirCast on PatreonQuoirCast on Patheos Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What happens when you go from purity culture to polyamory? My podcast guest, Courtney Boyer. became polyamorous while her husband stayed monogamous. She is a relationship coach, writer, and speaker focused on love, desire, and authenticity. A former therapist, she blends mental health and sex-therapy expertise to help women release shame, reclaim their voices, and build honest, autonomous relationships. She lives in Germany with her husband and three children, endlessly learning and writing her next chapter.In this episode of Last First Date Radio:The beliefs from purity culture that shape our understanding of relationships and sexualityHow Courtney realized polyamory felt aligned with who she now wasThe impact of polyamory on motherhoodHow to better understand mixed-orientation relationship structuresConnect With CourtneySocial media and website: https://linktr.ee/coachcourtneyboyer ►Please subscribe/rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts http://bit.ly/lastfirstdateradio ►If you're feeling stuck in dating and relationships and would like to find your last first date, sign up for a complimentary 45-minute breakthrough session with Sandy https://lastfirstdate.com/application ►Join Your Last First Date on Facebook https://facebook.com/groups/yourlastfirstdate ►Get Sandy's books, Becoming a Woman of Value; How to Thrive in Life and Love https://bit.ly/womanofvaluebook , Choice Points in Dating https://amzn.to/3jTFQe9 and Love at Last https://amzn.to/4erpj7C ►Get FREE coaching on the podcast! https://bit.ly/LFDradiocoaching ►FREE download: “Top 10 Reasons Why Men Suddenly Pull Away” http://bit.ly/whymendisappear ►Group Coaching: https://lastfirstdate.com/the-woman-of-value-club/ ►Website → https://lastfirstdate.com/ ► Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/lastfirstdate1/ ►Get Amazon Music Unlimited FREE for 30 days at https://getamazonmusic.com/lastfirstdate  

John and Jenny discuss how purity culture in evangelical and high-control Christian spaces turns bodies into commodities, fuses "holiness" with racial anxiety, and leaves survivors carrying crushing shame. They trace the roots of modern purity teaching through abstinence-only campaigns, racialized myths about "protecting" white women, and high-demand groups shaped by Branhamism and Christian identity rhetoric, highlighting how fear-based sermons and public shaming deform both faith and embodiment.Drawing on Jenny's therapeutic work and John's historical research, they talk about consent, autonomy, and why healthy boundaries are different from rigid rules, offering language for people who still value faith but are done with spiritualized control. Whether you grew up in modesty talks, pledge rallies, or holiness churches--or you love someone who did--this conversation names the harm, honors survivors' stories, and points toward practical pathways for healing in "really good bodies" that are never damaged goods.______________________Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR:Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735160962 Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCGGZX3K ______________________- Support the channel: https://www.patreon.com/branham - Visit the website: https://william-branham.org

A quiet afternoon in the woods turns into something no one saw coming. What began as a simple plan spirals into a mystery filled with fear, faith, and unanswered questions. Nothing in this story is as simple as it first appears.Trigger Warnings:Mentions of MurderSatanic CultsHuman SacrificesKidnappings Deadly Faith PATREON: https://patreon.com/DeadlyFaithPodcast?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLinkDeadly Drip Merch https://www.bonfire.com/store/deadly-drip/?utm_source=facebook_messenger&utm_medium=store_page_published_share&utm_campaign=deadly-drip&utm_content=default Need A Podcast Editor? Reach out to Eric Howell the editor of the Deadly Faith podcast!Email: thepodcastdoctor@gmail.com Resources:National Domestic Violence Hotline 1(800)799-7233 Open 24/7Suicide Hotline Call 988 Open 24/7National Human Trafficking Hotline Open 24/7 1(800) 373-7888 Connect with Us! EmailDeadlyFaithPodcast@gmail.comThe PodcastTik Tok @DeadlyFaithPodcastInstagram @DeadlyFaithPodcastLaciTik Tok @Laci_BeanInstagram @Laci__BeanLolaTik Tok @hellotherelolaInstagram @Spellbound_Shears

Angela is back! Drew is currently on the run from his creditors so Angela has returned to react to Purity Culture TikToks. She says swear words like a real life sailor! What a gal! This week's episode is brought to you by First Kisses with Charlie Templeton.  Follow us! Instagram: @Twinnuendo @darbylynncartwright @DontTalkToGrant TikTok: @twinnuendopod @thedarbylynn @DontTalkToGrant Twitter: @Twinnuendo @TheDarbyLynn @DontTalkToGrant Support our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠https://patreon.com/Twinnuendo?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to our podcast: Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1LtOrDbZh646DYt66FzKUP?si=212f3d3cc4ac478a⁠⁠⁠ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/twinnuendo/id1757646055⁠⁠⁠ IMHO: the PODCAST: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://swap.fm/l/IMHO⁠⁠⁠⁠ Call us!(940) ASS-TWIN Twinnuendo.com  Send us mail!  Drew 12348-B Ventura Blvd # 134 Studio City, CA 91604 Grant PO Box 783711 Winter Garden, FL 34778         Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CW: abortionMary B is joined by Dr. Sara Moslener to discuss her new book After Purity: Race, Sex, and Religion in White Christian America. Moslener traces her journey from a high school defender of purity culture to a scholar with a nuanced understanding of how the myth of purity has helped mask elements of white supremacy as Christian values. She reflects on the power of myth as a storytelling tool that — depending on its intent — can yield positive or harmful results. Mary B relates this to the ways myths are being used by the most powerful in this country to attack trans folks. Moselener urges that although much of her research is from the point of view of white women, sexual purity must be considered in an intersectional way. Sara J. Moslener (she/her) is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Anthropology, and Religion at Central Michigan University. She is the author of Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence and creator of the podcast Pure White: Sexual Purity and White Supremacy. She lives in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, with her best friend and soulmate, Gibson the Chug.You can get After Purity wherever you buy books. Follow Sara on Substack at afterpurity.substack.com. Join the Found Family crew over on Substack and get your free copy of the Found Family Cheat Sheet! Support the show

Laura and Andrew sit down with therapist and healing guide Elizabeth DeVaughn for a powerful conversation about what it really takes to move through trauma and come home to yourself. Elizabeth shares pieces of her own story, including the experiences that led her into this work, and opens up about the practices and principles that help people rebuild self trust after years of shame, fear, or being told to disconnect from their own bodies.They talk about how self awareness and self compassion become the foundation of healing, why so many of our patterns are rooted in old survival strategies, and how to gently challenge the beliefs that no longer serve us. Elizabeth offers practical tools for strengthening self worth, interrupting harmful scripts from the past, and creating more space for authenticity in relationships. The three also explore the importance of community, nervous system support, and daily practices that keep us grounded as we unravel religious conditioning or trauma. It is an encouraging, honest conversation about becoming who you were always meant to be.Share your purity culture stories with us by leaving a voicemail or sending your story to us!Elizabeth's Info: Website: CTRR Practitioner bio pageSocial Media: Website: www.elizabethdevaughn.com, Instagram: @elizabethmdevaughnAnything else (e.g. book title and link) Resources discussed in this episode: Rest is ResistanceAnatomy of Trust video by Brene BrownThis podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups. Follow Andrew on Instagram and TikTok @deconstruct_everything To begin working with Andrew as a coach, schedule your FREE inquiry call hereFollow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com To work with Laura as a coach, therapist, consultant, or to inquire about other services, you can do so hereHosts: Laura Anderson and Andrew KerbsMusic by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji 

SummaryIn this episode of the Gird Up podcast, host Charlie Ungemach engages in a deep conversation with Pastor Greg Lyon of Wisconsin Lutheran College about the challenges young Christians face regarding sexuality and identity. They explore the role of pastoral care, the impact of purity culture, and the importance of healing and forgiveness in Christ. The discussion emphasizes the need for honest conversations about sexuality, the significance of building trust in relationships, and the journey towards emotional and spiritual healing. Ultimately, the episode highlights the centrality of identity in Christ and the call to live a chaste life while fostering meaningful connections.Chapters00:00 Introduction to GirtdUp Podcast and Mission03:07 Understanding the Role of a Campus Pastor07:01 The Intersection of Pastoral Care and Therapy13:16 Navigating Sexuality and Christian Identity19:15 The Impact of Purity Culture on Young Christians24:48 The Depth of Sexual Sin and Its Consequences30:50 Spiritual and Emotional Healing After Sexual Activity46:04 The Intersection of Spirituality and Mental Health49:16 Navigating Sexuality and Healing53:14 The Role of Chastity in Relationships56:04 Understanding Relationship Dynamics01:01:05 Honesty in Relationships01:07:52 Identity and Value in Christ01:11:59 Counseling for Hope and Connection01:23:21 OutroPastor Greg's Links:Wonderfully Made Book - https://www.amazon.com/Wonderfully-Made-Protestant-Theology-Body/dp/1683594673https://madeknown.net/https://www.wlc.edu/index.htmlGird Up Links: https://youtube.com/@girdupministries4911?si=tbCa0SOiluVl8UFxhttps://www.instagram.com/girdup_be_a_man/https://www.girdupministries.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textIt's episode 307 of the Bare Marriage podcast! Holly Fletcher joins us to talk about her AMAZING new book Missionary Kids. I devoured it in one sitting. We need to listen to the stories of these kids, because they're a microcosm of white evangelicalism!JOIN OUR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN!Help us raise money to fund our research, our new podcast docuseries, and our translation projects! Give through the Good Fruit Faith Initiative (tax deductible within the United States) or join our Patreon!TO SUPPORT US: Join our Patreon for as little as $5 a month to support our workAnd check out our Merch, or any of our courses!Give to the Good Fruit Faith Initiative of the Bosko FoundationJoin our email list!LINKS MENTIONED: Check out Missionary Kids by Holly Berkley FletcherHolly's Substack: A Zebra Without StripesHolly on Blue SkyInstagramThreadsEtsy Our book She Deserves BetterSupport the showJoin Sheila at Bare Marriage.com!Check out her books: The Great Sex Rescue She Deserves Better The Marriage You Want and the Study Guide The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex and The Good Guy's Guide to Great Sex And she has an Orgasm Course and a Libido course too!Check out all her courses, FREE resources, social media, books, and so much more at Sheila's LinkTree.

In this special Wednesday Q&A live, Melissa and I address your questions on a wide range of topics affecting mental, emotional, and relationship health from a biblical perspective. We share a bit of our struggles with family and especially watching our aging parents and how they deal and cope with their later stages of life. […]

Purity culture shaped a lot of us… but what happens when those old messages start showing up in your marriage? In this episode, therapist Ashley Hudson breaks down how shame, fear, and performance pressure sneak into intimacy and what healing can actually look like. If you've ever wondered why sex still feels complicated even though you're married, this one's going to hit home. Use the code SPICE IT UP to get 50% off Unite & Ignite for the rest of 2025!  Watch the episode on YouTube!! Resources: My Counselor Online (Christian sex therapy): You get $25 off your first month when you sign up with our link Ashley's book Pearl In Process Website ⁠⁠Join Unite & Ignite ⁠⁠ Want more from Kingdom Sexuality? Come hang out! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook Group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purity culture didn't begin with religion, it began with control. In this episode, Teresa and Bill explore how ancient systems of ownership and inheritance evolved into moral laws that still shape our relationship to the body, desire, and worth today. Even after leaving high-control faiths, the conditioning remains embodied, showing up as shame, numbness, fear… Read More »Purity Culture & Sexual Shame The post Purity Culture & Sexual Shame appeared first on Mormon Discussions Podcasts - Full Lineup.

Welcome to another episode of "Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick." Today, Michael sits down with Dr. Camden Morgante, licensed clinical psychologist and author of "Recovering from Purity Culture." Together, they dive into the real impact of purity culture within evangelical communities, exploring the myths and messages that have shaped so many lives, often with shame and fear at the center.Drawing from both professional expertise and personal experience, Camden unpacks the psychological and spiritual wounds purity culture can leave behind and offers a thoughtful path toward healing, reconciling mind, body, heart, and soul. The conversation doesn't stop at identifying problems; it reaches for hope and reconstruction, offering practical tools for embracing a healthier, grace-filled sex ethic—and even guidance for raising the next generation with greater wisdom and compassion.Support the showENGAGE THE RESTORING THE SOUL PODCAST:- Follow us on YouTube - Tweet us at @michaeljcusick and @PodcastRTS- Like us on Facebook- Follow us on Instagram & Twitter- Follow Michael on Twitter- Email us at info@restoringthesoul.com Thanks for listening!