We hear this all the time: “I want to share your podcast with friends, but I have no idea which episodes to start with!”
And I get it. We put out a weekly podcast which means that every year we’re putting out close to 50 episodes, that’s a lot of content to keep track of! But we know many of you have friends who are asking questions, you see your church repeating harmful messages, and you want it to be easier to just share healthy content and start those important conversations.
We’re currently on “break” from the podcast, (we’ll be back in September with the next season!) but some really exciting news about the podcast is that this season we reached 2,500,000 downloads! And that doesn’t include our YouTube watchers or 100% of the streams of the podcast either, from what we can tell! So we are absolutely thrilled, it seems like you guys really love the podcast and have been sharing it and helping spread the word. We are so grateful, thank you.
So for anyone who is a new listener and wants to catch the highlights or who wants to know some good options to share when people need to hear some evidence-based, biblical advice, here are the top 5 most popular episodes from the last season!
IT IS NOT JUST THAT THE BOOK LOVE & RESPECT CONTAINS TOXIC TEACHINGS.
It is also that the book doesn’t handle the Bible properly, twisting passages, prooftexting, and at times even deleting whole words and phrases so the verses appear to suit his thesis.
We asked Nijay Gupta, a Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, to respond to our criticisms of the use of Scripture in Love & Respect, and he gave a great outside perspective as one who hasn’t read the book, isn’t really familiar with Eggerichs, but was just looking at the use of the biblical texts. So grateful for his expertise!
This is also a very helpful podcast for people who are not sold on the idea that women need respect, too, but are very dedicated being diligent in our use of Scripture to make claims and support our theology. Anyone who takes being faithful to the text seriously should find this rather shocking.
EVERY YOUNG MAN’S BATTLE IS A DANGEROUS BOOK.
Part of the Every Man’s Battle series, it is addressed to teenage boys to help them battle lust and pornography.
I hear about Christian schools and youth groups that are still going through it with 13, 14, or 15-year-old boys, and it needs to stop.
This book objectifies girls; shares salaciously graphic sexual material; and provides a route to lust recovery that has been shown to make the problem worse.
In this podcast Andrew Bauman and Zachary Wagner, who have both written books on healthy male sexuality, join me to talk about the problems with the approach in Every Young Man’s Battle.
I know that, even though it shouldn’t be the case, men especially who are hesitant towards our messages really won’t listen unless there are men involved in the critiques (I know, trust me, that it’s not fair and is very sexist that if only women care about it it doesn’t seem to matter). So this is a great introduction for people who may be a little bit trapped in that kind of thinking, since two men are involved in the criticisms and stand up for healthy sexuality.
IS GOD’S DESIGN FOR BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD FEMALE SUBORDINATION?
Does the Bible paint a picture of women as servants, and men as the main characters who are the leaders? Is this what God wants?
That’s what Philip Payne grew up believing. Like most evangelical Christians, he grew up in a culture where women were restricted from fully participating in the kingdom of God, and where women’s opinions were often discounted.
But at seminary, he heard a prof say that “No Bible passage, taken in the original language and in the original context, restricts women in any way.”
He didn’t believe them, and set out to prove them wrong. And in so doing, he became one of the world’s premier scholars on how the Bible actually affirms and values women in all ways.
I was so happy to have him on the podcast today to walk through his new book The Bible vs. Biblical Womanhood.
WHAT IF CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE BOOKS ARE TELLING YOU THAT YOUR DESTRUCTIVE MARRIAGE IS NORMAL?
This podcast is from our Marriage Misdiagnosis month, where we were looking at how some of the messages given in evangelical marriage books actually talk about marriage problems wrong, misdiagnosing the actual problem. Then, because they’ve misdiagnosed it, they give the wrong advice.
Natalie Hoffman is an abuse advocate who survived an emotionally abusive marriage, left, and remarried. And she says the difference between her current marriage and her abusive marriage is night and day! She doesn’t have to turn herself into a pretzel to get her husband to care about her. She’s married to someone who actually puts in effort, and marriage is EASY.
Yet that’s not what she experienced with her first husband at all–and books told that the problem was her.
And here it is–the #1 Bare Marriage episode this year!
1. Episode 156: How The Authors We Critiqued Responded to The Great Sex Rescue
ONE OF THE MOST FREQUENT QUESTIONS I’VE HAD SINCE THE GREAT SEX RESCUE WAS PUBLISHED HAS BEEN: “HAVE ANY OF THE AUTHORS RESPONDED TO YOUR CRITIQUES?”
People want to know–has anyone owned their mistakes and made changes?
And the quick answer is no.
I wanted to have a central place where I can show you what the authors who HAVE said something have said.
And I needed to say something.
This is a personal podcast. But it is a good one for people who are choosing to close their eyes and see it as just a difference of opinion. If you have friends who ignore what you’re trying to say because “this should be handled in private,” or “Well they’re just doing their best.”
And if you’re a new listener and you haven’t seen this yet–this will show you some of our heart.
What is one of your favourite episodes that we’ve done? Share it in the comments below, I’d love to know!!
I’m from Butte, Montana. My husband is from Turku, Finland. We live in Ruokolahti, a small community in Southeast Finland (South Karelia). We enjoy watching your episodes. From what we can find, and yes there’s more searching to do, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of progressive Christian resources in Finnish that would talk about the purity culture, surviving church trauma, healing from spiritual abuse, etc. So, we’re happy to have access to resources like yours & many other great authors. Your interview with Natalie Hoffman really resonated with me. Through so many resources, I was taught, if something was wrong in your life, it means that you messed up and God was withholding the fullness of his love from you. This created in me times when I would actually create self shame. For so long, I didn’t think I had permission to say or think, “I’ve done nothing wrong.” We shouldn’t have to shame ourselves in order to seem Christian enough. I love how Natalie has come to the place where she knows that the abuse she endured wasn’t her fault.
I loved the episode about The Power of a Praying Wife, especially the discussion on mutualism as spiritual abuse. It was freeing for me because I was able to embrace that my red flags were right & I always had a justifiable reason to believe certain teachings were wrong. Part of my healing process has been awakening and making new realizations, but a lot of it has been realizing that I’ve actually never fully accepted certain things and ideas. Instead of shutting down those red flags and doubting myself, thinking that I must just not understand God, I am reclaiming my autonomy. I’m still healing.
> > People want to know–has anyone owned their mistakes and made changes?
> > And the quick answer is no.
This, if nothing else, is a good indication that the male patriarchy model is flawed. Nobody (not me, not Sheila, not anybody other than God Himself) is always right about everything all the time, and if you can NEVER own up when you’re wrong, that’s a red flag.