How do we get others to see the truth about healthy sex & marriage teaching?
It’s so hard to break through all the slop that’s on social media right now, and there’s an uptick in the number of super patriarchal accounts saying really misogynistic things (like women shouldn’t vote!).
Now more than ever the evangelical church needs the message of Bare Marriage.
But the struggle we’ve always had is a simple one: We’re just a few people, with a very limited budget and very little time, and so much on our plate. How do we get others to see?
What I’ve tried to do on my own social media platforms is point out the hypocrisy and the blatant errors in so many false teachings–especially using my Fixed It For Yous on Instagram, or I’ve recently started stitching some reels of people saying particularly egregious things.
But a lot of people react negatively to things that are inflammatory. For one audience that works; for another, that’s more steeped in patriarchy, it will just turn them off. They’re so wedded to “their side” that they won’t listen if it’s clear, from the outset, that we disagree with them.
We can’t be all things to all people, but we want to be as strategic as possible.
And so we’ve decided to create a separate account called Good Fruit Faith
Funded by your donations to Good Fruit Faith, its mission is going to be to present our findings in video and podcast form, separate from Bare Marriage. And we’ve just launched the first of our videos!
We wanted to do some short, informational ones summarizing some of the key points of what we teach, including:
- why to teach teens about consent;
- why modesty messages backfire;
- the problems with complementarianism;
- the problem with gender essentialism;
- and the problem with the concept of male spiritual leadership.
We would absolutely love it if you would share them! Often people ask for short videos summarizing our findings or the main arguments we make, and this is a great place to send them! Combined with our toolkit, it’s a way to explain to people why certain teachings are harmful.
Video 1: We Need to Talk about SUBMISSION in Marriage.
Video 2: Are Men and Women Really That Different?
Video 3: What Does it mean to be a spiritual leader?
Video 4: Christians need to teach about consent.
Video 5: How should churches talk about modesty?
Wondering why these look so much more professional than our regular videos?
Basically, because we had an actual budget, and we hired an actual, honest to goodness video producer for them!
It was our first attempt, and it was at the end of a very long filming session for our video series for The Marriage You Want, but I do love how they look so much better than our normal videos!
And we’re going to be launching a new podcast series that will be on both Apple and YouTube this winter, with two more podcast series in the works. We want to really expand this educational aspect of what we do, and take it outside the normal Bare Marriage channels.
Our book, course sales, and our Patreon keep this blog, our podcast, and some of our research afloat. But to do the extras, like create higher quality videos and podcasts, and to get our academic papers written, as well as to work on translations of our work into other languages (we’ve got some great announcements about Spanish soon!) we need your help.
Would you consider partnering with us through The Good Fruit Faith Initiative? We’re under the Bosko Foundation, which gives U.S. tax deductible receipts, and helps us spread the message about our work!
We would love 50 more $10 a month sustaining donors!
We want to be able to create high quality videos and podcasts, and do more pastor, counselor, and physiotherapist training. But we just can’t do it all ourselves, and desperately need help so we can grow.
Focus on the Family rakes in over $100,000,000 a year! If we could get even 1% of that, we could do so much! Can you help?
Help us spread the word about our new initiatives!
Share the videos with your friends and in your social media feed. Show them to your pastor or your women’s ministry leader (and share our Toolkit too!).
And subscribe to our new Good Fruit Faith YouTube channel (Different from our regular YouTube channel!) Our new podcast will be uploaded there in the winter too, along with other short videos we’ll be cross-promoting!
We want this to gain traction, and so we need your help. We’ll be doing some interesting things with these videos soon, too, on the blog as we start to reorganize things to get it the site more searchable. But once we have time and energy and resources, we want to become a great hub where people can find info on all these key topics we constantly find ourselves addressing.
Together, we can change the evangelical conversation about sex and marriage! Thank you for joining us!
What short video topics should we address next? Let us know in the comments!
I have a quick question. Are contributions to Patreon and the Good Fruit Faith initiative sourced from the same set of funds? Or does the Patreon contribute to a set of goals/support while the Good Fruit Faith initiative contributes to a different set? I’m just curious because I’d like to support in all areas and don’t want to miss anything. 🙂
The Good Fruit Faith specifically must be used only for nonprofit initiatives, so we use that pool for future studies; academic papers; translations and missions work; making videos like these; and basically things we can never ever monetize. The Patreon money can also go towards some of those things, but we can also use it as seed money for things that can grow into something bigger (like trying to figure out an adult sex ed course for instance!). If that makes any sense. It all helps us though, so if you want a tax receipt Good Fruit Faith is great, but if you want to be part of the Facebook group and community, Patreon is great! (we can’t offer perks like Facebook groups to people who donate through the non-profit entity). I’m sure that’s clear as mud!
That makes perfect sense! I am part of the Patreon group, but I’d like to support your nonprofit initiatives. So thank you for answering.
Dear Becca,
Today you made me cry. Unfortunately for me I have been crying a lot lately. I balled like a baby last night in my hurt and pain of our families current situation. Consent is the a good way to describe the pain we are in. I am not even talking about sexual consent. Just consent for personal autonomy. Even so, as you were speaking about consent, it made me reflect on my own sexual abuse story and how I never had a chance for consent. Thats truly the source of my sadness and tears.
I wanted to add an additional comment/thoughts: Congratulations to the Bare Marriage Team on your new initiative and the creation of the new You Tube channel and educational videos. This is and will be FANTASTIC. Of course Sheila and Keith – you present well. Becca? Wow – incredible presentation. What do I see? This is you. This is your space. This is your place. Podcast Becca blended with Professional Becca intensity, script, improv, animation and just Becca-ism (along with the fact !you talk a lot! longer than your parents😂) provides the Impact for the future success of this platform that was created to Thrive.
Best to you and the team Becca and cheers to the future of GOOD FRUIT FAITH.
And thanks for making me cry. In All things He works for the GOOD.
Peace.
Phil
Oh, thank you so much, Phil! Yes, I think this is Becca’s future, and I’m looking forward to how she runs with it!