What if sin isn't the cause of all the bad or counterproductive things we do? And what if blaming it on sin does harm? I wrote this reflection two years ago, and was revisiting it recently and realized it fit in so well with Christmas! Keith and I will talk about...
Modern evangelicals are often closet fundamentalists. They may wear hip clothing, and they may try to sound "cool", but they often look far more like fundamentalists than they do like Jesus. This week on the Bare Marriage podcast (dropping tomorrow), Keith and I are...
Scripture does not say that our goal in life is to be married. If anything, 1 Corinthians 7 says the opposite, that people should remain single if they can. Marriage is nowhere mentioned as the main reason that God created us, and is certainly not mentioned as a...
Thank you to Zondervan and For the Love of Women for sponsoring this post Ever been told, “sexism is a thing of the past?” Or maybe you’ve heard something like this from your brother, your dad, your co-worker, your favourite podcaster—or even your sister:“Sure, people...
Thank you to Zondervan and For the Love of Women for sponsoring this podcast! Have you ever heard people say, "sexism is a thing of the past"? Or maybe been in a conversation where someone has said, "sure, women used to be treated badly, but now it's men who are on...
Toxic marriage advice hurts those in abusive marriages. But it also hurts those in so-called good marriages–because bad advice is just plain bad advice. Here at Bare Marriage we often critique marriage advice that’s given in evangelical circles, showing how that...
with thanks to Zondervan and the book For the Love of Women for sponsoring this post. I remember the first time I heard a fellow Christian defend slavery. I was in my late thirties, and my husband Keith and I had been joking with “John” (who is now a pastor) about...
We have a plague in the evangelical church of unqualified people giving dangerous advice. In our original study for The Great Sex Rescue (we’ve since conducted three more!), we identified four main teachings that do great harm--teachings which are not biblical, but...
There's a deep rumbling in the evangelical church right now. I've been saying for the last few years that God is shaking the church--and I'm feeling that profoundly. Whenever I come to the end of a big project, and start something new, I get a little introspective and...
In 2019 I started critiquing Christian marriage books. Until then, I had been writing and speaking in evangelical spaces, but I hadn’t read a lot of Christian marriage books. I figured, they love Jesus, I love Jesus, we’re all saying the same thing! But in January of...
Does the Bible say divorce for abuse is okay? Lots of churches, and denominations, say no. You can only divorce for adultery, they say. But is that true? I've been wanting to do this podcast for a long time, and was prompted again when Naghmeh Panahi (who has also...
The medium is the message. And when it comes to Christian patriarchy, the medium is super pretty right now! Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian sociologist, said that famous “medium is the message” line sixty years ago now. He was explaining how the medium that we hear a...
Let's take a look at some new research on purity culture! Today Rebecca and I explain two new studies, and then Joash Thomas joins me to talk about his new book The Justice of Jesus. We take a look at how purity culture beliefs affect women's abilities to recognize...
My aunt Alison passed away on Friday. She saved more lives than anybody I know (including mine, twice, and maybe even yours!). Can I take a moment and tell you about her? I shared this earlier this weekend on Facebook, but I want to elaborate at the end on how I'm...
Shouldn't authors care if their teaching harms women? I shared a story on Facebook yesterday, and I wanted to expand on it a bit today here, since it resonated so much there. The last few weeks my mind has been replaying a convo I had a few years ago with one of the...