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...
We need to listen to the stories of missionary kids. Holly Berkley Fletcher released an amazing book called Missionary Kids that I read all in one sitting. I was riveted. Holly grew up as a missionary kid. And she interviewed a whole bunch of missionary kids, some...
One of the most frequent questions I get from men is this one: How can I get my wife to understand my sexual needs? He feels like he’s in a sex-starved marriage, and he’s desperate for sex. But the more he talks about sex, the more his wife pulls away. What’s the...
With thanks to Zondervan and the book For the Love of Women for sponsoring this post! Complementarianism has a big problem. For those of you who don’t know, complementarianism is the belief that God placed men in authority over women, in marriage and the church (some...
Complementarians often use pretty words to obscure what they believe. They say things like "men are meant to be the protectors!", or "men bear the burden of responsibility" or "we are all equal, but we just have different roles." But when you break down what they're...
Thank you to Zondervan and the book For the Love of Women for sponsoring this post God isn’t glorified when women stay in marriages where they’re abused Too many women have sat across from church leaders, bruised and broken, only to be told they must "bear their...
Thank you to Zondervan and For the Love of Women for sponsoring this post! Last week, The New York Times had a ridiculous headline asking if women ruined the workplace. I bet that Dorothy Greco, who wrote the book For the Love of Women that we talked about on a recent...
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...