Are we missing something if we save kissing for marriage? One of the tenets of purity culture was that all physical contact--even kissing--should be saved for marriage. It wasn't just that sex is for marriage. It was that kissing was too. Some couples didn't even...
When you're a teen, it's normal to have sexual feelings. In fact, sexual feelings are a normal part of life for adults too! We have sex dreams (the content of which can sometimes be quite alarming). We can feel attraction to people. We can feel "horny", for lack of a...
Every Young Man’s Battle is the only book I ever reviewed that made me weep. Perhaps it’s because I read it after I had already read a whole bunch of books aimed at teen girls, and it was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. But I think there was a whole other...
"How do I talk to a woman about what she's wearing?" I've received a number of social media messages from women lately asking how to approach a woman about her clothing choices. In some cases it's been a work situation. In others a ministry situation. In several...
What exactly does "purity culture" refer to? Our recent book She Deserves Better spends about half of its pages addressing many aspects of purity culture, that was so common in youth groups between 1995-2015, and shows how it deviated from the gospel and from what we...
I've been doing so many interviews for our new book She Deserves Better! I wanted a place where I can put the links to those podcasts, because so many of you have been asking for a list. When I do an interview on ANOTHER podcast, I tend to summarize the book quite...
Not every girl has an equal chance of growing up and marrying an abuser. The family circumstances and social environment she grows up in can greatly impact her chances. And these things are, to a certain extent, out of our control. But there are things that are even...
What happens when teenage girls don't understand consent and coercion? They often blame themselves for their own date rape. In our consent chapter for She Deserves Better, we told Kay's story--that all too many of you will relate to. Kay was making out with her...
In She Deserves Better, we include headings listing what girls deserve to know. And they're dynamite! It's now one week since She Deserves Better has launched! It's been a wild week, and we're so excited with how well the book is selling. We've had even more requests...
She Deserves Better is officially launched, and we're doing so well! It's selling really, really well (we woke up to #140 on Amazon, which is INCREDIBLE), My mind is going in a million different directions this morning, and I'm elated, and I'm happy, and I'm actually...
Come celebrate with me! Because today She Deserves Better launches! After two very long years, She Deserves Better is here! And it's selling so well (thank you all so much!), and we're all so, so excited to see how this will actually change the church--and set people...
Have we been selling our daughters an incomplete gospel? Let's do a thought experiment for a minute. Imagine everything you've been told the gospel is--about how Jesus saves, and what that means. Now imagine that you're actually Jesus (if that isn't too sacreligious...
I'm supposed to be at the zoo today. My cousin and her daughter are visiting from out of town, and I cleared the calendar today so that I would be free to go the zoo. Rebecca and Connor and the kids and Keith were all available, and it was going to be a big family...
We had an amazing Theology in the Raw podcast with Preston Sprinkle. It dropped on Thursday, but I'd like to tell you about it, because we've never had this opportunity before to answer (friendly!) pushback about our views on modesty and consent. We were on the...
I read a story about how a youth group culture contributed to a young woman feeling guilty about her own assaults. I'd like to share it today, because it fits in to everything we've been talking about with She Deserves Better, our new book that launches April 18 (and...