On this episode, I have an incredible conversation with Jenny Booth Potter, a creative producer, storyteller, and co-host of The Next Question, a web series about expanding our imagination for racial justice. She has co-led racial justice trainings across the country for churches and organizations, and is the Chief Content Officer of HerSelf Media, a company that aims to create stories that empower and bring joy to Black women. I recently read her new book, Doing Nothing Is No Longer an Option, and was excited when she agreed to join us on the Sanctuary Woman. We talk a lot about purity culture on this podcast, and I think there is a really interesting thread that comes up in this conversation that I'm glad we pulled on. We talk about intersectionality, parenting, idolizing innocence and protecting it at all costs, and reflecting on our own inner Karen.

Buy Jenny's book: https://amzn.to/3KoexSk

More context about Amy Cooper, in case you're curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_birdwatching_incident 

Resources for women recovering from purity culture can be found at https://sanctuarywoman.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanctuarywoman/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanctuarywoman 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morganstrehlow 

Music by Jameson McGregor of UBC Waco.

 

I'm excited to introduce you to Natalie Drew, a Christian who is also a transgender woman.   Trigger Warning: Suicide is discussed at several points in this episode. Please do skip this episode if that could be a trigger for you. <3    Connect with Natalie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/natgrace79    Click here to help fund Natalie's upcoming gender-affirming procedure.   March 31 is Transgender Day of Visibility, and you may have heard that the transgender community has been the target of a lot of misinformation and dehumanization as extreme political and religious groups are doing everything they can to keep trans people in the margins of society, unable to thrive and access the care and support, the education and resources needed to simply be who they are. The Human Rights Campaign estimates that there are 2 million trans and gender non-conforming people in the United States alone, and they are at a greater risk of being the victims of violence and hate crimes than those who are cis-gender. Recent data also indicates that 82% of transgender individuals have considered ending their own lives and 40% have actually attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth. Caring for our transgender neighbors and siblings in Christ is very much a pro-life issue. And no matter your theology or your understanding of gender, it's critical--if the sanctity of life means anything to you--it's critical that we advocate for their care and their rights and their right for care. It's also critical that we listen to the stories and the voices of those in the trans community, and we believe what they say about their lived experiences.   

Resources for women recovering from purity culture can be found at https://sanctuarywoman.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanctuarywoman/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanctuarywoman 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morganstrehlow 

Music by Jameson McGregor of UBC Waco.

Welcome to Sanctuary Woman, a place that invites women to show up with their whole minds and their whole bodies rather than suppress that which the church may have told us is shameful. Many Christian women have nowhere to turn and are looking for the brave spaces, the safe spaces, where their sexual shame can be spoken, set free, and can finally be undone.   Our guest today, Jessica Harris, has been there, and she has made it her mission to break the silence, banish the shame, and bring women's struggles into the light of God's grace, liberation, and forgiveness. She understands that when you suffer in silence, a wall of shame is built between yourself and God that God does not desire for you. In her new authentic and honest book, Quenched: Discovering God's Abundant Grace for Women Struggling with Pornography and Sexual Shame, Jessica shows women a road map for restoration.    If you are someone who feels stuck in any sort of sexual shame this episode is for you. 

Resources for women recovering from purity culture can be found at https://sanctuarywoman.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanctuarywoman/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanctuarywoman 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morganstrehlow 

Music by Jameson McGregor of UBC Waco. 

Sara Billups is a Seattle-based writer and cultural commentator who is completing her Doctor of Ministry in the Sacred Art of Writing at the Peterson Center for the Christian Imagination at Western Theological Seminary. She works to help wavering Christians remain steadfast through cultural storms and continues to hope for the flourishing of the Church amid deep political and cultural division in America. Sara is the author of the new book Orphaned Believers: How a Generation of Christian Exiles Can Find Their Way Home. 

Resources for women recovering from purity culture can be found at https://sanctuarywoman.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanctuarywoman/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanctuarywoman 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morganstrehlow 

Music by Jameson McGregor of UBC Waco. 

Welcome back to Sanctuary Woman! More resources for women recovering from purity culture can be found at https://sanctuarywoman.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanctuarywoman/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanctuarywoman 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morganstrehlow 

Music by Jameson McGregor of UBC Waco. 

Reverend Starlette Thomas joins us to help us see our skin color for what it is and deconstruct what it is not as she pastorally and prophetically disrupts and dismantles the racialized body of Christ so that we can reconstruct and re-member a Church body that reflects Christ and his gospel.

Learn more about Starlette's work at The Raceless Gospel and Good Faith Media. 

Show notes can be found at www.sanctuarywoman.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanctuarywoman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanctuarywoman

Music by Jameson McGregor of UBC Waco.

Our guest today is Erin S. Lane, author of the new book Someone Other Than A Mother: Flipping the Scripts on a Woman's Purpose and Making Meaning beyond Motherhood. 

Erin is a writer, theologian, and someone other than a mother. That’s the name of her latest book, by the way. Erin has a master’s degree from Duke Divinity School with a focus on gender studies. Mentored by Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal, she works as a vocational retreat facilitator, helping people discern their wildest questions of purpose.

Order Erin's book here.

Show notes can be found at www.sanctuarywoman.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanctuarywoman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanctuarywoman

Music by Jameson McGregor of UBC Waco.

[Original airdate: Feb 8, 2021] On this episode of Sanctuary Woman, I want to invite you to reconnect your mind, with your body, through awareness of your body, listening to what your body is communicating to you. What God is communicating to you, through your body. This episode will lead you through a prayer body scan meditation and close with a reading of Psalm 139.

To download the accompanying Examen guidebook PDF to journal through the Examen, click here. 

Connect with Morgan:

@sanctuarywoman on Instagram @morganstrehlow on Instagram @morganstrehlow on Twitter sanctuarywoman.com

Music by Jameson McGregor.

Our guest today is Dr. Amy Kenny, who says that much of the church has forgotten that we worship a disabled God whose wounds survived resurrection.

Dr. Kenny is a disabled scholar and a Shakespeare Lecturer whose research focuses on medical and bodily themes in literature. Her forthcoming book, My Body is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church, shows that the church is missing out on the prophetic witness and blessing of disability - and until we cultivate church spaces where people with disabilities can fully belong, flourish, and lead, we are not valuing the diverse members of the body of Christ.

Pre-order Amy's book.

Show notes can be found at www.sanctuarywoman.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanctuarywoman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanctuarywoman

Music by Jameson McGregor of UBC Waco.

Amanda Martinez Beck is a fat activist and body peace coach specializing in the intersection of human dignity, body liberation, and religion. She is the author of Lovely: How I Learned to Embrace the Body God Save Me and the forthcoming book More of You: The Fat Girl’s Field Guide to the Modern World. Amanda is also the co-creator and co-host of the Fat & Faithful podcast.

Pre-order Amanda's book.

Follow Amanda on Instagram @your_body_is_good.

Join the All Bodies Are Good Bodies Facebook group.

Show notes can be found at www.sanctuarywoman.com 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanctuarywoman/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanctuarywoman 

Music by Jameson McGregor of UBC Waco.