D.L. has a delightful conversation with Erin Moon about the very first Christian YA series, written by Robin Jones Gunn and published by Focus on the Family—the Christy Miller series. Beyond fun reminiscing and sharing personal experiences, we also uncover the not-so-subtle ulterior motives behind the popular novels (spoiler alert: it’s serving the patriarchy).

You can find Erin Moon on the socials @erinhmoon, on substack, and on her podcast, The Bible Binge. 

We have a website—check it out for more information. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram.

To support our show (we can’t do this without you!), join us on Patreon! You’ll get access to our monthly patron-only episodes (including the entire backlog), as well as occasional zoom hangouts. You can join this community for as little as $1.50 a month!

Cover art by Zech Bard.

TW: sexual assault, rape, abuse

D.L. once again revisits Redeeming Love with Dr. Alexiana Fry. We get more into the weeds of some of the problematic and traumatic elements in the novel itself, as well as Hosea, Judges, and the Bible in general. Trigger warning for violence, rape, and abuse.

Dr. Alexiana Fry (find her on Twitter) is an Old Testament scholar and professor of biblical studies, with a focus on trauma, feminism, and migration.

Dr. Fry references Nancy Nam Hoon Tan’s work from her book Resisting Rape Culture. 

Dr. Julia O’Brien’s work is also mentioned—check out her book Challenging Prophetic Metaphor. 

You can find more information about our Faith and Justice Network cohort here! We’d love to have you join us this fall to untangle white evangelism together.

We have a website—check it out for more information. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram.

To support our show (we can’t do this without you!), join us on Patreon! You’ll get access to our monthly patron-only episodes (including the entire backlog), as well as occasional zoom hangouts. You can join this community for as little as $1.50 a month!

Cover art by Zech Bard.

D.L. chats with Jenna DeWitt about Captivating, the highly-influential prescriptive romance guide for young Christian women in the early 2000s.

We tackle the harmful biases around gender roles and romance from an asexual and aromantic perspective.

Jenna DeWitt (follow her on Twitter!) is an editor and queer activist, focusing on educating people and providing resources on asexual and aromantic identities. Check out her blog for more info!

Also, as mentioned in the episode, here is the Spotify playlist curated by Jenna, Rainbow Faith. 

You can find more information about our Faith and Justice Network cohort here! We’d love to have you join us this fall to untangle white evangelism together.

We have a website—check it out for more information. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram.

To support our show (we can’t do this without you!), join us on Patreon! You’ll get access to our monthly patron-only episodes (including the entire backlog), as well as occasional zoom hangouts. You can join this community for as little as $1.50 a month!

Cover art by Zech Bard.

D.L. chats with Devi Abraham about the wildly popular novel (and now movie) Redeeming Love. 

We delve into some of the troubling elements of the story, discuss why it holds such an appeal for evangelical women, and touch on some related aspects of purity culture (Devi’s speciality!) as well. 

Devi Abraham is a writer and co-host of the podcast Where Do We Go from Here?, tackling sex and purity culture. Follow her on twitter @devi_writes and check out her website.

You can find more information about our Faith and Justice Network cohort here! We’d love to have you join us this fall to untangle white evangelism together.

We have a website—check it out for more information. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram.

To support our show (we can’t do this without you!), join us on Patreon! You’ll get access to our monthly patron-only episodes (including the entire backlog), as well as occasional zoom hangouts. You can join this community for as little as $1.50 a month!

Cover art by Zech Bard.

D.L. chats with Valerie Weaver-Zercher about all things Amish Christian fiction! 

We explore the unique, multi-faceted world of Amish romance, how it ties into the larger evangelical world in general, why it’s so dominated by whiteness, and why it remains such a popular genre among evangelical women today. 

Valerie Weaver-Zercher is a writer and editor with Broadleaf Books (where D.L. is also an author). Check out her website and her book, which we discuss in this episode, Thrill of the Chaste.

We have a website—check it out for more information. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram.

To support our show (we can’t do this without you!), join us on Patreon! You’ll get access to our monthly patron-only episodes (including the entire backlog), as well as occasional zoom hangouts. You can join this community for as little as $1.50 a month!

Cover art by Zech Bard.

D.L. interviews Daniel Silliman about the Christian romance novel that started it all—Love Comes Softly. 

We talk about Oke’s Canadian background and how that plays into her writing, as well as the impact her books have had on Christian women and the Christian romance genre as a whole.

Daniel is a news editor for Christianity Today and author of Reading Evangelicals. You can follow him on Twitter @danielsilliman

Here is an interview with Janette Oke

This article on Active History explores how Janette Oke romanticizes the Mounties

You can check out this detailed report from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on their role in the Indian residential school system

“I was born on the Canadian prairie. I was actually born at home. This sounds really like old, old west. I was born in a little log house. The doctor came out to our place to deliver me. So it sounds really, really old fashioned. I went to a one room country school. So a lot of what I write, it’s very much a part of my background–as a teenager, and even younger than that, I was very into the west and the pioneer days. So I read everything I could find on the pioneers. I felt they were a very hearty group of people with a lot of bravery to come out and start making a life on a new frontier. Our Canadian west opened up quite a bit different than the stories that I was reading, which were basically westerns from the U.S. side of the border, in that we had the Northwest Mounted Police—they were at that time—and basically precede the settlers.”

“We never had the cowboy and Indian skirmishes and the unsettled west for them to come in. We never had sheriffs in Canada. We have had what is now the RCMP, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and so our pioneers came out to a rather settled area as far as the laws were concerned and oftentimes there were groups of people that sort of came together from a united background, and if you look at our small town around our area and find the oldest church you can pretty well say, ‘Well, that group of settlers came from Germany’, ‘That group of settlers came from Sweden’, you know. By the oldest church there you can pretty well identify it, so these people came west with deep, personal faith. That changed the whole color of how our west was settled.”

We have a website—check it out for more information. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram.

To support our show (we can’t do this without you!), join us on Patreon! You’ll get access to our monthly patron-only episodes (including the entire backlog), as well as occasional zoom hangouts. You can join this community for as little as $1.50 a month!

Cover art by Zech Bard.

Since Krispin's laptop was being repaired all last week, we won't have a new Christian romance episode up until next week - BUT here's a little clip from a recent patroon-only episode.

You can become a patreon supporter of the podcast for as little as $1.50 a month.

ALSO - this Saturday, May 15th, our patreon community is going to watch The Jesus Music together - and have a group chat along at the same time. Become a supporter & get details on how to watch along!

Danielle interviews Sharifa Stevens about the book of Esther, and the Bible stories that have been romanticized - and shouldn’t have been. 

Follow Sharifa on Twitter or Instagram! Also, subscribe to her substack!

Check out her chapter in Vindicating the Vixens

Did you grow up reading Christian Romance books? Why not try recapping one (under a minute is great) for us and making it onto the podcast! Simply call in to our voicemail line at ‪(612) 656-9562 or record a voice memo and email it to us at [email protected]. 

For more information on our podcast, check out our website. You can also find us on Twitter and on Instragram.  

To support our show (we can’t do this without you!) join us at Patreon! We do monthly episodes for patrons-only and occasionally do a fun zoom hangout. You can join this community and get access to the backlog of patron-only podcasts for as little as $1.50 a month!

Danielle tells Krispin about why Christian romance has flown under the radar - and needs some attention!

Did you grow up reading Christian Romance books? Why not try recapping one (under a minute is great) for us and making it onto the podcast! Simply call in to our voicemail line at ‪(612) 656-9562 or record a voice memo and email it to us at [email protected]. 

Statistics on Romance Readers found here.  

Bell Hooks on romance books for the Washington Post.

From Reddit (on a thread about Bell Hooks):

“Romance as a genre is a safe haven for so many of us. We come here to know what it is to love deeply and be loved in return. For marginalized people especially having a place to land, this inclusive affirming space is more important than ever. Romance writers have been pushing boundaries for a long time, fighting for a space to tell our stories where women are sexual, Black love is cherished, queerness celebrated, where disabled people are beautiful, and the working class get HEAs [Happily Ever Afters]”

Books and authors to be explored later on in this series:

Janette Oke

Francine Rivers 

Christy Miller Series

Bodie Theone

Amish Romance

And more!

For more information on our podcast, check out our website. You can also find us on Twitter and on Instragram.  

To support our show (we can’t do this without you!) join us at Patreon! We do monthly episodes for patrons-only and occasionally do a fun zoom hangout. You can join this community and get access to the backlog of patron-only podcasts for as little as $1.50 a month!

Cover Art by Zech Bard

We decided for Krispin's book release day to drop an episode, and we're talking about feelings & faith.

We listened to & discussed this episode about feelings, faith, evangelism, Jesus bracelets, worrying about salvation, and marriage.

To pair with this episode, we are releasing a patreon-only episode where we talk about the attachment styles of Whit, Connie, Eugene, Tom and others!