HIGHLIGHTS #1 | Kristin Kobes Du Mez (Christian) | Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made

Send us Fan Mail # Introducing The Sacred Slope Highlights! 🎙️ **We're launching our new Highlights series with the most popular episode in The Sacred Slope's history!** Our conversation with historian and New York Times bestselling author **Kristin Kobes Du Mez (@kkdumez)** is resonating with more of you than any other episode. And now, here is the snackable edition. Some of you love an hour-plus deep dive. Others want 20 minutes for your commute, your run, or while cooking dinner. Now you can have both! What if the Christianity you were taught wasn't simply inherited, but deliberately constructed? Who decided what Christians should believe, which books they should read, what music they could listen to, and what roles women were allowed to play? And what happens when the people who faithfully upheld those rules begin questioning the system itself? In this Highlights edition, Kristin, author of *Jesus and John Wayne* and *Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made*, joins Alexis Rice to explore the history behind the evangelical world so many of us grew up in. **In this Highlights edition, we explore:** - **The system:** How American evangelicalism developed a self-contained culture of approved books, music, beliefs, and authorities - **The women:** Why well-intentioned Christian women became defenders of systems that could also harm them - **The forgotten history:** Christian feminists who fought for women's rights and interpreted Scripture as a message of liberation - **Purity culture:** The promises of marriage, happiness, and blessing that left so many women carrying shame - **Beth Moore (@bethmoorelpm):** What happened when one of evangelicalism's most influential women challenged abuse, misogyny, and Christian nationalism - **The bigger question:** Why leaving or challenging a religious system can feel like abandoning Christianity itself Kristin reminds us that evangelical Christianity has never been one uniform tradition. There have always been women who questioned authority, challenged injustice, and imagined another way. **"Real women's lives just do not fit in the neat boxes that fundamentalists draw."** And perhaps the most liberating realization of all? **The Christianity you inherited is not the only Christianity available to you.** 🎧 **Check out The Sacred Slope Highlights on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Substack, and Spotify!** Want the entire conversation? Listen to **Episode 56: Kristin Kobes Du Mez | Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made.** https://youtu.be/mb5j\_wGpMbY?si=kCWjH-IqNz\_AQJDt **We'd love to hear from you:** What resonated most about this conversation? Why do you think it connected with so many people? And which episode should we highlight next? ⏱️ Highlights Chapters 00:05 The Closed System of Evangelical Culture 01:19 Personal Reflections on Faith and Regret 03:31 Understanding Power Dynamics in Evangelicalism 04:18 The Role of Women in Shaping Evangelical History 06:07 Concluding Thoughts on the Future of Christianity 07:12 The Totalizing System of Evangelicalism 10:08 Purity Culture and Its Impact 14:43 Beth Moore: A Voice of Change 21:51 Nomination Process for Clergy Members ✨ Guest + Books - Kristin Kobes Du Mez | @kkdumez - *Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made* - *Jesus and John Wayne* - *A New Gospel for Women* - Publisher: Liveright Publishing, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Company 📚 People & Resources Mentioned - Beth Moore | @bethmoorelpm - Sarah Bessey | @sarahbessey #KristinKobesDuMez #LiveLaughLove #Christianity #Evangelicalism #Deconstruction #ChristianNationalism #PurityCulture #WomenInChurch Support the show **About The Sacred Slope**  thesacredslope.com Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground. For the spiritually tender - raised in or rooted in Christianity. Come explore our global, diverse, inclusive Christian faith, deconstruction, and spiritual identity in a rapidly changing world. Through conversations with clergy, scholars, and cultural voices, the show creates space for people navigating faith after certainty, church harm, or political co-option of religion. 🎧 WATCH: YouTube / Spotify      LISTEN: Apple Podcasts + everywhere      FOLLOW: @thesacredslope (IG, FB, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky) 🔗 Connect 🎧 Explore episodes & community: linktr.ee/TheSacredSlope 🎙 Hosted by **Alexis Rice** 🎵 Music by **Brett Rutledge, Eddie Irvin & Sean Spence** 📬 Nominate a guest: **alexis@thesacredslope.com** 🌿 Community Guidelines 🌿 Fruit of the Spirit:  ❤️ love • 💫 joy • ☮️ peace • 🕊 patience • 💝 kindness • 🌿 goodness • 🙏 faithfulness • 🤲 gentleness • 💪 self-control