Jen

“When you’re an only child, semi-imprisoned, books become more than paper between hard cardboard, more than the alphabet organized into words and printed on a page.”
― Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers

“When Donald Trump ran for president and talked about grabbing women by the pussy, and then was lauded by Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr. and called a man of God, and all the Christians of my youth on Facebook applauded him and voted for him, I knew my problem wasn’t with spirituality or the divine. It was with the systems and personalities who’d sought to gain control and power in Jesus’s name, amen.”
― Tia Levings, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy

“Darkness lies ahead, yes, but so do joy, solace, and, above all, love.”
― Johanna van Veen, My Darling Dreadful Thing

“Purity culture hadn't prepared me for healthy sexuality. Keeping sweet hadn't equipped me to speak up about abuse. Waiting for touch to happen all at once hadn't allowed my nervous system to acclimate to intimacy. Doctors weren't evil agents of a New World Order. Scaring me with hell hadn't led to loving Jesus. Cutting off gay friends didn't make them straight. What else was wrong? Every day I found new things, old beliefs to pick apart and sort through.”
― Tia Levings, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy