Episode 58: Banned Books: A Brief History of How the Christian Publishing Industry Promotes Myths About Relationships and Sex

Julia begins, "Unlearning the messages from the church archive is only part of the healing process. The next step is learning new ways to engage relationships and sexuality. 

So, together, we are going to begin creating a new library with literature that can support us in building better, more sustainable, and thriving relationships." 

In order to unlearn unhelpful messages, we have to understand the systems that propagated these messages.  "If I had a dollar for every time a client mentioned The Five Love Languages in therapy, I'd have close to a thousand dollars by this stage," Jeremiah says.

The problem? The Five Love Languages was written by Gary Chapman. Chapman has no professional training in therapy or the science of relationships. Rather, he's one of hundreds of clergy trained at Wheaton, Moody Bible College, and other conservative organizations who have written about relationships--generally not their scope of practice. 

These authors have been propelled by a multi-billion dollar publishing industry who have generated radio shows, books, TV shows, and podcasts to sell complementarian gender roles, a rigid understanding of sexuality, and communication strategies that seek avoidance and compliance rather than negotiation of differences. 

In this episode, Jeremiah and Julia talk about:

History of Christian Publishing Houses (4:20): Jeremiah details the history and reach of these publishing houses: “Christian publishing houses gained significant political power. To spread conservative sexual messaging to institutions outside of evangelical or other christian spaces” 

Conservatism and Publishing (9:30): Jeremiah describes how the Dutch-American publishing owner Americanized his own name to fit within the conservative culture, 

“Even though the Baker house gained political power and massive finical success in the U.S., they did not escape conservative structures that they eventually perpetuated in the books that they published.”

Christian Education and Apologetics (22:00): Julia discusses how she took apologetics classes and the effectiveness of it, “Fear and shame perhaps more harmful, are also more motivating than obnoxious circular debate, which is what apologetics tends to be.”

Why Christian Literature is Effective (25:00): Jeremiah says: “One of the reasons that Christian Literature may have had such extensive influence on you and others is that it undergirded all of your formal and informal education, while unifying you with Christians across the world.” 

Ask Suzie (29:00): Julia draws an example from Rio magazine, a Christian magazine published by focus on the family: “That highlights the amount of anxiety that young girls feel in these communities, that accidentally falling asleep during a movie in which your head is on the shoulder of a boy was something that would cause you that level of distress.”

Why Focus on Christian Media? (33:35): Julia shares, “the whole reason that we’re sharing these stories is because the Christian publishing industries and Christian media like focus on the family has had such foundational impacts into the relational and sexual development of folks like me and my clients.”

“Sex Ed” (36:00): Jeremiah shares: “My understanding of sexuality and relationships was much more informed by what I learned about women through a combination of sexist and homophobic comments inside and outside of the Church system.” 

The Books of Deconstruction and Music as Manipulation (45:00): Jeremiah talks about his deconstruction journey: “Leviton talks about how artists use cord progressions, intinations, and instrumentation to connote feelings, and at its worst to manipulate audiences. I discovered pretty quickly that Hillsong and other contemporary worships groups were using that strategy in their music.”

The Second Book of Deconstruction (49:10): Julia says, “The book (the Bible tells me so) exposes the ways that many Christian groups have misinterpreted so much of christian scripture by missing cultural context, accurate translations, and other sociological factors.” 

Perpetuating Myths (53:00): Julia discusses her sex therapy training: “I hoped that my community of education and my training would have rewritten some of those myths that I learned in both Christian and Secular culture, sadly not even sex therapy has caught up.”

Let's heal together!