There is a secret history of white Christian women, says historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez (bestselling author, Jesus and John Wayne). And the thread of this history brings together Evangelicals, Mormons, mainline Christians—connecting them to New Thought (a movement emphasizing the power of the mind to shape reality), Hallmark movies, mommy bloggers, and multi-level marketing. In her latest book, Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made, Du Mez tells the story of a single promise: that total surrender of the will unlocks holiness and happiness. Often masquerading as personal empowerment, the products and slogans of this ideological history elevate the vulnerability and domesticity of women, thereby contributing to systems of manipulation and abuse. In this conversation with Mark Labberton, Du Mez explains how holiness evangelicalism and the secular philosophy of New Thought were braided together to influence women, and how its culture marketed as empowerment created byproducts of self-blame, submission, and control. They discuss Hannah Whitall Smith's feminist defiance; the little-known "deconstruction era" of Elisabeth Elliot; the demonizing of doubt in high-control religion and multi-level marketing; the line running from Christian Reconstructionism to today's rhetoric of "toxic empathy"; and how to return to the gospel of the Christ who relinquishes power. Episode Highlights "There is no sense of the common good. There is no sense of common grace. There's no sense of grace, period." "The past is always going to be more complicated and more interesting—and I would argue more useful—than the simplistic narratives that we like to tell ourselves." "Christian literature, she says, is neither Christian nor literature. It's propaganda. Right? It's simply telling evangelical readers what they want to hear, but it is not true." "When you embrace that theology and ideology, if things don't work out well for you, it's your own fault. It has to be your own fault … within holiness theology and within the philosophy of positive thinking, doubt is literally demonized. Doubt is of the devil." "She never confused submission to God to submission to men. She was a feminist. She was a preacher. She certainly wasn't going to submit to her husband, who was a jerk." "… a gospel which is more in line with the gospel of Jesus Christ, one in which Christ divests himself of power and continually disappoints his followers who want that power." About Kristin Kobes Du Mez Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a New York Times bestselling historian, professor of history at Calvin University, and a Senior Democracy Fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute. Her work sits at the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She is the author of A New Gospel for Women, on the Christian feminist reformer Katharine Bushnell; Jesus and John Wayne; and, most recently, Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and grew up in a Dutch Reformed community in small-town Iowa. Helpful Links and Resources Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made, Kristin Kobes Du Mez's 2026 book: https://kristindumez.com/books/live-laugh-love/ Live Laugh Love book club discussion guide (free): https://kristindumez.com/discussion-guides/lll-book-club-discussion-guide/ Jesus and John Wayne, Du Mez's 2020 bestseller: https://kristindumez.com/books/jesus-and-john-wayne/ A New Gospel for Women, Du Mez's first book, on Katharine Bushnell: https://kristindumez.com/books/new-gospel-for-women/ Du Mez CONNECTIONS (Substack): https://kristindumez.substack.com/ Kristin Du Mez on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kkdumez.bsky.social The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, Hannah Whitall Smith's 1875 classic: https://ccel.org/ccel/smith_hw/secret/files/secret.htm Elisabeth Elliot: A Life, Lucy S. R. Austen's biography: https://www.crossway.org/books/elisabeth-elliot-hcj Show Notes Why history? And why now? Undergrad indecision: pre-med, German major, then history, since everything has a history Instilling curiosity over provocation Evangelical views that treat history as apologetics Dutch Reformed upbringing: critical, intellectual, light on evangelism Christian Reformed critics who sound like evangelical ones, as distinct traditions turn de facto evangelical Three layers: consumer culture, porous traditions, systems of control Holiness theology and total surrender: The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, by Hannah Whitall Smith (1875) New Thought and the belief in the power of the mind to shape reality Prosperity gospel, free markets, baptizing the rich Empowerment and lost agency Self-blame loops, demonized doubt, multi-level marketing (MLM) economics Hannah Whitall Smith's defiance of male authority, and a life that undercut her own book Elisabeth Elliot's forgotten deconstruction era, uncovered in the Wheaton archives: doubting holiness promises, rejecting evangelical jargon, and calling Christian publishing propaganda Remarriage and a return to the trappings she once rejected Self-consciousness and self-critique Christian nationalism, hierarchy, and Christian Reconstructionism Transactional faith and the toxic empathy discourse Forgiveness for powerful insiders, punishment for outsiders Saint and sinner at once Why manipulation works, and the gospel of a Christ who relinquishes power
