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In a disheartening but long-anticipated 6-3 decision, the Supreme court struck down 1973’s Roe vs. Wade decision, eliminating constitutional protection for abortion. In this first episode after a 2021 hiatus, the hosts examine several threads in the anti-abortion movement’s generations-long trajectory:
* The origins of the modern anti-abortion movement, and Francis Schaeffer’s role in bringing the “Catholic Issue” to a relatively indifferent Evangelical world in the late 70s
* The movement’s strategic shift in the early 80s from totalizing “fetus-centered” to “woman-centered” and “conscience-centered” arguments against abortion and incrementalist legislative goals
* The rise of deceptive “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” and their legally-fraught history of deceiving patients seeking abortions; Kristin discusses her experiences with the young fundamentalist women who keeping them running, and the danger of assuming the movement is primarily a male one
* The tension between the anti-abortion movement’s “anything is justified to stop murder” rhetoric, and its opposition to sex education and contraceptives; Jeff discusses his own history as a committed anti-abortion ideologue in the 90s, and the role that tension had in convincing him to leave — and eventually support abortion rights.
Articles and essays in this episode include:
* The Changing Strategies of the Anti-Abortion Movement, 2021, by Daniela Mansbach and Alisa Von Hagel, Political Research Associates
* Foot Soldier of the Patriarchy, June 2022, Kristin Rawls, Revue
* On Murder and The Other, June 2009, Jeff Eaton, Growing Up Goddy
Books mentioned or cited in this episode include:
* Women against Abortion: Inside the Largest Moral Reform Movement of the Twentieth Century, 2017, Karissa Haugeberg
* After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate, 2015, Mary Ziegler
* Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present, 2020, Mary Ziegler
* Handbook for a Post-Roe America, 2019, Robin Marty
* Whatever Happened To the Human Race? 1979, Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop
* Crazy for God, 2008, Frank Schaeffer


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In this episode, Jeff and Kristin tackle two separate stories: the rise of a Charismatic worship musician and his path into right-wing politics… and the controversy around an award-winning Christian romance novel whose hunky hero “participates in” genocide.
News and Updates
* Talking about Doug Wilson’s Neo-Confederate Christianity and the Ivermectin debacle on the I Don’t Speak German podcast
* The Cult Behind Josh Duggar on Behind The B******s
* Christianity Today’s The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast
* “Giant media companies are complicit in presenting religious extremism as harmless,” by Kristin Rawls on Flux Community
* Mike Warnke’s The Satan Seller, on the You’re Wrong About podcast
* “Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke”, published in 1992 in Cornerstone Magazine
Sean Feucht, Neo-Charismatic worship musician and activist
* Who Is Sean Feucht? by Shannon Leigh on Medium
* “Hate watch groups voice alarm about Sean Feucht’s Portland security volunteers”, by Alejandra Molina on the Religion News Service, August 08 2021
* “Sean Feucht Calls Black Lives Matter Movement a ‘Fraud,’ Seeks to Turn ‘Riots’ Into ‘Revival’” by Peter Montgomery on Right Wing Watch, June 18, 2020
* The New Apostolic Reformation, on Wikipedia
* PROPHETIC ALERT!!! by Lance Wallnau: Podcast host, Prophet of God, and Life Coach
* Amanda Rogers explains the difference between Christian Identity and “vanilla” right wing fundamentalism
At Love’s Command, the Romance Novel with Genocide
* “Romance Writers Of America Was Doing Better With Race — Until A Recent Award Choice”, by Karen Grigsby Bates on NPR.com, August 05 2021
* “Romance Writers of America Rescind Award for Lakota Genocide Redemption Narrative,” by Steve Ammidown in The Library Journal, August 26 2021
* “When a Jew loves a Nazi: Holocaust romance's award listings cause outrage”, by Alison Flood in The Guardian, August 10, 2015
* “A Nazi, A Jewish Prisoner, And A ‘Magic’ Bible, Or, Christian Romance Fiction Gone Very, Very Wrong”, by Julia Seymour on Religion Dispatches, September 05 2015
* Creating the Innocent Killer, by John Kessel in Foundation, the International Review of Science Fiction, Vol. 33, No 90, Spring 2004
* Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman, by Elaine Radford


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Doug Wilson is a key voice in modern Reconstructionism, an ideology that envisions America (and the world) remade into a confederacy of self-governing, patriarchal theocracies. Despite a history of eye-popping apologia for slavery, Wilson has become a key crossover figure for Reconstructionism. He leads a 1000-strong independent church in Moscow, Idaho; dialogues with more acceptable Fundamentalist leaders like R. C. Sproul and John Piper; laments the ugliness of the MAGA crowd, and does his best to project an image of free-thinking scholarship rather than angry dogmatism. Despite his genial tone, Wilson’s theology and beliefs are extreme even by the standards of Reconstructionism.
In this episode, we try something new — and we’re not sure whether it succeeded or failed. Rather than start with a deep dive into Wilson’s history and the controversies surrounding his work and his church, we took a (relatively) fresh look at his recent material on YouTube, as well as his son’s breakout YA novel. Beyond Wilson’s long history of racism, the undercurrents of misogyny in his arguments were impossible to ignore. Several quick searches later, it became clear that Wilson had sheltered pedophiles and punished their victims at his church in Moscow, Idaho.
Listen to this episode to hear us discover our Spidey-Senses were correct in real time… Content warnings apply: topics including religious abuse and child sexual abuse are discussed.
Mentioned in this episode
* Episode 11: The Father of Christian Reconstructionism
* Episode 12: From Rushdoony to Ron Paul, with Racism
* Southern Slavery as it Wasn’t: Coming to Grips with Neo-Confederate Historical Misinformation by Ramsey, William L. and Quinlan, Sean M., 2004
* Christ Church and New Saint Andrews College at Wikipedia
* Man Rampant, the Doug Wilson Youtube show
* Man Rampant Episode 1: The Sin of Empathy (2021)
* 100 Cupboards, by N.D. Wilson (2008)
* Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, by Kristin Kobes Du Mez, 2020
Further reading
* Doug Wilson’s Pedophile Problem: Sex Offender For Whom Wilson Begged Leniency Back in Court with Infant Son, by Libby Anne, Love Joy Feminism, 2015
* Far-right evangelicals excused sexual abuse long before Donald Trump, by Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Flux, 2021
* The Jamin C. Wight Story: The Other Child Molester in Doug Wilson’s Closet, by R.L. Stollar, Homeschoolers Anonymous, 2015
* Doug Wilson’s Religious Empire Expanding in the Northwest by Mark Potok, The Southern Poverty Law Center, 2004
* As a plague sweeps the land, zealots see a gift from heaven, by Leah Sottile, High Country News, 2020
* Douglas Wilson’s ‘spiritual takeover’ plan roils Idaho college town
* The Controversialist, by Molly Worthen, Christianity Today, 2019
* It Is Long Past Time for Evangelical Leaders to Condemn Doug Wilson's Views on Slavery and the South, by Libby Anne, Love Joy Feminism, 2018
* Why Is a Famous Evangelical Pastor Defending Slavery?, by Morgan Guyton, Huffington Post, 2013
* Idaho pastor agrees with Trump on Charlottesville protests, by Nick Gier, Idaho State Journal, 2017


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It’s easy to mistake “Purity Culture” — Evangelical Fundamentalism’s distinctive take on sexuality and social mores — for prudishness. It’s much more than a simple “don’t have sex” campaign: the movement combines several related ideological threads in ways that can torment insiders and baffle outsiders. In this episode, Jeff and Kristin explore Purity Culture’s history, its manifestations in popular culture and Christian media, and its impact on the teens and adults who’ve grown up in it.
Purity Culture’s building blocks
We’ve broken Purity Culture down into four specific pillars, each of which contributes to the culture’s dangerous toxicity.
You don’t own yourself
The idea that people have the right to control their own bodies, and choose what kinds of things they’re comfortable with both sexually and socially, is acknowledged to a limited degree — but tempered by the belief that God is the ultimate “owner” of every person’s body, and that we have no right to choose things that He doesn’t approve of.
Nancy DeMoss’s 2007 article, “Free To Be Modest,” published on the conservative Christian web site The Rebelution, articulates the idea directly: “My body is not my own. It’s not mine; it doesn’t belong to me (1 Cor. 6:19)… An immodestly dressed woman is giving away something that doesn’t belong to her. This principle of ownership means that you and I are not free to dress in any way we please.”
This foundation means that while Purity Culture may arrive at some of the same conclusions about sexual ethics and cultural mores, it does so via a very different path and proposes very different solutions to societal problems. In Purity Culture, for example, the fundamental moral transgression of rape is not the violation of another person’s autonomy but the act of extramarital sex.
A totalizing definition of purity
It’s easy to assume the culture’s idiosyncratic definition of “purity” is just shorthand for sexual abstinence outside of heterosexual marriage. Its definition of “Impurity” isn’t just about specific acts, though: it includes any thought, feeling, action, or motivation that would produce pleasure outside of “God’s Plan for sex.”
Having dreams about sex, lingering over the swimsuit ads in the Sunday paper, being gay, making out after prom, looking too long at a passing jogger’s abs, sex with a co-worker, and grooming children for abuse all exist under the broad umbrella of “impurity.” They’re evil not because they affect others or have specific consequences, but because they violate Purity Culture’s specific definition of sexuality that’s acceptable to God. Members are encouraged and trained to be on constant alert, wary of any idle thought or passing glimpse of the opposite sex that might lure them into lustful fantasies, rendering them impure.
As a corollary, blame for nearly every emotional or relational challenge faced by young teens, single twenty-somethings, and married couples is laid at the feed of “impurity.” After a lifetime of exposure to these totalizing messages, guilt is inevitable — and that guilt is treated as evidence from God that Purity Culture’s strict guidelines are true.
Gender essentialism and patriarchy
The third component of purity culture ideology is the assumption of deep and fundamental differences between mens’ and womens’ sexual drives and desires. Old tropes are codified as God’s Design: men are frequently described as “visual creatures” easily inflamed by desire, while women are “love-seekers” whose bodies tempt men.
This idea is closely related to the concept of Christian patriarchy — the idea that men have been put in charge of their families by God, and women are meant to function as helpers in the task of raising a Godly family. Although modern purity culture proponents often emphasize the importance of “mutual submission” before God, the idea of a divinely ordained

First: a content warning for Christian Rightcast listeners. This episode directly addresses child sexual abuse, religious abuse, and specific techniques used by the Duggar family and Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles to protect child sexual predators.
Last month, our series on Christian Reconstructionism was hitting its stride. Then news broke that Josh Duggar, made famous by his Christian family’s 19 Kids and Counting television series on TLC, had been arrested for possession of child sexual abuse materials. A number of Christian Rightcast listeners reached out, asking about context for the events, and we considered the best approach.
The story has clear connections to the reconstructionist themes Kristin’s research has focused on: the Duggars have long been advocates of fundamentalist homeschooling, evangelical purity culture, Quiverfull ideology, and the reconstructionism-influenced teaching of Bill Gothard. Given the seriousness of the story, though, we felt a dedicated set of episodes focusing on the issue was justified and necessary.
In this episode, we attempt to explain the context and the ideology of Bill Gothard’s popular and influential Institute in Basic Life Principles; how its focus on authoritarian discipline and sexual purity provided cover for sexual abusers including Gothard himself; how the group’s teachings shielded Josh Duggar from both consequences and treatment; and finally how its manuals for dealing with sexual abuse blamed Josh’s victims for his actions.
If you’d like to better understand the broader ideology of “Purity Culture” that contributes to these issues, but don’t want to tackle the material in this episode, our usual context-building work will be tackled next episode. If you have questions, feel free to reach out on Twitter or drop us a line here in the comments.
References and Source Material
* "New charges allege religious leader, who has ties to the Duggars, sexually abused women" by Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Washington Post, January 2016.
* "The Cult Next Door" by Bryan Smith, Chicago Magazine, June 2016.
* "The Fundamentalist Trap" by Joshua Pease, The New Republic, October 2018.
* "Bill Gothard Resigns From IBLP" by Nick Ducote, Homeschoolers Anonymous, March 2014.
* "Bill Gothard’s Brother Accused of Racketeering, Stealing Millions from the Elderly" at Homeschoolers Anonymous, January 2015 
* "Amended Lawsuit Against Bill Gothard" and "A Summary of Allegations against Bill Gothard and IBLP" at Homeschoolers Anonymous, January 9 2016.
* "Gothard Explains Why God Allows Child Molestation", Parts one, two, three, and four, at Homeschoolers Anonymous, August 2016.
* "A Summary of Allegations against Bill Gothard and IBLP" and "10 Revelations in the Lawsuit against Bill Gothard and IBLP" by Libby Lane at Love, Joy, Feminism; January 2016. 
* "Bill Gothard Threatens Recovering Grace with $1M Lawsuit" at Homeschoolers Anonymous, February 2016 
* "On Growing Up In Bill Gothard’s Homeschool Cult" by Micah J. Murray, February 2018



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Last episode, Kristin walked us through the high points of Christian Reconstructionism — RJ Rushdoony’s extremist vision of a feudal, patriarchal America ruled by religious law. In this episode we explore the racist building blocks of his ideology, as well as the careful definitions many Reconstructionist-inspired movements use to claim their views are actually anti-racist.
Warning: Rushdoony’s writing, and the writing of several Reconstructionst offshoot movements, are cited extensively in this episode. Explicit and extreme racism, dehumanizing language, and defenses of slavery, are quoted for clarity and may be disturbing or triggering for listeners.
Books, Papers, and Key Personalities
Building God's Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction, by Julie Ingersoll
Christian Reconstruction: R. J. Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism, by Michael Joseph McVicar
Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest, by Crawford Gribben
Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism, by Molly Worthen
Protestants and American Conservatism: A Short History, by Gillis J. Harp
The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America, by Frances FitzGerald
Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, by Kathryn Joyce 
"Southern Slavery as it Wasn'T: Coming to Grips with Neo-Confederate Historical Misinformation", by Ramsey, William L. and Quinlan, Sean M., 2004
Ludwig von Mises biography at Encyclopedia Britannica
Fredrich A. Hayek biography at Encyclopedia Britannica
John Dewey's philosophy of education at The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Christian Reconstruction Movement in U.S. Politics, by Julie Ingersoll, 2017, at Oxford University Press
Writings by and About Key Reconstructionists
The Messianic Character of American Edication, by RJ Rushdoony
"Can We Tithe Our Children?", by RJ Rushdoony
"Angry White Man: The Bigoted Past of Ron Paul, by James Kirchick, 2008, The New Republic
"There's Something About Gary." by Declan McCullagh, 1999, Wired Magazine
Critical Analysis
"God’s Plantation: Vision Forum and the Old South", by Nick Ducote, 2014, Homeschoolers Anonymous
"Kinism: A Racist and Anti-Semitic Religious Movement", 2013, published by The Anti-Defamation League 
"Identity Unmasked: Meet the Proprietors of the Internet's Largest Neo-Confederate Propaganda Machine," 2019, published by the Southern Poverty Law Center
"The Year in Hate, 2004," 2004, by Mark Potok at the Southern Poverty Law Center
"Doug Wilson’s Religious Empire Expanding in the Northwest," 2004, by Mark Potok at the Southern Poverty Law Center
"Identity Dixie Leaders Helped Plan Deadly Rally," 2019, published by the Southern Poverty Law Center
"As a plague sweeps the land, zealots see a gift from heaven," by Leah Sottile at The High Country News


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