Sex, God, and the Conservative Church

Erasing Shame from Sexual Intimacy

By: Tina Schermer Sellers

Narrated by: Tina Schermer Sellers

As a psychotherapist and professor of marriage and family therapy and sexuality at a Christian University, Tina Schermer Sellers, PhD, has spent a career listening deeply to the often untold, most tightly held, shame-filled stories of people’s lives. Over the last 30 years in particular, these stories have revealed the devastating effects of abstinence education, the purity movement of the evangelical church, and the simultaneous removal of media regulations that allowed for an influx of sexual violence against women to enter all forms of commercial media beginning in the 1980s. This destructive tidal wave of events became our de-facto sex educator, and a sexually shamed saturated rape culture to become the result.

In this fascinating account, Dr. Sellers examines the history that brought America here, and the role the empire Christian church and capitalism have played as socio-political bedfellows. Evidence is presented to show how power and control was chosen over sexual health and wellness; and body suspicion and misogyny chosen over sacred sexuality and worthiness. In this investigation, Dr. Sellers reveals several beautiful mystic Hebrew stories demonstrating a relentless God who developed sexuality and bodies on purpose to give humans one of the most powerful and passionate experiences of love - but how these potent ancient narratives were buried out of view.

We find in this book written for clinicians and the public, that sexuality is meant to bless us, that we can heal sexual shame, find God in and through intimate touch, and that nothing can separate us from God’s love. We are radically valuable and radically imperfect - and always worthy of love.

©2015, 2016, 2020 Tina Schermer Sellers (P)2018 Tina Schermer Sellers

Read this if you have ever wondered if you are alo

This book has been incredibly helpful to me.
I needed this book years ago. I have always struggled with my sexuality as young as nine I am 28 now and I have never viewed sex in such an amazing way. there is such beauty here! I dealt with shame most of my young life and this book referred to me by a dear friend has helped me immensely. this book is definitely worth listening to and I would recommend listening to it while you're out and about but also take the time to come back and take notes later on!
Thank you so much Tina!

Great content

Great content. Solid practices for reclaiming one’s body from sexual shame and improving intimacy. The only problem is the quality of the audio, especially at the beginning and end of some chapters.

Thought provoking

I did not quite know what to expect, but as I got to listening, I realized that I needed this book. I grew up in purity culture and I was able to work through many issues talked about in the book as well as reframe my view on sex. If you are coming out of or are still in the conservative Christian church I would highly recommend this book!

Necessary reading

The beginning lays a foundation for why this book is needed. Then they talk about church history which was interesting (yet boring for me) than the 1990s (which was sociologically interesting for me). The middle of the book would help serve parents well with how to talk to their kids about healthy sexuality. The last portion of the book is written to therapists on how to help couples with their sex lives and my thought has been to tell clients to read it, make notes, and then practice.

This book is a shining light for the Christian trying to experience healthy sexuality and how to teach their children how to develop a healthy sexuality.

Awful audio quality, great content

This is a great book and I definitely recommend it. The main problem is the recording sounds very amateur and low quality like it was just done in the narrator’s spare bedroom in their home with thin walls or something. It was pretty distracting but still worth listening to.

A must read!

Every person who has grown up in a purity culture, conservative background with abstinence only education, needs to read this book! Every mental health professional doing therapy needs to read this! Outstanding!

Great insight without condescension

Good advice in general and explains a lot of headtrash that comes from our early years. Still looking for a book that helps with men's trauma, but this is a good start.

I wish more people knew about this!!

I definitely needed this book! After growing up with abstinence-only sex ed and a huge emphasis on purity in the Catholic church, this book was incredibly helpful with allowing me to view sex is a healthy way without having to sacrifice religion. Will definitely be sharing this!!

Such an important book!

This book is so healing and helpful for anyone who has grown up in or around the church. The recoding is more casual which I prefer because it really sounds like someone is reading to you.

I loved this book!

I love how the author provides real life information from sessions and narratives and connects the research with theological frameworks.