This week, I had the pleasure to interview returning guest Tia Levings about her new book I Belong To Me: A Survivor's Guide to Recovery and Hope After Religious Trauma. Tia explains that while her first memoir A Well-Trained Wife told the story of escaping an abusive marriage rooted in Christian patriarchy--and the teachings of figures like Bill Gothard and James Dobson--this new book is a self-help guide chronicling how she rebuilt herself over a decade of healing.

We also explore the broader reach of Christian nationalism, including Doug Wilson's growing political influence through figures like Pete Hegseth, and how fundamentalist movements groom people for obedience and abuse through purity culture, corporal punishment, and high-control dynamics.

Tia shares practical insights from her recovery journey, including EMDR, internal family systems therapy, somatic work, and grounding techniques. She emphasizes treating triggers as information rather than threats, the importance of tending to the "aftermath of shock" before making major life decisions, and how unhealed trauma can lead to "cult hopping" into new controlling relationships. She describes herself as "spiritually private," rejecting labels in favor of fluidity and self-discovery.

The book is written for religious trauma survivors but has resonated widely with anyone leaving high-control environments. Tia is currently working on a third book called How to Leave Anything.

Find Tia's book and also her writings on her site here!

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For those who missed our December 2025 DDP Zoom call, this is it!

I was able to reconnect with authors Kelsey McGinnis and Marissa Burt about their book The Myth of Good Christian Parenting. The conversation centers on Doug Wilson, a controversial Moscow, Idaho pastor who promotes Christian nationalism and authoritarian parenting-- including advocating spanking "reigns of terror" to guarantee children's "cheerful obedience."

We then extend that out to include the broader ecosystem of figures like Bill Gothard and James Dobson, major Christian influencers who built empires promising that formulaic Christian, "biblically-based parenting" guarantees godly outcomes.

We explore how these harmful ideologies are cyclical--repackaged by new evangelical influencers for each generation. Using fresh aesthetics and modern platforms, the core pattern remains: exploit parental fears, promise a formula based on their interpretation of the Bible, and then blame "user error" when it fails.

We also connect all of this to the evangelical purity culture, the "stay-at-home daughter" movement, and today's social media influencers pushing increasingly extreme positions. We also note that even movements like Gothard's IBLP had retention rates as low as 3% — yet somehow, the same ideas keep getting recycled for a new generation of impressionable Christians attempting to pattern both their marriages and child-rearing practices on what turns out to be deeply flawed theology.

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This week, I welcome new friend Timmy Joe Gibson for a deep dive into our parallel journeys: from passionate Christian ministry to atheism. Both former pastors, we share our experiences in faith: me as a Bible college teacher and PhD scholar who spent over 20 years in ministry across the US and UK, and Timmy as a charismatic pastor who grew his church from 10 people in his living room to 300 members.

We discuss our theological education at institutions like Rama Bible Training Center and Western Seminary, our involvement in word-of-faith movements and dominion theology, and the gradual "death by a thousand cuts" that led us to question--and ultimately abandon-- everything we once believed, preached, and taught to so many others so passionately.

Our conversation explores how deeper biblical scholarship paradoxically led us away from fundamentalism, as we touch on topics like the authorship of the Gospels, the problem of slavery in scripture, conspiracy theory mindsets in Christianity, and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s.

Both of us reflect on what we've salvaged from our past. My public speaking skills now serve me as a teacher and builder, while Timmy has built a successful wedding officiant business in Kansas City. We also candidly discuss how we're now happier as atheists than we ever were as believers, focusing our energy on helping others navigate the deconstruction process, rather than engaging in angry debates with those still in the faith.

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Email me: dismantlingdoctrine@gmail.com