DR. TINA SCHERMER-SELLERS

Premiering June 2, 2021

Family and Marriage Therapist and sexologist Dr. Tina Schermer-Sellers didn’t set out to take on the church’s teaching on sex.  When she continued to encounter, however, students who were traumatized by deep sexual shame without having been physically sexually abused, Dr. Tina Schermer-Sellers had to get down to the bottom of it.

Hosts Ryan Clark and Nate Novero discuss her book Sex, Shame, and the Conservative Church on Touch Podcast Episodes 6 and 7. She is also author of Shameless Parenting: Everything You Need To Raises Shame-Free Confident Kids & Heal Your Shame Too.

LINDA KAY KLEIN

Premiering June 20, 2021

Linda Kay Klein, author of PURE: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free, shares some of her experiences of sexual and gender-based shame after having grown up in the American Evangelical Christian Church. Throughout her youth, she was taught to be submissive, repress her sexuality, and avoid becoming a “stumbling block” for men—that is, tempting them in any sexual way. The church emphasized a girl’s sexuality as the most important mark of her spiritual standing with God.

Hosts Ryan Clark and Nate Novero discuss her book on Touch Podcast Season 2 Episode 2. She is also founder of Break Free Together, a not-for-profit organization serving individuals recovering from gender-and sexuality-based religious trauma, and a community committed to releasing shame and claiming our whole selves.

JENNIFER KNAPP

Premiering August 11, 2021

In addition to her Dove Award Grammy nominations, Jennifer Knapp is a 2015 Ted Talk speaker, author, and song artist in Nashville, TN. When she’s not occupied with music, or doing advocacy work on behalf of LGBTQ people of faith through her Inside Out Faith organization, she is working on a master’s degree in theological studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Hosts Nate and Ryan speak with Dove Award winner and two-time Grammy nominee Jennifer Knapp about her experience of almost becoming the poster child of the evangelical sexual purity movement. They discuss faith, sex, shame, and Christian consumerism. The conversation is also featured on Touch Podcast Season 1 Episode 1 and Season 3 Episode 1.