Sunday School Dropouts Purity Culture to Domestic Violence Pipeline
Hosts Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs sit down with trauma-informed coach and therapist Terri Allred from the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery to unpack how purity culture fuels domestic violence, particularly during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Terri draws on decades of experience supporting survivors of sexual and spiritual abuse to explain how purity teachings often spiritualize control, suppress autonomy, and normalize submission—creating fertile ground for abuse to thrive. The conversation dives into the emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of violence within fundamentalist spaces, highlighting how isolation, financial control, and misuse of religious authority often go unnoticed or unchallenged.
Listeners will hear powerful reflections on the long-term effects of purity culture on intimacy, shame, and self-worth, along with healing strategies rooted in body-based recovery and reclaiming agency. Terri reminds survivors that “healing is cyclical” and emphasizes the sacredness of bearing witness to others’ stories. The hosts invite listeners to share their own experiences with purity culture and domestic violence, underscoring the importance of collective healing and storytelling. For more resources, Terri recommends Is Nothing Sacred? by Marie Fortune and can be found through the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery.
This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery
The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.
The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups.
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Hosts:
Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs
Music by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji
Editing by Kevin Crowe and can be found at www.kevincrowe.co