Raised in an Evangelical Baptist tradition, I bore witness to the church’s condemnation of the evils of the world and how culture is misleading us down a road on sexuality, body image, and more. When all along, this same church was dispersing warfare of their own. Among many things, girls were taught to be modest for the sake of purity and boys’ sexual desires. It was a gender-exclusive, male-dominant view of gender and sexuality.

“When we rely on scare tactics to stop kids from having sex, we will fail. Our girls will inevitably know friends or family members who are having extramarital sex and who are not pregnant, hearts broken, riddled with STIs, rendered infertile, or dead. When our daughters realize our warnings mean nothing, they’ll feel manipulated and may even abandon our ethics altogether,” said Sheila Wray Gregoire on the CBF Podcast Conversation.

Gregoire is a sought-after speaker and writer about sex, authoring numerous books, including The Great Sex Rescue. She’s also the host of the Bare Marriage podcast.

We sat down to discuss her new book, She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up.

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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the Associate Executive Coordinator of CBF North Carolina. He’s also served as CBF’s Church Start Specialist, the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton, and the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge. Follow on Twitter @haleandy.