Wednesday, November 27, 2024

A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy

Written by: Tia Levings


First line: This was my fault.

Why you should read this book: A young woman intent on finding the key to contentment falls hard into a dangerously misogynistic branch of Christian fundamentalism, entering into marriage with a violent and mentally ill man who promises her happiness, provided she can offer complete obedience and subjugate her personality and will to support his increasingly unstable decisions under the guise of church doctrine (spoiler alert: no human on earth could keep that guy happy). This is an intimate look into the high control cults made to appear wholesome and harmless to outsiders in popular media while crushing women, children, and anyone who cannot fully assimilate and stay within the strict and narrow boundaries prescribed by cult leaders. This book will break your heart, but if you aren't already aware of the danger posed by dominion theology (and based on the results of the last US presidential election, hundreds of millions of Americans are unaware of the danger posed by dominion theology), this book offers a chilling but sharp-eyed view into the workings of a movement that seeks to control your life and undermine American freedom on a macro level in the same horrific way that they almost destroyed Levings. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Brutal descriptions of domestic violence, infant death, and spiritual abuse. 

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