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Stories shape who we are and they hold a lot of power. As we navigate this world we realize that these stories need a great deal of editing. In this podcast we will examine some of these stories around sex, religion, grief, race, and joy.
Episodes
6 hours ago
6 hours ago
Technology continues to be a tool we use to enhance our life and relationships. As parents, there is definitely a love/hate relationship that develops with tech as it can do wonderful things and yet cause harm. In this episode, Kara talks with Kate Ott on how to look at tech in an ethical way and its relationship to sex.
Dr. Kate Ott is a feminist, Christian social ethicist addressing the formation of moral communities with specializations in technology, sexuality, youth and young adults, pedagogy, and professional ethics. She is the Jerre L. and Mary Joy Stead Professor of Christian Social Ethics at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Il, where she serves as the Director of the Stead Center on Ethics and Values.
She is the author of Sex + Faith: Talking with Your Child from Birth to Adolescence and her new book, Sex, Tech, and Faith: Christian Ethics in a Digital Age. In her new book she gets to the heart of the matter of how we humans interact in an artificial space as sexual beings. What are the consequences of this, and where are the tangible positives?
Learn more about Kate at: www.kateott.org
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
The world of kink is big and often gets a bad rap, especially among religious communities. However, there is a lot more to kink that can help us open our world to a deeper understanding of ourselves. It’s within kink where we are often given permission to explore the depths of ourselves and to be fully present in intimate experiences. Sean Orpen is an AASECT certified sex therapist who co-owns his own sex therapy collective in Seattle, WA and works primarily with those who identify as kinky. In this episode, Kara and Sean explore the way kink can lead to embodiment and open new pathways to ourselves.
Sean Orpen is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), a Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor (LMFT-S), an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist (CST), and an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist Supervisor (CST-S) in Seattle, WA. He finds meaning in helping people navigate their way to pleasure, find their voice, share their values, and communicate desire with others through a sense of empowerment. Bodies are meant to be enjoyed and pleasure sought out. He finds meaning in seeing others becoming powerful in their lives!
Learn more about Sean at www.pnwsextherapycollective.com
Tuesday Feb 28, 2023
Tuesday Feb 28, 2023
Sometimes it can take a moment, like when you’re having a glass of wine in the evening with a new album playing, and listening to your body to discover the next move to take in your life. That was the case for Rozella H. White. She came to a point where her job was no longer aligning with her core values and knew it was time for a change. Rozella started her own coaching business, RHW Consulting, became the Love Big Coach, and wrote a book – Love Big: The Power of Revolutionary Relationships to Heal the World.
Kara and Rozella talk about what big love looks like and how some of our systems don’t teach us what real love and true intimacy can be. Together they explore the messaging they were given and how learning how to face the hard truth can help us turn our lives around even when there is fear. They cover topics from their roots in church to pornography.
Rozella Haydée White (she/her/ella) is the #LoveBigCoach, author, and Social Impact Entrepreneur who is focused on nurturing love that is life-giving, justice-seeking, and healing so that all can thrive. She is a public theologian, spiritual life and leadership coach, inspirational speaker and writer committed to embodying love that is bold, intentional and generous.
RHW Consulting LLC is a coaching agency focused on supporting women and women-led organizations as they navigate change, transition and conflict utilizing a Love Ethic. RHW Consulting LLC coaches clients seeking personal and professional transformation.
Learn more about Rozella:
www.rozellahwhite.com
www.facebook.com/lovebigcoach
www.instagram.com/lovebigcoach
www.linkedin.com/in/lovebigcoach
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
Three friends: Kara, Rola, and Kirt spend some time talking about how they have deconstructed the ideas they grew up with around God, the body, and sex. Rola is a Presbyterian pastor from Lebanon who talks about what it was like growing up in a culture that cries when a girl is born, and how she has transformed her view on her body and worth. Kirt shares what it was like growing up in an Evangelical church, then becoming a pastor in that denomination and how he experienced a sense of distrust and was unable to recognize his own needs and wants.
Rola Al Ashkar is a pastor, yogi, dancer, community organizer, and nature enthusiast from Lebanon. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a liberal and progressive denomination. Rola is a certified yoga instructor (RYT 200) and the founder and organizer of ἴama yoga, a free yoga community that meets in the courtyard of Westminster Presbyterian Church, in downtown Sacramento, where she also serves as Ministry Assistant.
Rola believes that emotional, physical and spiritual health are tied together. Her hope is to make yoga accessible for everyone, and to offer through this practice healing and wholeness, in body, mind and spirit. Learn more at www.iamayoga.com
Kirt Lewis is passionate about emotional health, sexuality, environmentalism, and advancing economic equality and human rights for historically oppressed, predominantly minority communities. After leaving the church and ministry in 2017, Kirt has been engaged in conversations and passion projects centered on advancing the cause of recovery from religious trauma. Professionally, he works for International Rescue Committee, a secular humanitarian organization on a special project with the City of Sacramento that provides free professional, personal financial coaching to low to moderate income residents. Most importantly, he is learning to love and grow up into his authentic self along with his two beautiful daughters, girlfriend and warm but moderately crazy cat. Learn more at www.kirtelewis.com
*In this episode Kara uses the word homosexual but understands the proper terminology is gay.
Tuesday Jan 17, 2023
Tuesday Jan 17, 2023
Belonging is something that many of us hope for. We need to feel like there is a place for us, but sometimes the places we are in are not the places that offer us the freedom to be ourselves.
Join Kara as she talks with Katie Kuntz-Wineland, the founder of The Belonging Table. This spiritual care community by and for queers, mystics, and misfits can be fond online through Instagram. The Belonging Table offers space to explore faith and communion for those who might have experienced religious trauma. It opens the lids of the institutional boxes we find ourselves living in to appreciate where they nourished us but to let go of the harm they too have caused and find renewal. Sometimes we need permission to live into our truest selves -- Katie offers her community that permission.
Katie Kuntz-Wineland (she/her) is a queer, post-denominational minister who holds a B.A. in biblical studies, a Master of Divinity, and professional certifications in mediation and adult sexuality education.
Through @thebelongingtable, Katie offers 1:1 spiritual midwife sessions, consulting and facilitation for communities and organizations, pop-up group gatherings, and queer and interfaith weddings in Ohio. As a survivor of anti-queer religious trauma, one of Katie’s greatest passions is supporting others on their spiritual journeys of healing, liberation, and wholeness beyond those institutional boxes.
www.facebook.com/thebelongingtable
www.instagram.com/thebelongingtable
thebelongingtable.wordpress.com/about
Tuesday Jan 03, 2023
Tuesday Jan 03, 2023
In this episode Kara got to fangirl as she spoke with one of her favorite artists, David Hayward. David was a pastor for over 30 years before leaving the church and using his art to deconstruct his faith and get more in touch with who he is. His art is helping others do the same. Kara and David talk about getting to the “naked truth” and how some of this practice and knowledge can be applied to parenting. Together they explore their beliefs and their hope for the church.
Learn more and follow Naked Pastor:
www.nakedpastor.com
www.instagram.com/nakedpastor/
www.facebook.com/nakedpastor/
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
In the last episode of the year, Kara talks about self care and managing the stress of the season, upcoming podcasts in the 2023, and conversations and questions for you and your families as you navigate this season. We’ll be back in the new year! In the meantime, check out episodes you may have missed and our online store for our newest conversation card deck. If you have any feedback on topics you’d like to hear about in future podcasts, let us know and thank you for being a listener!
www.reframingourstories.com/podcast
www.reframingourstories.com/store
Tuesday Nov 15, 2022
Tuesday Nov 15, 2022
Over the pandemic as families were together in the home, some long time desires were able to be discussed with more intention and more clarity. This was the case for Kellie Edson and her husband as they decided they wanted to explore polyamory. This has always been in the back of their mind from the beginning, but over the past year or so they decided now was the time. For them, it has been a great experience and has made their relationship better. Kara and Kellie talk about Kellie’s journey into polyamory. Kellie dispels some myths, explains terminology, and provides a different lens onto how to look at all relationships.
About Kellie: I’m Kellie, polyamorous, queer 🏳️🌈 mother to two wonderful, fierce little girls and founder of the Root. When I first gave birth to my first daughter more than 8 years ago, I fell in love with birth work and started on a journey to support new families through this life-changing threshold experience.
I founded The Root to bring wellness, education and support resources to expecting and new families under one roof. The Root is the only holistic perinatal wellness center serving the greater Sacramento Area - your hub for everything Birth, Babies and Beyond. The inspiration for the studio name is two-fold. When speaking about the Chakra System - the subtle energetic bodies often described in yoga, meditation and Ayurvedic practices starts with the first chakra, the ROOT chakra. This chakra is located at the base of your spine and is formed during birth and infancy. It has everything to do with the feelings of safety and security, grounding, trust and letting go of fear. I wanted the Root to be a community built around perinatal wellness, where all parents would feel safe and seen and lay the foundation for the roots of new families to grow. In addition, in the smaller classroom of the studio, you will notice a beautiful stained glass of plant roots in the ceiling. We hope that the images of the grounding Root Chakra and the growth of literal roots inspires you on your parenting journey.
Personally, over the last 8 years I have gathered a wide array of modalities to and experience to support folks through their childbearing years. I am continuously learning, evolving and growing my offerings. It’s a common refrain in our house to hear me say, “Hey, so...I want to take this new training…” 😉
Books Kellie discussed in the podcast:
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
Wednesday Nov 02, 2022
Hearing the phrase “Sex with God” could potentially throw people off course, but in this episode Kara and Suzanne, talk about the intimacy one can experience by getting to know the true nature of who they are and how God is in that intimate space. Suzanne shares her story of living into who she is and finding the greatest love of her life. In this vulnerable and open dialogue you will learn about asexuality, gender, orientation, infidelity, desire, and leaning into God.
Suzanne DeWitt Hall (she/her/hers) is the author of Where True Love Is devotionals, the Living in Hope series which supports the family and friends of transgender people, The Path of Unlearning faith deconstruction books, and the Rumplepimple adventures. Her debut novel, The Language of Bodies (Woodhall Press) launched in October 2022. She is mildly obsessed with vintage cookbooks and the intersection of sexuality and theology. Suzanne lives with her beloved transgender husband, two terriers, and a cat named Chicken. Her work is designed to shine the light of love into hearts darkened by discrimination and fear.
Learn more about Suzanne:
https://www.wheretrueloveis.com/
https://www.instagram.com/wheretrueloveismovement/
https://www.facebook.com/WhereTrueLoveIs
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Many of us grew up thinking our bodies and sex were sinful. We were told not to trust them. The theology that accompanied that message was very authoritarian and we were made to feel not worthy. Where is Jesus in that message? Kara and Reverend Beverly Dale talk about a sex positive God and how God can be a God of pleasure.
Reverend Beverly Dale is a published writer, vocalist, and performer, in addition to being an ordained minister. Her ministry has taken her from being a pastor in a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) parish in Illinois for 6 years to 21 years of campus ministry at the University of Pennsylvania. She is presently the founder and chair of the Incarnation Institute for Sex & Faith, an educational non-profit that teaches an inclusive, science-friendly and sex-positive Christianity.
Her ministry has a very specific and unique focus: to help people of faith heal from the sexual wounding that occurs when they are taught to separate the spirit from the body, and also to provide tools for those who are developing a Christian theology that affirms the body and pleasure as God-given. She is the co-author of Advancing Sexual Health for the Christian Client: Data and Dogma.