Do you want to help others heal from purity culture? Host a purity culture story exchange!

Several years ago, Linda hosted her first potluck dinner for people raised in conservative religious communities with “some things to work out around gender and sexuality.” They gathered around her dining room table and exchanged stories, moving from silence and shame into voice and community. That first dinner was such a success that they gathered again the next month, and the next, and the next for over the year. When Linda launched Break Free Together, she brought the story exchange model to churches, seminaries, backyards, kitchens and living rooms around the world.

On the surface, we’re just telling stories. No lesson, no confession, just a chance to tell the truth about our lives. We share our stories. And we listen to the stories of others. It’s that simple. (Simple. Not easy.)

But beneath the surface, we are upending everything we’ve been taught. Many of us have been silenced – sometimes severely. We’ve been shamed. And we’ve internalized that shame, resulting in everything inside of us screaming that we can’t ever talk about our fear, our anxiety, our confusion, or our pain. But we know better. We know if we want to heal, we have to get real about where we’ve been, where we are, and where we hope to go with people who get it.

We paused the story exchange model at the top of the pandemic and are in the midst of pivoting our work in this area to reach an even large audience. Stay tuned for more details as they are available.