In Polite Company

Yesteryear: Missing Its Spiritual Center

Sarah Stankorb — Thu, 28 May 2026 13:56:49 GMT

If I have seen you in the past month, odds are high you have asked me whether I’ve read Yesteryear yet. It’s the tradwife book of the summer. Anne Hathaway optioned it when the book was still an unpublished manuscript. It is in the Good Morning America book club! I don’t know that Jesus has sold as many books this season as author Caro Claire Burke, and…

Flimsy Worship, Mythmaking, and that Golden Idol, Christian Nationalism

Sarah Stankorb — Wed, 20 May 2026 15:38:09 GMT

I’m building a street team for Damned If She Does—borrowing an idea from the pre-digital age when grassroots music fans helped create buzz for new albums or singles by influencing radio stations, friends, and concert-goers locally. I don’t know that this book will catch on immediately (though I’ll try!). I suspect, though, it’s going to find its readers…

We’re Making a Movie

Sarah Stankorb — Thu, 14 May 2026 15:15:34 GMT

Me, tucked beside a camera, not realizing another was pointed at me. Photo credit: Jude Hope Harris

Over recent days, in a beautiful hardwood cabin, in a location I can’t yet share, four of us gathered hours from our homes and recorded the painful tale of a source whose story I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell for years. Between th…

In Handmaid's Robes, She Protests Pete Hegseth’s Church

Sarah Stankorb — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:11:50 GMT

A Maryland woman I’ll call June tells me, “I’m a nobody. I got no name. I got no profile. I got no follow, right?” She is 49 years old and spends her Sundays dressed in a Handmaid’s Tale costume to protest Douglas Wilson’s Washington, D.C., Christ Church satellite. She stands somberly, says nothing, and stares down Pete Hegseth and others as they enter …

Self-Reported Abuse Among Homeschoolers

Sarah Stankorb — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:10:47 GMT

Before I launch in: I published a couple of articles in the past week that might be of interest. The first was for , and featured a detailed run-down of the extremist bills that have resulted from gerrymandering in Ohio. The other was for Religion Unplugged, and dove into competing survey data from Gallup and , asking why the media and some Christian gr…

Watching Douglas Wilson get schooled in a debate

Sarah Stankorb — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:54:49 GMT

YouTube screenshot, Wajahat Ali and Douglas Wilson

There’s a clip making the rounds online that has created a delicious uproar: alongside Wajahat Ali (of ) and , Douglas Wilson recently made an appearance on Piers Morgan’s program, Uncensored. Over the course of about eight minutes, during which Wilson nervously tapped his fingers, gaped and grew despond…

Slopaganda: Our Salvation?

Sarah Stankorb — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:50:34 GMT

Light from space, the vacuum of war

Sarah Stankorb — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:22:40 GMT

NASA; our president’s social media

This week, four North American astronauts made history, breaking the record for distance traveled from Earth by humans. As they drifted in the void, pulled by the moon’s orbit, their eyes locked on a visible slice of Earth, a crescent of blue and brown, rivers and thunderclouds. They also saw where light caught the lip …

The story of Eve

Sarah Stankorb — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 15:58:57 GMT

There’s a screenshot that has been going around. It’s a tweet from Joel Webbon, pastor of Right Response Ministries, Douglas Wilson-wannabe, and enemy to free-thinking women everywhere. He has said there is no place in America for non-Christians and opposes women’s suffrage. He opposes interracial marriage on the grounds that it goes against God’s norma…

Attitudes Shifting on LGBTQ+ Rights

Sarah Stankorb — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:51:36 GMT

The Public Religion Research Institute () recently announced a broad survey of over 22,000 American adults. The data, from the 2025 PRRI American Values Atlas, asked about LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections, religiously-based refusals of service, and same-sex marriage.

Here’s some good news: Strong majorities (72%) of people in virtually all major reli…

More Duggar Arrests

Sarah Stankorb — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:18:23 GMT

Duggars, including recent booking photos of Joseph and Kendra Duggar.

Last week, Kendra Duggar was arrested for four counts of child endangerment and four counts of false imprisonment. This came on the heels of charges that her husband, Joseph, 31, had sexually assaulted a girl, then age nine. On a call with the victim’s father and a detective, Joseph re…

Doug Wilson’s Entourage Publishes Anti-Survivor Disinformation Video

Sarah Stankorb — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 16:34:56 GMT

We must call Christian Nationalism precisely what it is

Sarah Stankorb — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 18:00:04 GMT

I know I can be painfully explicit about wrongdoing in religious circles. I imagine some might think I take this position because I am an agnostic and therefore have no stake in the health of the church, or worse, want to tear it down. Actually, I am driven to report wrongdoing by people who claim their actions are sanctioned by God or the church or div…

Who Wins in a Moral Debate between Tucker Carlson and Douglas Wilson?

Sarah Stankorb — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 20:12:55 GMT

Recently, America’s neo-Confederate, patriarchy-loving, Christian nationalist pastor, Douglas Wilson, interviewed Tucker Carlson.* Ever curious about the Right and far-Right, last week, I watched it and got to experience a strange test of my moral compass. It’s weird watching two people you generally disagree with having trouble coming to common ground …

Cover Reveal! Damned If She Does

Sarah Stankorb — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:52:53 GMT

I am so excited to share the cover of my next book, Damned If She Does, with you. As my Substack subscribers, you get the first look. (Please don’t share this widely until about 3 pm eastern today—and then, please, go nuts on social media if you are as excited as I am!)

Damned If She Does is now officially available for preorder, and I’ll tell you what t…

Christian Patriarchy 101

Sarah Stankorb — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:00:43 GMT

Welcome new subscribers! I’m thinking about what sort of bonus community content you might all appreciate. If you have a preference: monthly book club, Zoom chat with an author or other figure relevant in the worlds of religion/politics/gender, or some other regular, virtual activity, please let me know in the comments. I want to better connect people w…

Doug Wilson’s Christian Nationalist Dreams Come True at the Pentagon

Sarah Stankorb — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 22:08:53 GMT

Yesterday, my eyes popped as ’s A Public Witness dropped some news into my inbox: Pastor Douglas Wilson, famed Christian patriarch and proud Christian nationalist was guest preacher at this month’s Christian worship service at the Pentagon. (For those of you squinting to see separation of church and state, that invisible line evaporates right under Pete…

Antifascist Astrology Gives a Heads Up

Sarah Stankorb — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:54:48 GMT

As I was researching for my upcoming book, Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion, I found some folks who are content not believing or belonging to any tradition. But I also found many people who left church to embrace schools of thought most affectionately call woo woo.

Rather than ceasing to believe altog…

One antidote to Christian nationalist myopia

Sarah Stankorb — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:40:18 GMT

Clergy in Springfield, Ohio, rally for their Haitian neighbors.

Our Insatiable, Confused President

Sarah Stankorb — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 19:36:20 GMT

Like many, I’ve been struggling to find the right words to describe the current state of our president, and in turn, the state of our country. In the run-up to Trump’s trip to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum this week, I penned an essay for DAME Magazine, in which I wondered whether “Donald Trump’s appetites are so extreme, likening them…