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@sautter.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 2:43 PM

Why are women leaving churches and where are they going instead? A journalist explains.
religionnews.com/2026/09/17/w... .

#religion | #books | #SarahStankorb | #DamnedIfSheDoes | #KathrynPost | #Christianity | #RNS .

(RNS) — Before she was an agnostic and a religion reporter known for her sharp analysis of abuse in churches, Sarah Stankorb was a faithful United Methodist who believed she was called to Christian ministry.

“My green, leather-bound Bible lived on my nightstand and traveled with me to church each week and to youth group meetings and retreats,” she writes in her latest book, “Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion.”

In her teens, she was taught a literalist understanding of the Bible in an evangelical Bible study — and in college, when she was exposed to different, non-literal interpretations of the Bible, her faith shattered.

A woman reads the Holy Bible, "...kill every woman who has known a man by sleeping with him. But all the young girls who have not known a man....keep them alive for yourselves."
- Moses (Numbers 31:17)

"My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal
stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally."
- JOHN DOMINIC CROSSAN

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