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TIA LEVINGS

Healing After Christian Fundamentalism

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HI, I’M TIA LEVINGS

I’m an author exploring anti-fundamentalism after church-sanctioned domestic abuse in high-control religion.

I appeared in Shiny Happy People on Amazon Prime, and my memoir, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy, released with St. Martin’s Press on August 6th, 2024. Buy it in hardcover, digital, and audio anywhere you buy books.

Welcome to my work.

I’m so glad you’re here.

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Yes, that was me in Shiny Happy People.

My reels are listed by category in this directory.

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"But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, for they think their dreams into reality with eyes wide open." - TE Lawrence

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I’ve spent the last 8 years resisting what I kne

I’ve spent the last 8 years resisting what I knew, but didn’t want to admit, was true. The reason why Trump’s candidacy didn’t end with the release of his vile comments is because they do it too. He gives them permission to stop hiding it and start legislating it.

More than 90% of abusers are people children know, love, and trust. 50% of abuse victims are harmed by someone outside of their family whom they know and trust.

Because evangelical children spend so much of their time at church (I attended a church-related function 6 days a week for example) and because we know evangelical churches have an appalling lack of accountability (see reporting by @reachjulieroys work, education and advocacy by @sheilagregoire and historian @kkdumez as well as the documentary @forourdaughtersfilm) and because we have so much testimonial evidence from #religioustrauma and #exevangelical survivors, we deeply understand how little autonomy and consent exists in the evangelical environment.

JD Vance is poised with the relay baton, waiting for Trump’s elderly demise, backed by the fundamentalists behind Project 2025. As the debate displayed, he can be more polite. But polite doesn’t equate to safety. Every dirty pastor knows how to be polite.

To learn more about what the fundamentalists want for our country, and how I escaped to reclaim my life, read NYT Bestseller A WELL-TRAINED WIFE, available anywhere books are sold. It’s available in hardcover, ebook, and audio, and I read the audio myself.

Personally, I’d love to outsell Vance’s Hillbilly. Want to help?

#awelltrainedwife #grabhimbytheballot #quietpartoutloud #churchtoo #fundies #autonomy #consent #womensrights #abortionishealthcare #dobbs #contraception #underhiseye #hillbillyelegy

It was a plot twist in book placement I never saw

It was a plot twist in book placement I never saw coming. Bookstores have had A WELL-TRAINED WIFE all over the place—memoirs, biographies, new releases, new & notable, and NYT Bestsellers. But my local B & N moved it to an end cap when I signed my copies, and I found it funny-ironic when I realized I was next to Demi Tebow’s book.

Her book promotes the lifestyle and beliefs I suffered for, the Christian woman I tried to be. My book tells the story of how that sacrifice worked out.Her husband and I are from the same church. His mother taught young wives like me to keep sweet, to sing and smile at our children—she was one of my shiny, happy role models to be a Godly wife. Demi and I are two sides of a system. Your mileage may vary.

Rather than just call attention to his wife and applaud her accomplishment, Tim “checked on his girl,” and signed her books himself, scrawling across the page where authors sign. This is performative patriarchy—reinforcing the message that in evangelical patriarchy, 2 become 1 who are him. All work is his, for him, for them who is also him. His name is value—she’s not enough on her own—and their voice is united and is his. As someone excommunicated for not putting my writing in my husband’s name, I feel deep compassion for Demi, who may not even feel like she needs that until she’s older and wiser.

My book offers a reality check on Christian Patriarchy. After years of hard work and therapy I took my voice back. A WELL-TRAINED WIFE is available anywhere books are sold, and I read the audible myself.

#awelltrainedwife #demitebow #timtebow #christianpatriarchy #useyourvoice #ownvoice #fundies #shinyhappypeople #iblp #cultsurvivor #fundiebabyvoice #religioustrauma #underhiseye

New York Times Bestseller. Debut. Trauma Survivor.

New York Times Bestseller. Debut. Trauma Survivor. Mother Artist Writer Hiker Friend. All of these things go together. Amazing—what a DIAMOND DAY of reclamation. The exact opposite of what patriarchy said I had to be.

I’ll be crying happy tears for a while. You can grab a copy of A WELL-TRAINED WIFE anywhere books are sold, in hardcover, digital, and audio. Links for signed copies in my bio @tialevingswriter

#awelltrainedwife #smashthepatriarchy #educated #newmemoirs #nytbestseller #debutauthor #womensupoortingwomen #traumasurvivor #religioustrauma #exevangelical #exvangelical #exmo #fundies #shinyhappypeople #tradwife #tradlife #project2025 #handmaidstale #myvoice #unwritten #stmartinspress #macmillan

Photo dump from this weekend, the last weekend bef

Photo dump from this weekend, the last weekend before the launch festivities for A WELL-TRAINED WIFE get underway. We took a road trip to North Carolina.

Highlights: seeing my fellow writer friends on the shelf at @page158books was like walking into a room with friends. @sheilagregoire @sarahmccammon_journalist @kirstenmillerbooks

Meanwhile, early copies are arriving and showing up in coffee shops, by the pool, and in reading piles. @amberforiowa

Trophy Pizza and brewery, a city of parks, so many flowers in July, time to breathe.

There are two readings in Jacksonville—opening night @bookmarkbythesea and a lit chat with @jaxpsychogeo Tim Gilmore at @happy_medium_books on the 7th. That one is ticked but free for capacity so be sure to check the website.

Lastly, get a free lifetime subscription to my Substack when you preorder the book through August 5. Send your proof of purchase to contact@tialevings.com

A WELL-TRAINED WIFE is available anywhere you buy books in hardcover, digital, or audio (yes, I read it myself with @macmillan.audio) links to purchase personalized copies through @sanmarcobooks and get your preorder gifts are in my IG bio @tialevingswriter

Check it out if to see what the Christian Patriarchy has planned for America, and especially if you’re a #tradwifeintraining

#awelltrainedwife #booklaunch #catladies #indienext #indiebookstores #localbookstore #wakeforestnc #jacksonville #smashthepatriarchy #trophybrewing #timely #rippedfromtheheadlines #underhiseye #fundies #tradwife #domesticabuse

The book club discussion guide for A WELL-TRAINED

The book club discussion guide for A WELL-TRAINED WIFE is available on TiaLevings.com now. To get it (it’s free) find it under Religious Trauma Resources in the main menu.

#awelltrainedwife #bookclub #bookclubs #bookchat #nytbestseller #bookclubbooks #bookstagram #educated #ahandmaidstale #bookdiscussion #kirkusreviews #tellyourstory #tellyourfriends

Alarm bells over yet another big family reality sh

Alarm bells over yet another big family reality show. Hilaria Baldwin, dripping in babies as the smoking hot wife in Vogue magazine, is what Michelle Duggar, dripping in babies as the submissive wife in Parents Magazine is to the big family trad movement. Different clothes, same message. The exploitation of shined up happy ideals continues. Watch the faces of the kids and center survivors and you’ll know what you need to know.

#baldwins #19kidsandcounting #quiverfull #bigfamilies #parentification #awelltrainedwife #shinyhappypeople #realitytv #tradwives #childhoodtrauma #attachmenttrauma #michelleduggar #hilariabaldwin #voguemagazine #parentsmagazine

As we see in the headlines: The Christian Patriarc

As we see in the headlines: The Christian Patriarchy runs their homes is how they want to run our country.

So I’ve made it my mission to share with you what it’s really like to live behind closed doors in Christian Fundamentalism and to guide you through what it looks like to deconstruct their ideas. I hope my work benefits you in all of the above ways. This work helps me reclaim all I went through. It helps good come from what was meant for evil.

I do this work through my transparent, vulnerable memoir, social media platform, and my substack—The Anti-Fundamentalist.

From July 28-August 5, get a free lifetime subscription to The Anti-Fundamentalist when you send your proof of preorder to contact@TiaLevings.com

You can preorder A WELL-TRAINED WIFE anywhere books are sold in hardcover, digital, and audio. Personalized copies and preorder gifts are available. Links in my IG bio @tialevingswriter

#awelltrainedwife #fundamentalism #highcontrol #religioustrauma #whyarechristianssoweird #exevangelical #exmo #exjw #formercultmember #shinyhappypeople #patriarchy #smashthepatriarchy #gilead #fundies #fundiebabyvoice #duggars #churchabuse #tradwife #tradlife #tradcatholic

My algorithm predicts I will enjoy artistic conten

Is Tim Tebow in a WELL-TRAINED WIFE? Creating co

Is Tim Tebow in a WELL-TRAINED WIFE?

Creating composite characters is a storytelling technique memoirists use to combine several similar characters into one. It streamlines the story, cleans up the list of names readers are tracking, and keeps the focus on the point rather than the personality. The Millers and the Smalls are both composite families in my book.

During the years I was a young wife, the Tebow family was mostly serving as missionaries. But when they returned home to Jacksonville on furlough and then for good, they were a part of our home schooling community. The older Tebow sisters went to summer camp the same years I did. Pam Tebow was a role model (sweetly fem, soft voiced, singing scripture) and theirs was an exemplary family. Young families like mine turned to IBLP families like theirs for advice and guidance. We were part of the same formative congregation. I once had “please pray for young Timmie’s decision to choose baseball or football” on my prayer list.

A man signing his wife’s books might also be called performing patriarchy.

You can read what impact devout fundamentalists had in our SBC megachurch in New York Times Bestseller A WELL-TRAINED WIFE, available anywhere books are sold in hardcover, audio, and ebook.

#timtebow #awelltrainedwife #iblp #shinyhappypeople #religioustrauma #fundies #billgothard #cultsurvivor #demitebow #barnesandnoble #deconstruction #dvsurvivor #writingmemoir #culty

How long have the architects of Project 2025 been

How long have the architects of Project 2025 been at work? What did that look like in churches?

I know I still believe in the importance of repentance when I look back and realize my complicity in the oppressive system that determined there was one “right” way to live and anyone outside of it was headed for hell. The casual dismissiveness my religion applied to non-believers disgusts and horrifies me today, and to be honest, most of it did then too. This is why the violence of Old Testament Bible stories are included in the religious trauma I still work through.

For example: the verses that condone violence against the enemies of God. This includes Psalm 137:9, in which the chosen ones ask God to seize their enemies infants and dash them against the rocks. But also the vision of humanity drowning while a solitary family was saved. As evangelicals and fundamentalists, we used stories like that to justify how people who didn’t believe the way we did would burn in eternal flames—and we fixated on the cruel depictions of their never-ending pain and thirst.

A modern day somewhat progressive Christian will shutter the OT away and suggest those stories are taken out of context. But then listen to the Nationalist preachers—such as Greg Locke—and biblical warmongering draped in love-language begins to sound one and the same with the OT. Graceless. Unkind. Unaccepting and unloving of the neighbor.

Repentance is important if we hope to move forward, save democracy, and rebuild our communities. Owning our past is the first step to living in freedom. I hope my freedom leads to freedom for others. After all, unless everyone is free, no one is. And what good is all that religion if it doesn’t actually set anyone free?

Books included:
Jesus and John Wayne @kristin_dumez
The Handmaid’s Tale @therealmargaretatwood
Untamed @glennondoyle
Educated @itsmetarajane
Wayward @alicegreczyn
Pure @lindakayklein
Wiving @caitlinwalksatnight
Dissent- Jackie Calmes

A WELL-TRAINED WIFE is available now!

#exevangelical #progressivechristianity #fundies #changeyourmind #religioustrauma #biblestories #gilead #handmaidstale #jesusandjohnwayne #untamed #educated #project2025

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