Talking to Shannon Harris about "The Woman They Wanted"

<p>Shannon Harris is on the podcast this week. We talk about her new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Woman-They-Wanted-Shattering-Christian/dp/150648316X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ZAHS6BWW02EY&amp;keywords=the+woman+they+wanted&amp;qid=1694790631&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the+woman+they+wanted%2Cstripbooks%2C161&amp;sr=1-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Woman they Wanted: Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife</em></a></p><p>I have a particular interest in this book because it's a behind the scenes look at the culture of the church I grew up in: Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. There is national relevance for Shannon's story, however, because she was married to Joshua Harris, author of <em>I Kissed Dating Goodbye</em>, for 21 years. Josh's book was a national best-seller and shaped the romantic and sexual lives of countless evangelical Christians. Josh and Shannon divorced <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/29/us/joshua-harris-divorce-apology-scli-intl/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">in 2019</a>, which was big enough news at the time to be written up by CNN.</p><p>I asked Shannon:</p><ul><li>who she wrote the book for</li><li>how she thinks about the idea that some will not listen to anything she says because she doesn't believe everything they do</li><li>the ways in which the church we both spent years in taught us to distrust our intuition and our gut</li><li>about her account of the sidelining and erasure of women in a religious subculture</li></ul><p><br></p><p>I read this book very quickly. It's well-written, highly readable, and written in very short chapters. I also think Shannon deals with delicate stories involving other people — especially the leaders from our church — with a deft and tasteful touch.</p><p><br></p><p>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info