Damned If She Does with Sarah Stankorb and Cait West

We are so excited to welcome award-winning journalist and author Sarah Stankorb back to our Grand Rapids event studio to discuss her latest book, Damned If She Does. This book is perfect for fans of Kristin Du Mez and Sarah McCammon.

Sarah will be in conversation with fellow author Cait West (Rift), and readers won’t want to miss this fascinating conversation that centers women and their decision to stay or step away from the church.

We love seeing who is planning to join us! Your RSVP helps us prepare to host you.

About the Book:

In this landmark account of American women leaving the church, award-winning journalist Sarah Stankorb, author of Disobedient Women, asks why they leave--and where they land.

Ordinarily, women are more religious than men. But these are no ordinary times. In America, where Christianity is still the most common religion, women are vacating churches. In the past decade, 16 million women have left the church. Younger women are disaffiliating from religion faster than men. For some women, leaving is like a dramatic divorce; for others, as one woman tells Stankorb, it's more like women and the church "stopped calling each other."

Exploring trends from the 1980s to today, Damned If She Does is an intimate account of women whose stories got missed during the Christian Right's headline-grabbing rise to power. Their exodus is marked by harm, disillusionment, and drift: from pastors' wives and a national Christian TV show host, to girls whose horrific abuse gives another face to the Catholic sex abuse crisis. Some couldn't stand by a church that cast out their queer friends. Others were maligned for who they loved. Churches with strong opinions on sexual purity and abortion stood beside men with histories of assault. With horror, women who loved the church watched the rise of Christian nationalism and saw their faith bastardized.

Finally, they've had enough. Some are atheists. Others are forging new spiritual avenues through astrology or energy work or connection to their ancestors. Some have a Christian faith they no longer entrust to an institution.

Attuned to emotional subtlety, women's agency, and religious longing, Stankorb asks what happens when a woman realizes that she's damned both if she stays and if she leaves. This consequential work of narrative nonfictionis a poignant reminder that women deserve better, and a tale of what happens when they don't get it.

Not able to join us? Order your copy here: https://schulerbooks.com/book/9798889837091

About the Author:

Sarah Stankorb is the author of Damned If She Does and the national best-seller Disobedient Women . The award-winning, Ohio-based writer is a fan of heartfelt truth-telling. Her work has appeared in publications including Elle, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Slate, and many others. She writes about religion, politics, feminism, health, technology, and the public good. Find her at sarahstankorb.com.

About the Conversation Partner:

Cait West is a writer, editor, and survivor advocate working to spread awareness about the harms of religious patriarchy and authoritarianism. She was featured in the documentary For Our Daughters, and her work has been published in Dunes Review, The Revealer, Fourth Genre, Hawai'i Pacific Review, and Newsweek, among others. She is the author of Rift: A Memoir and lives in Traverse City, Michigan, with her cat, Sherlock. Follow her at caitwest.com.