Hey guys, my name's Ashley Whitmore. I heard about your podcast from a fellow recovery.

I don't know what the term would be. But I was born and raised in Chattanooga. My husband and I both were raised in the Independent Baptist Church there.

We met in the youth group, really, you know, kind of a classic situation.

And whenever I started listening to your podcast, so much of it resonated with me personally and my husband, we are missionaries, the Amazon jungle, in Brazil.

We don't live there full time currently.

We came back a couple years ago for my husband, ended up having to have

open heart surgery, but we have a ministry that we lead and guide down there and that we're a part of

and travel back too frequently. But anyway, so we grew up in an independent Baptist church,

and I resonate with so many of the things you were talking about your King James Bible being signed, and I had that whole, you know, like the more signatures you had, like the more, the holier you were.

And so all of that resonated with us for sure.

And I remember sitting on the front row as a teenager.

You know, you had to be on the front row with your Bible and your notes open to take notes with your sermon.

That was, you know, each point had to start up the same letter.

And I just remember sitting there being like, man, my pastor is going to sit so close to Jesus in heaven.

And just growing up in that atmosphere where it was just fear-based.

And I remember, like, checklist Christianity was just fear-based and I remember like

checklist Christianity was like my life and I did all the right things I was literally the

poster child I went to public school I remember having my Bible on top of my books and you know

going to see you at the pole and like all of the things wearing the Christian t-shirts on any

you know dressed down day that I could.

And just following all the rules and doing all the right things. And my husband and I, like I said,

we met in the youth group and we grew up together. We went on mission trips together and God called

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