Welcome to Job with Julie. I am Julie Slattery. This podcast is a production of authentic intimacy, a ministry dedicated to reclaiming God's design for sexuality.

Well, today I'm joined by two of my good friends, Don Jones and Denise Sweraz. And we together were recently at our annual sexual discipleship leadership summit,

and I was so grateful for the opportunity to sit down with these two friends. They're both

professional women who are trained therapists, and to talk specifically about some of the

cultural similarities and differences of how sexuality has been presented and taught in white, black, and Latino

cultures, particularly within religious settings.

I learned a lot just by asking some questions of these two women.

For example, I didn't realize that in the black community, they didn't really go through

the purity movement the same way our mainstream culture has.

Or Denisea shares about how cosmetic surgery is a huge social pressure in many Latino cultures.

And so we're going to talk about the pressure to be beautiful, bearing the blame when you're

sexually violated, and how confusing it is to get a lot of different messages about appearances

and body, both from within the church and within the cultural context.

You know, I think a large part of working towards unity in the body of Christ is to talk about what we have in common in Christ, but also to learn from each other in sensitivity for our differences.

Now, I know I just mentioned that Don and Denise are both professional therapist.

Don lives in the St. Louis area.

Denisea lives in Colorado Springs.

And you can connect with them in their practices if you like to.

We'll have links to their particular practices in our show notes, as well as my book,

Rethinking Sexuality, and a blog called Being Sexy has nothing

to do with your body.

But before we head to the coffee shop, have you subscribed to Jabba with Julie yet?

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