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Cults, Culture & Coercion with Dr. Steve Hassan

The Kingdom of Children: A Liberation Theology. Homeschool Ideologies in Evangelical Christianity With R.L. Stollar, M.H.S., M.A.

Cults, Culture & Coercion with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education

4.7843 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There are many reasons why parents or guardians choose to homeschool their children for some portion or all of their educational years. This can range from a child having a disability or neurodiversity, concerns about the quality of education, to other topics like moral or religious conflict with traditional schools. Ryan Stollar shared the story of his experiences as a homeschooled child of an Evangelical family upbringing. He also talks about some of the trauma that he has experienced or witnessed from homeschooling ideologies, including sexual and/or physical abuse. Ryan’s childhood included physical punishments from his parents, consistent with church doctrine. “There were teachers in evangelicalism who promoted how to raise and train children. And they always include corporal punishment,” he said. Ryan included that these punishments drove a wedge between him and his parents. He also noted that as he grew older and began speaking with other homeschooled children, he began to realize how bad some others had it concerning inadequate education, misogyny towards women’s roles, and other forms of abuse. This was when he decided to act in the name of future homeschool children to prevent their abuse. Ryan is the author of the book The Kingdom of Children: A Liberation Theology. He co-founded the website Homeschoolers Anonymous, where many people who have been homeschooled share their stories of experiences and trauma. If you care about children, and worry about what is happening in America, this is an interview you will want to listen to and share. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of my podcast, Colts, Culture, and Coercion.

0:10.6

And I have with me today a special guest, Ryan Stoller.

0:17.2

Ryan and I have served on a nonprofit advisory board for the Child Friendly Faith Project,

0:24.5

but this is the first time we're meeting Ryan to talk. I want to say that you consider

0:31.2

yourself a child liberation theologian and an advocate for children and abuse survivors.

0:39.6

Ryan has written a book called The Kingdom of Children, a Liberation Theology,

0:45.8

what we're going to get into momentarily.

0:48.7

And you have a very interesting personal experience that we want to unpack, but I'll also add that you were homeschooled.

0:58.2

You later co-founded a viral website called Home Schoolers Anonymous that we're going to get

1:04.0

into learning about. You've authored the first and comprehensive curricula for child abuse

1:10.3

awareness and suicide prevention,

1:13.2

tailored to homeschooling families and communities.

1:17.6

So you're working on another book on the evangelical homeschooling movement,

1:23.0

and you're active on social media.

1:26.1

Ryan Stoller, welcome to my podcast.

1:30.1

Thank you so much for having me, Stephen.

1:32.2

It's great to be here.

1:33.4

I've been following your work for a long time, really admire it.

1:36.3

Oh, thank you so much.

1:37.8

So you have degrees, but tell us your story.

1:43.4

How did you get, what was your childhood like and what has led you on this path to helping children and abuse survivors?

1:51.7

Yeah, so I was raised in a evangelical home.

...

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