Undoing Shame and Reclaiming Pleasure: A New Conversation on Sex and Purity Culture - w/ Dr. Celeste Holbrook (Rated PG13)

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2020

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How rethinking sexuality beyond purity culture can lead to healing, empowerment, and deeper intimacy. Bonnie and Tim are joined by sexologist Dr. Celeste Holbrook for an honest, hilarious, and deeply needed conversation about disentangling shame, reframing abstinence, and reclaiming sexual wholeness within a Jesus-centered framework.

Key Takeaways: • Separating Purity Culture from Abstinence – Why defining abstinence by fear and shame is damaging, and how making informed, autonomous decisions empowers both men and women. • Addressing Shame and Fear – How purity culture instilled unspoken trauma and confusion around sex, and how to begin the healing process from those messages. • Sex as a Behavior, Not a Drive – Reframing male sexuality away from uncontrollable urges and toward mutual emotional and physical connection. • Communal Healing Around Sexuality – How conversation, education, and sensual presence can begin to undo harmful narratives and help couples rediscover intimacy. • Intentional Parenting – Why the best sex ed starts early, involves real anatomical language, and begins with parents healing their own sexual narratives.

Guest Highlights: Dr. Celeste Holbrook – A practical sexologist helping individuals and couples create healthy, pleasure-filled sex lives through education, open dialogue, and healing from shame. Celeste shares her personal story of sexual pain rooted in fear-based messaging and how it led her to a career helping others find sexual liberation and freedom in truth.

Resources Mentioned: • Dr. Celeste Holbrook's Website – drcelesteholbrook.com • 20 Sex-Enhancing Questions – Free downloadable couples' resource from Celeste's site • "Don't F*** With Cats" (Netflix Documentary) – Referenced in a pop-culture sidebar (seriously) • Esther Perel's Work – On intimacy, desire, and the psychological frameworks of sexuality • Voxology Episode Archives – Look for the "Sex, Love, and God" series with Mike Erre • Circle of Sensual Women – Dr. Celeste's private Facebook group for discussion and support

Let's keep the conversation going. If you have further questions for Celeste, want a follow-up episode, or need a resource clarification, we'd love to hear from you!

As always, we encourage thoughtful dialogue as we pursue wholeness in every area of life. Email us at hello@voxpodcast.com or engage with us on Instagram and Facebook.

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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

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If today's episode helped challenge old beliefs or spark a needed conversation, share it, leave a review, and tell a friend about Voxology. We're all on this journey together—and you're not alone.

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to hello@voxpodcast.com, and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody. Welcome to the Vox podcast.
0:17.6	Bonnie and Tim here.
0:19.1	Bonnie out in Texas land, Tim in Californiaville. Bonnie, how are you
0:23.7	today? You know what? It's winter came and I'm not pleased. But even then, when I say
0:30.5	winter, I mean like it's 30 in the morning and then the afternoon at 60s. So it's really only like
0:36.3	winters in the night.
0:44.1	Somebody just posted a funny meme online, and I don't remember what it said, but I remember the sentiment.
0:44.9	And it was something about like we're in, we have winter, then we have false spring one,
0:49.9	then we have winter two, then false spring two, and then winter three.
0:54.6	And right now we are in false spring one, I believe.
1:00.1	Oh, there you go.
1:01.0	Winter is going to head, because right now it's pretty nice.
1:02.9	It was warm yesterday.
1:04.6	But we're going to have false, we're in the false territory, and then we're going to have like a real winter.
1:10.3	Everything's late too, so it's like it's hard to judge. I know. It's weird. I know. I feel it because I don't want to get my hopes up because I'm afraid I'll get, we'll get hit with cold. We got snow last week. That's crazy. I know. It's not weird. But then it burned off by like 9 a.m.
1:26.6	It's gone.
1:28.3	Hey, Tim.
1:29.9	Yes.
1:31.0	I think we should tell the listeners about something we found out that we have in common.
1:36.0	Which is?
1:40.0	Our love for Connie Britton.
1:42.4	Oh, because we were just talking about our crazy daughters, so I didn't know if we were...
	...

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