<![CDATA[It Has to Be Said.: In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer]]>https://frankschaeffer.substack.com/s/in-conversation-with-frank-schaefferhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3INd!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fafb4dd15-be74-422f-9b38-3586b51d099d_256x256.pngIt Has to Be Said.: In Conversation… with Frank Schaefferhttps://frankschaeffer.substack.com/s/in-conversation-with-frank-schaefferSubstackWed, 05 Aug 2026 03:53:24 GMT<![CDATA[When Churches Protect Themselves Instead of People.]]>https://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/when-churches-protect-themselveshttps://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/when-churches-protect-themselvesFri, 24 Jul 2026 13:00:33 GMTBoz Tchividjian has spent years representing survivors of abuse inside churches and religious institutions. As Billy Graham’s grandson, he knows evangelical culture from the inside. As an attorney, he has seen what happens when institutions value reputation over justice.

We talk about power, celebrity pastors, patriarchal systems, Christian nationalism, and why survivors often find more healing through accountability than silence.

This is a conversation about choosing truth over institutional self-protection.

LINKS

https://bozlawpa.com

In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

]]><![CDATA[Melissa Duge Spiers on What Happens After You Leave a High-Control Religion]]>https://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/melissa-duge-spiers-on-what-happenshttps://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/melissa-duge-spiers-on-what-happensMon, 27 Apr 2026 16:03:11 GMTI joined Melissa Duge Spiers to talk about her experience growing up in a high-control religious environment.

We talked about the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but also about something broader. What it does to a person to be raised in a system where you’re taught not to trust your own thoughts or instincts.

In Conversation with Frank Schaeffer. is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Melissa talked about how that kind of control doesn’t end when you leave. It shows up later in the body, in relationships, in ways you don’t always understand.

We talked about generational trauma and how it moves through families. How it gets carried forward even when no one is naming it.

We also talked about sexuality. About repression and reaction. About trying to take back control without knowing what that even means yet.

And we talked about why this still matters now.

Because the same patterns don’t just stay private. They shape the larger culture.

Melissa Duge Spiers
Memoirist, essayist, screenwriter. Author of HOLY DISOBEDIENCE, out in May 2026 with Lake Drive Books.

]]><![CDATA[Leah Libresco Sargeant on The Dignity of Dependence]]>https://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/leah-libresco-sargeant-on-the-dignityhttps://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/leah-libresco-sargeant-on-the-dignityThu, 09 Apr 2026 03:31:05 GMTLeah Libresco Sargeant and I talk about something simple that we spend a lot of time avoiding.

We are not autonomous.

We talk about women’s bodies, pregnancy, and the way those realities don’t fit a culture built around control and choice.

We talk about the idea that a good life is one where everything is chosen, and why that breaks down the moment someone depends on you.

And we come back, again and again, to this:

The parts of life we treat as interruptions are often the point.

LINKS

Other Feminisms
Creating a culture that values interdependence over autonomy
By Leah Libresco Sargeant

In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

]]><![CDATA[Too Precious to Lose | A Conversation with Jason G. Green]]>https://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/too-precious-to-lose-a-conversationhttps://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/too-precious-to-lose-a-conversationTue, 17 Feb 2026 17:32:49 GMTI sat down with Jason G. Green to talk about his beautiful memoir Too Precious to Lose. He served in the Obama White House, but this book is about something deeper; family, race, memory, and the kind of community that shapes a life. It’s a thoughtful conversation about where we are as a country and what we risk losing.

It Has to Be Read. is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

LINKS

Watch the Film Finding Fellowship

Visit Jason G. Green Online

]]><![CDATA[Why Play Matters for Children and Families | Making It Up with Christopher Mannino]]>https://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/why-play-matters-for-children-andhttps://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/why-play-matters-for-children-andSun, 25 Jan 2026 13:02:48 GMTI’ve spent a lifetime raising children and helping raise grandchildren. In this conversation with Christopher Mannino, I found myself recognizing ideas I’ve learned not from books, but from years of showing up. This is about play, imagination, and why presence — not performance — is what children remember.

LINKS

https://www.christophermannino.com

In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a viewer-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

]]><![CDATA[According to J.R.R. Tolkien scholar Michael D.C. Drout, The Lord of the Rings is not a story about winning; it’s a story about what victory costs.]]>https://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/according-to-jrr-tolkien-scholarhttps://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/according-to-jrr-tolkien-scholarFri, 09 Jan 2026 19:07:34 GMTAccording to J.R.R. Tolkien scholar and The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Creation author Michael D.C. Drout, The Lord of the Rings is not a story about winning; it’s a story about what victory costs.

Middle-earth survives Sauron, but the elves depart, the age of wonder ends, and Frodo cannot remain in the Shire he helped save. In this conversation, Drout argues that Tolkien’s central moral insight is that there are no shortcuts, no perfected worlds, and no triumphs without sacrifice, and that this refusal of easy consolation is precisely why Tolkien’s work continues to matter.

This is a conversation about The Lord of the Rings and the work of Tolkien that felt worth having and sharing right now. Not because it offers comfort or answers, but because it takes these beloved books seriously at a time when so much feels unstable and dangerous.

Talking with Michael D.C. Drout helped me see again why J.R.R. Tolkien has mattered to so many of us for so long; not as an escape from the world, but as a way of facing it honestly, without cynicism and without false hope. It’s a calm, thoughtful conversation about loss, responsibility, beauty, and why some stories still help us hold steady when things feel like they’re coming apart.

In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

]]><![CDATA[The Christian Nationalist Dystopia We Pretended Was Fiction]]>https://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/the-christian-nationalist-dystopiahttps://frankschaeffer.substack.com/p/the-christian-nationalist-dystopiaFri, 09 Jan 2026 13:03:17 GMTNovelist TJ Poortinga joins me to talk about Electric Orange, a darkly comic, theologically sharp warning written from inside evangelical culture. We unpack Christian nationalism, masculinity, media rage, and why secular America keeps misreading religious power.

Electric Orange by TJ Poortinga

Purchase on Amazon Bookshop

In Conversation… with Frank Schaeffer is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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