Grace Kingsley Miller

In this special bonus ‘Mother’s Day’ Episode, I sit down for a conversation with my 18 year-old daughter, Grace Kingsley Miller. Grace spent her formative years growing up in the Bible belt and being raised in the conservative, white evangelical church. But at some point in her journey, she questioned all that she had been taught to believe about faith and politics.

In this candid conversation, Grace and I talk about ‘what happened’ to our family as we opened our hearts up to stories and voices from the margins that completely shifted our faith and politics.

Grace shares her story of growing up in the Bible Belt and the damaging effects purity culture had on her as a teenage girl.  She opens up about the messages she got about what it meant to be a female in the conservative church and how she felt it devalued her worth.

But perhaps what is most impactful is Grace talks about the people and stories she encountered along the way that started to change everything for her and our family. Grace’s faith and political beliefs started a profound shift, as she met real people on the margins and she started to question all she had been taught to believe in the church. As Grace began to  question and search for who Jesus really was and what it really means to ‘love your neighbor’, the shift in her faith paradigm had a profound effect on what her parents had always taught her to be true.

Grace lives in the Kansas City area with her parents and 12 year-old sister. She will be a student at the University of Kansas this fall, majoring in Political Science with dreams of working towards having an impact on social justice in the political  arena.