Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of sexual abuse.
You’ve seen them — maybe at the airport with pamphlets, or quietly shopping at a farmer’s market. Dressed in starched shirts, tie-back bonnets, pressed skirts. Singing in gentle harmonies. Smiling softly. The Holdeman Mennonites, they’ll tell you, are just humble people of faith.
Quiet.
Nonviolent.
Pure.
But purity can be a costume. And obedience, a weapon.
Today’s guest, Billy Holdeman-Bass grew up in that world.
And there were things that didn’t get sung about.
Doors that stayed locked.
And a question his mother never answered: “Why do you always follow me to the bathroom?”
Behind the hymnals and homemade apple pies lies a truth that can’t stay buried forever. In this episode, that truth begins to speak.
________
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