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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