Live, Laugh, Love. A Mini-Book Review

A Season of Change along the Grand River, Kitchener, ON

I stopped by my favourite autumn lookout over the Grand River this week. I usually come here at dawn or dusk to watch the sun or moon rise. This year, the noon-hour sun and fast-moving clouds created shadows and brilliance that changed moment by moment. The winds were brisk, and the sky was dramatic as a new weather system moved in from the west.

Nature shows us that change is inevitable, but what may look like death is often a harbinger of new growth in a future season. I read several new books in the past month, and one of them brought my entire life into new focus and understanding. This is a very short synopsis of some of the author's historical observations and how they spoke to my own experience.

Kristin Kobes DuMez is a historian and professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2020, she released her NYT best-selling book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. Her thesis was well researched and referenced. On September 15, 2026, her latest book, Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made, was released, and it debuted at number six on the NYT list this week. I do not buy many new, best-selling books, but I purchased this one after reading several interesting reviews. 

Du Mez begins with the history of the 19th-century New Thought movement, which linked disease, poverty and misfortune to a negative mindset, and held that right-thinking brings healing and prosperity. Mary Baker Eddy was a student of this philosophy and went on to develop Christian Science teachings. My great-grandmother and a great-aunt and uncle were Christian Science adherents. 

The Holiness Movement emerged at the same time out of British and American Methodism. My great-great-grandfather was a Methodist preacher in Ontario, Canada. Over time, New Thought and the Holiness Movement ideas merged and led to prosperity gospel teaching and healing ministries. The writer argues that Christian women were influenced to stay positive and strong despite hardship and adversity. My mother exuded joy and positivity through most of her life, partially due to her optimistic personality, but also based on her faith and belief that God would bring good through obedience and godly living.

I volunteered in our church library for decades and reviewed most new books to see if they were suitable for the congregation. I visited local Christian bookstores frequently, long before online shopping was available. Du Mez uncovers the fact that many books I read, including biographies, autobiographies, and fictional stories, promoted joy in all circumstances along with patriarchal submission in domestically inclined women. From Laura Ingalls Wilder, Catherine Marshall, Elisabeth Elliot, Hannah Smith, Helen Andelin, Janette Oke, to the huge volume of Amish romance books, Christian women were cautioned against the women's liberation movement and encouraged to model home-centred joy and contentment. The marketing of these concepts was lucrative and spread to multi-level marketing of household products, makeup, wellness products, Christian movies, and more. Bloggers and social media influencers reached even more people online, and the message was increasingly politicized.

Personally, I recognize that women in the past century and a half have exercised varying degrees of independence and autonomy. My grandmother's generation fought for personhood and the right to vote. Women were essential workers during the war years, but were expected to be domestic goddesses in the 1950s and 60s. Women fought for equal rights and pay in the 1970s, but still were subject to stereotypical and sexualized treatment in the media and workplace. The #MeToo movement in the mid-2010s brought much-needed attention to unwanted sexual harassment and abuse in every corner of society, including churches. I am happy today to see women excel in education and careers and in positions of power and influence. But the pressure on women of all ages to be passive, pretty, perfect, and performative remains. 

Du Mez offers a history lesson that demonstrates how old ideas are repackaged and delivered to new generations. She writes as an American about American society, but her message is for everyone influenced by Western media, religion and philosophy. To move ahead, to grow and change, we must understand our history, social influences and the behaviours we have internalized. Women have broken these moulds, often at great personal cost, and their stories are also featured in this book. 

I have read some excellent books this year, but this one would be one of my top recommendations for all women, and for men who care about gender respect and equality, particularly in religious settings and the current political scene.

Same vantage point- different lighting and perspective