Ethridge, Shannon

PERSONAL:

Married Greg Ethridge; children: Erin, Matthew. Education: Liberty University, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—East Texas.

CAREER:

Writer, speaker, lay counselor for Teen Mania Ministries, 1999—. Previously worked as a mortician.

WRITINGS:

Every Woman's Battle: How to Guard Your Heart and Mind against Sexual and Emotional Compromise, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2003.

Every Woman's Battle: Discovering God's Plan for Sexual and Emotional Fulfillment, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2003.

Every Young Woman's Battle Workbook: How to Pursue Purity in a Sex-Saturated World, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2004.

Every Young Woman's Battle: Guarding Your Mind, Heart, and Body in a Sex-saturated World, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2004.

Every Woman's Battle Promise Book: God's Words of Encouragement to Guard Your Heart, Mind, and Body, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2005.

Every Single Woman's Battle: Guarding Your Heart and Mind against Sexual and Emotional Compromise: A Companion Guide for Personal or Group Study, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2005.

Every Woman, Every Day: 365 Readings to Encourage, Instruct and Uplift, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2005.

Preparing Your Daughter for Every Woman's Battle: Creative Conversations about Sexual and Emotional Integrity, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2005.

(With husband, Greg Ethridge) Every Woman's Marriage Workbook: How to Ignite the Joy and Passion You Both Desire, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2006.

(With Greg Ethridge) Every Woman's Marriage: Igniting the Joy and Passion You Both Desire, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2006.

Completely Forgiven: Responding to God's Transforming Grace, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2007.

Completely Blessed: Discovering God's Extraordinary Gifts, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2007.

Completely Irresistible: Drawing Others to God's Extravagant Love, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2007.

Completely Loved: Recognizing God's Passionate Pursuit of Us, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2007.

Completely His: Loving Jesus without Limits, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Shannon Ethridge is a writer, public speaker, and a lay counselor for Teen Mania Ministries. Her mission is to spread the word regarding what she refers to as sexual purity, the understanding that sexual relations should be an adult expression of love that is shared through consent, without the presence of force or any sort of power or manipulations. She first became concerned with the growing promiscuity among young people when she was just twenty years old and working as a mortician. More and more, the younger people she found herself embalming had died either from AIDS or had committed suicide as a result of the despair they felt upon receiving a positive HIV diagnosis. Ethridge herself had experienced a promiscuous childhood and young adulthood, and so she felt a particular connection to these individuals, as she knew from personal experience that she herself might have easily gone down the same path. Only her faith provided her with the spirit to rise above her earlier decisions and to lead a different kind of life.

Ethridge had a religious childhood, but as she reached adolescence found herself swayed by a combination of poor education regarding sexual behavior and the influence of two uncles whose flirting and inappropriate touching taught her early that her looks and her own behavior could be used to garner attention from men. Having no clear understanding of sex, or her rights regarding her own body, she suffered through a date rape at the age of fourteen, unaware even that she could have said no. For years after that, Ethridge went from relationship to relationship, none of them healthy, and all of them physically demanding of her. Then at sixteen, she was in a car accident in which she, as the driver, struck a woman who was out for a bicycle ride. The horror of the event left her on the verge of suicide, and only added to her emotional burdens.

Only as she finally reached adulthood did Ethridge realize that her life was off track. She reconfirmed her faith, committing once again to a more spiritual path, and began to talk to teen groups at her church. That opportunity to reach out and share her own journey gave her the inspiration she was searching for, and she knew that she wanted to help children and teenagers on a regular basis. At that point, Ethridge quit her job at the mortuary and set out to become youth pastor. Over the years, she developed her own program, stressing the importance of remaining true to one's own beliefs and to maintaining sexual purity. Her talks were so successful that she began receiving invitations to speak at other churches and organizations. Eventually, married and the mother of two small children, Ethridge decided to leave her position as youth pastor to spend time writing down everything that she wanted to share. Settling in Texas, she ultimately formed Teen Mania Ministries, where she once again began teaching the importance of sexual purity and sexual integrity, and wrote the books that became the "Every Woman's Battle" series, which begins with Every Woman's Battle: How to Guard Your Heart and Mind against Sexual and Emotional Compromise.

Every Woman's Battle: Discovering God's Plan for Sexual and Emotional Fulfillment discusses ways in which a woman can lead a loving and fulfilling life, including one that meets her sexual needs, without being untrue to either herself or to her partner. She discusses how being emotionally drawn to another man, even if there is no physical relationship, can still be a type of unfaithfulness to one's husband, as that emotional link to another man is, in effect, robbing one's husband of some part of your spirit that should only be given to him. She addresses the unhealthy nature of comparing one's husband to other men, for inevitably there will be some comparisons in which one's husband does not come out favorably—it is only natural. She discusses the nature of temptation, and the ways in which to fight against it and remain strong. She also addresses how religion and faith help to fill those voids in one's soul, noting that no single human being can be everything for one person, and to expect a spouse to fulfill all of those needs and fill in all the empty spaces is to ask them to fail. Rather, it is faith and a love and acceptance of God that will help to fill the emotional needs that clamor for attention. In an interview in Marriage Partnership, Ethridge remarked: "Marriage is a ministry. It's about showing God's grace and love to my spouse; it's about ministering to my spouse—because that's what Jesus would do."

In Completely His: Loving Jesus without Limits, Ethridge discusses what it truly means to love and trust without putting any limits or conditions upon the relationship, a love that she suggests is as close to godliness as it is possible to get. She discusses the mental and emotional hardship that she experienced as a teenager when she was responsible for the death of Marjorie Jarstfer, the woman who she struck with her car. Both Marjorie and her husband, Gary, were religious people, and that faith is what Gary clung to after his wife's death. He refused to hold Ethridge to blame, though she was clearly at fault. Instead, he chose to forgive her, to assure her that God had simply chosen that time to call Marjorie to His side, and showed that he truly had absolute love and trust and belief in his faith. Despite his own personal pain, he extended his concern to Ethridge, assuring her that the trial was merely a way of God helping her to grow stronger. A reviewer on the Faithful Reader Web site remarked on the book, stating that "Shannon holds nothing back, communicating her experiences with … characteristic courage and vulnerability." Lisa Ann Cockrel, writing for Today's Christian Woman, noted that the book "shows how that day set her on a course to discover the depths of God's love." A writer for Publishers Weekly called the work "engaging and soulful," but observed that it "might feel stale to some loyal readers."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Marriage Partnership, spring, 2004, "Every Woman's Battle"; fall, 2006, Raelynn Eickhoff, review of Every Woman's Marriage: Igniting the Joy and Passion You Both Desire.

Publishers Weekly, May 24, 2004, "In Profile: Inspired Takes on the Big Issues," p. 17; March 26, 2007, review of Completely His: Loving Jesus without Limits, p. 85.

Today's Christian, July 1, 2006, "The Battle Is On: The Leaders behind the Every Man Book Series Have Given Christian Men—and Women—Spiritual Tools for Confronting Sexual Sin," p. 48.

Today's Christian Woman, July 1, 2005, "Redeeming Love: When It Comes to Sexual Integrity, Author Shannon Ethridge Admits She Learned Her Lessons the Hard Way. Now She's Helping Other Women and Their Daughters Avoid Her Mistakes and Find Love in All the Right Places," p. 28; May 1, 2007, Lisa Ann Cockrel, review of Completely His, p. 14.

ONLINE

Brio,http://www.briomag.com/ (April 16, 2008), Krishana Kraft, "Our Hero—Shannon Ethridge."

CBN.com,http://www.cbn.com/ (April 16, 2008), author interview, "Shannon Ethridge: Love without Limits."

Faithful Reader,http://www.faithfulreader.com/ (April 16, 2008), review of Completely His.

Jocelyn C. Green Blog,http://jocelyngreen.blogspot.com/ (February 14, 2006), "Author Shannon Ethridge on Emotional Affairs."

Shannon Ethridge Home Page,http://www.shannonethridge.com (April 16, 2008).