A Christian author who has faced criticism for her comments on abortion and LGBT-related issues is using her Facebook page to promote “sexual wellness” products, including “libido gummies” and “arousal oil.”
In a Sept. 28 Facebook post, Jen Hatmaker, a progressive Christian influencer, posted a message that began with the phrase “attention sexy people.” “The rock stars over at FOCL have been working on a sexual wellness line for months to get it just right.”
Hatmaker touted “libido gummies for him and for her” as one aspect of the sexual wellness line.
While maintaining that she was “not a scientist,” Hatmaker testified that “these increase libido, harmonize hormones, boost vitality, and all the other things that make our sexual wellness enhanced and improved.”
“They build over time, so you take them like a yummy little supplement every day,” she added. She also plugged an “Intimacy oil and an arousal oil” as options for those looking for “something instant.”
According to Hatmaker, “If you’ve looked at any ‘other’ lubricants on the market, who knows what’s in them? FOCL’s are only the good stuff with no weird, mystery ingredients.”
She concluded her post by highlighting a special deal for her followers: an “arousal bundle or the intimacy bundle for her or for him — which includes two sets of gummies (60-day supply) and one oil for a crazy sexy deal.”
“FOCL is giving us 50% off the regular price of the bundle. So basically, you’re saving more than $90.”
A video accompanying the Facebook post featured Hatmaker promoting the individual products in the bundle box and declaring that her followers were “at this stage of life where I need a little boost here.” She held up the box and said, “Here’s your boost.”
While the biography on her Facebook page doesn’t contain any references to her Christian faith and instead says, “I write books, I say stuff on a podcast, I raise a bunch of kids,” Hatmaker’s website proclaims: “I used to be a darling of evangelical women’s subculture but now I am a bit of a problem child.”
“I still love Jesus but church is hard for me, and this makes me sad, like I am missing my childhood home,” her website states.
Hatmaker’s reputation as a “problem child” within Evangelical women’s subculture stems from her comments in support of same-sex marriage and abortion, which go against Christian teaching. In 2016, the publishing company Lifeway stopped selling Hatmaker’s books after she expressed support for same-sex marriage during an interview with Religion News Service.
When asked for her thoughts on same-sex marriage, Hatmaker responded, “From a civil rights and civil liberties side and from just a human being side, any two adults have the right to choose who they want to love.” She added that “they should be afforded the same legal protections as any of us,” and maintained that, “I would never wish anything less for my gay friends.”
Four years later, Hatmaker did a podcast with her daughter, who had come out as a lesbian. “I’m so glad you’re gay,” she told her daughter during their conversation. “I’m so glad you’re free. I’m so glad this is how you were made. I’m thrilled about your future. I already told you about the kind of wife you need to marry.”
Last year, after Politico published a leaked draft opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision determining that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion, Hatmaker took to her blog to express opposition to the impending decision. “Women deserve agency and choice not only with their bodies but over the decision to parent for the rest of their lives,” she wrote.
“Anti-abortion advocates have every right to their convictions, but those convictions should only apply to their bodies, their families, and their futures,” she added as she condemned opposition to legal abortion as “political theater.” Hatmaker suggested that “if this rabid energy was genuine if it had any integrity, it would come baked in with the fiercest and staunchest advocacy for free birth control, comprehensive sex education, maternal health care and paid maternity leave.”
Hatmaker also called on pro-lifers to embrace “subsidized child care, affordable housing, marriage counseling and family support systems, guaranteed food security, victims’ rights for all the rape and incest survivors forced to carry their abuser’s baby, subsidized medical care for all the women forced to carry a baby to the detriment of their own health or that of their baby, life insurance for the families whose mothers died in forced childbirth, and every conceivable support for a mother, baby, and family from birth until forever.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
Free Religious Freedom Updates
Join thousands of others to get the FREEDOM POST newsletter for free, sent twice a week from The Christian Post.