Above Board or Overboard? Healing from Purity Culture

            

        Using mature discernment and wisdom in applying scriptural principals is essential to a healthy relationship with the Lord and others. It is not a new trick to abuse God’s word by using it to justify abhorrent behavior. The Father of Lies twisted scripture for self-serving means to tempt Jesus to follow him into sin (Matt 4:5-6). Jesus knew how to properly apply God’s word to practical situations and when others used it wrongly, he corrected them (Matt 5). We must grow in wisdom so we can discern and call out improper applications. To do this we must study the Word in diverse community and have courage to listen to feedback from others.

            Because I have personally been hurt by narrow interpretations and overly strict applications of scripture, I submit my own experience as an autoethnographic case-study. The goal of this examination is to expose false teaching and develop methods to aid women who disproportionally experience its painful consequences. Even if practical applications of scripture begin from pure motives, a lack of discernment and resistance to critique creates situations of spiritual harm. Because this topic is broad, I will dissect one area of misapplied teachings to extract detailed experiences. These vignettes can be examined to both uncover the ways false teaching impacts women and be utilized to propose appropriate remedies.

Case Study

            Growing up in the 90s in a mainline denomination, I was a sensitive child with a hunger for God and his word. At a friend’s Baptist youth retreat I went forward during an emotionally charged altar call to repent. Specifically, I was convicted that my boyfriend and I had been going too far physically. I confessed to the Lord and asked that he would help me make good choices. When I was invited to a True Love Waits rally a few weeks later I decided to make a commitment to sexual abstinence until marriage. This was my first introduction to what would later be known as Evangelical Purity Culture (EPC).[1]

            Starting out on my own as an adult, I desired to seriously follow God. I left the church tradition of my youth in search of one that would prioritize living in obedience to scripture. Since a deeper study of the Bible was new to me, I relied heavily on those who were promoted as “solid” teachers. I was taught to be wary of advice that came from worldly sources or liberal Christian viewpoints because they did not view scripture as inerrant and thus could not be trusted. I read the Word, but I had little training in hermeneutics or how to draw practical application from scriptural principals. In my simplistic view, I was frustrated the Bible didn’t just directly explain what to do in practical areas like dating. I ate up popular books like I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Passion and Purity, and Lady in Waiting because they professed to offer a Biblical perspective on how to approach relationships. Moreover, I attended a conference called “The Song of Solomon” where the pastor/teacher exegeted the Biblical book of the same name, specifically to give advice on proper dating and courtship. Following the guidance of these books and teachers, my future husband and I chose courtship. Further, we decided to save our first kiss for our wedding day as it had been suggested as a way to prevent sexual impurity. We succeeded in submitting to our self-imposed standard and made it to the altar without ever touching our lips together. However, our legalistic rule did not change our hearts, keep us pure, or make us more mature. Like hypocrites we just found ways to touch many other body parts together instead.

            At its core, EPC is a movement intended to encourage young people to pursue purity in sexual relationships. Partly stemming as a reaction to the sexual revolution of the 1960s, Christians of that generation grew up and had teens of their own. Wanting to parent well, they looked for ways to persuade their children to avoid the mistakes and regrets of their own pasts. What began as a Southern Baptist curriculum (True Love Waits) turned into an evangelical Christian subculture.[2] Parents were encouraged to hold ceremonies and rites of passage such as bestowing purity rings and attending purity balls. [3] EPC became a lucrative industry consisting of books, music, curriculum, and conferences with popular teachers and speakers.[4]

            The desire to encourage young people to follow God’s sexual ethic instead of the culture’s is a worthy goal. However, this becomes harmful when teachers rely on fear-based emotional appeals, weaponize scripture, and use spiritual authority to coerce and shame people into obedience. Often the teaching is framed as biblical but lacks direct correlation or takes verses out of context. The tactics to “encourage” can be heavy handed and specific in the recommendations (no kissing or dating) even when these are areas the Bible does not address. Altogether, EPC creates a prosperity gospel where people who have their virginity intact are worth more and abstinence until heterosexual marriage is promoted as the ticket to a happy life. Although mention is made of the potential to gain a “secondary virginity,” the understood message is that it certainly is not as good as the primary one. Exhibiting self-control and being considerate of others are important principles for everyone. However, within EPC, women are unequally expected and taught to adhere to these principles.

            Ortiz summarizes the main themes of EPC as containing the following messages: “the sexual double standard, women as sexual gatekeepers, men as unable to control their sexual desire, extreme modesty, virginity as a gift, benevolent sexism, and an ‘all or nothing’ mentality as it relates to sexual activity.” [5] Because of a sexual double standard, women tend to carry the burden of responsibility for sexual activity as well as the weight of the consequences. It contributes to a deficient understanding of a woman’s personal agency. Teaching that a woman's body is under a father’s protection until it belongs to her husband creates both a commoditization of the body and discourages bodily autonomy. These harmful teachings are sadly combined with a lack of education on sexual consent and assault. Because the assumption is sexual activity is not permitted education on how to gain and express consent was absent. Rhetoric indicated that if unwelcome sexual contact was made, the woman had failed to appropriately refuse sexual encounters. Devestatingly, some women who have been sexually assaulted internalized the responsibility and blamed themselves. [6]

            Women impacted by these teachings can vary in their level of reported pain and in the variety of different effects they experience. More research needs to be done to understand long-term impacts. Emotional effects can range from mild anxiety to post traumatic stress. Physical effects include sexual dysfunction or sexually transmitted infections. Spiritually, women can be plagued with shame and self-doubt and many report feeling like damaged goods.[7] These effects are not only experienced by those who did not live up to the ideals, but also those who “followed the rules”. To others, I would have been considered a poster child for EPC. In point of fact, my husband and I were featured in a half-page photo in our city’s newspaper and interviewed for our comments when an abstinence speaker was visiting for a rally.[8] Because of the nature of the harm caused, women who have internalized these teachings may be reluctant to label them as harmful. 

Reflection

            Personally, I noticed the impact of EPC in my life in two key moments. The first was when my husband admitted to using pornography. Mercifully, the Lord led us to counseling and I was able to acknowledge his sin was not my fault. Afterwards I began to resent how much personal responsibility I had taken on in order to dress modestly so no brother in Christ would stumble because of me. As a young woman I had feared the power I supposedly had in my body to cause someone else to sin and had often sought to hide my figure. I was plagued with self-doubt in choosing an outfit each day. I continually analyzed my motives for wanting to look nice, worried I was actually trying to entice men to sin. After his confession and counseling I realized that avoiding leggings to be extra considerate of my brothers in Christ was not going to prevent anyone intent on lusting. I began to let that shame and anxiety go. The second moment was when our daughter became a teenager. By this time, I had a better relationship with my own body, but her developing body was something I was not sure how to deal with. I struggled with how to communicate and enforce our family’s standards with love and not shame. Every day began with a battle over her wardrobe or argument over the school’s sexist dress code. I wasn’t sure whether my motives were to parent her well or control her outfits. I wanted to explain that we should all take consideration in regard to how we dress but she often accused me of slut-shaming her or acting out of fear she was going to get raped because someone saw her stomach. Being blessed with a strong-willed daughter who resisted my efforts to control, I waffled between doubling down or just giving up. I knew my own issues needed more sorting, so I sought out a book on the topic, Talking Back to Purity Culture because it seemed more balanced than other books that had renounced Christianity along with EPC. In reading this work I was able to see the harmful aspects of EPC specifically detailed and how they had become more mainstream in American culture due to government sponsored abstinence-only education. Some have reacted against the overreach of EPC by swinging in the opposite direction, believing that what a person wears should not be restricted in any way. Surely there is a middle ground somewhere between these two extremes?

            I did not have anyone in particular ministering to me or guiding me through the process of detangling myself from the harmful aspects of EPC. However, the Holy Spirit has been a faithful and constant guide, particularly in illuminating the Word for me and helping me to understand it better. I led a woman’s Bible study through the book of Proverbs that was immensely helpful in my healing. It was not created intentionally to correct these teachings but simply to gather and study the book as a whole. As I studied, I began to see how the author was using the contrasting imagery of Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly to encourage the hearers to develop discernment in order to make wise choices and choose God’s ways rather than give into the short-sighted desires of the flesh. I thought back to my college days and how the verses in Proverbs 7 were quietly and reverentially shared by a female small group leader. She warned us of the perils of being seductive women who were luring men into a trap of death. Because I was already concerned my body was causing other men to stumble, I immediately saw those verses as God’s specific prescriptions to women about the importance of modest apparel. This literalist, misreading of scripture is one that some still use to condemn women.[9] Although the height of its influence may have waned, EPC teachings persist in more fundamentalist Christian circles.

            One pastor did minister to me in this specific time in some helpful ways but ultimately was lacking. While I was on staff at my church, a male deacon requested that I add his wife on all our communications. I asked an older staff woman if he had also asked her to do the same, but he had not. I realized that he was trying to be above board with regards to his communication with me in line with EPC teachings. However, his particularity in singling me out made me feel uncomfortable, like I was a threat to his marriage. I was angry that he requested my active participation in these overboard steps. I felt uncomfortable discussing the situation with the man directly, so I shared my frustration with a pastor. He listened to me and empathetically expressed sorrow. He said, “I’m so sorry you are being treated like a threat instead of a sister.” His actions toward me also contrasted with the deacon because we often emailed, and he spoke with me alone in person without hesitation. However, it hurt that while my pastor privately affirmed I was not a threat, he did not seek out this deacon to discuss or attempt to teach him other ways of interacting with women. Since this deacon was influential, it concerned me that his views of godly interaction with women might be promoted throughout the congregation. I felt like I, and the other women at church were left on our own to deal with it. But at least I did have some private moral support.

A Model of Care

Developing Discernment and Cultivating Respect           

            A wholistic way to care for people experiencing pain from poor teaching is to become a teacher or leader with both discernment and respect in applying scripture. It is important to discern between standards, principles, and contextual applications. A foundational scriptural standard is found in Gensis 1:27: human beings are created in God’s image. From that and other verses one can derive a principle that we should respect other human beings. A contextual application might be that you should look someone in the eye when they are speaking to show respect. However, because it is considered disrespectful in some cultures to look someone in the eye, adhering to the application in some contexts would actually violate the principle. Although applications are by nature contextual this does not mean that all applications are equally valid. Applications that contribute to harm should be examined and discussed openly. For some women, their identity as a Christian is so intertwined with principles from EPC they believe gaining freedom from the harmful effects is only possible if they disconnect from a Christian identity entirely. However, this only repeats the error in the opposite direction. The secular world tends to relativize scripture and eschew any restrictions while fundamentalists have a propensity to absolutize their strategies. Part of the appeal of both sexual permissiveness and EPC is that they offer simplistic solutions to life’s messy questions. The Bible does not provide a formula to follow, rather a person. A model of care for women detangling from EPC should take care to show that it is possible to find freedom and health in Christ without continuing to subscribe to the tenants of EPC.

Reforming and Rebuking

            Scripture does speak to issues of sexual chastity and principles should be carefully taught within a diverse community while allowing for differences in practical application. Homogenous groups will tend towards a uniformity of action while mixed perspectives will resist fundamentalist application. The blessing of interacting with diverse viewpoints is our blind spots can be pointed out and corrected. In The Great Sex Rescue, Gregoire and Lindenbach researched evangelical marriage books, analyzing their messages for similar themes and teachings. In a survey of over 20,000 Christian women, they found specific teachings were negatively impacting female sexual fulfilment. Gregoire calls on the writers of these popular but hurtful books to consider the damage these concepts have done and revise their writings. She was not asking them to do anything she had not already done herself by recalling her own books on sex and rewriting articles on her website. “It’s important as a culture that we confront the damage we have done—even if by accident—so we can walk forward toward the abundant life Jesus wants for us.” [10] Caring for women impacted by these applications requires rebuking how they have been used to harm women.

Resist Becoming the Authority

            However, best practices also include guiding women to develop their own discernment and refusing to speak on personal applications as an authority. Many situations necessitate self-reflection to form individual convictions. These should be arrived at through personal prayer, study, and contemplation rather than simply accepting direct advice from a spiritual authority. [11] Instead of just offering better applications than past ones, a more effective strategy is to help people develop their own discernment and reliance on the Holy Spirit. [12]

Reassurance

            For a woman wrestling with these issues, one of the challenges is the mental health struggle and identity reformation. [13] It is not uncommon for women to report symptoms that mirror a diagnosis of PTSD; [14] however, they may be reluctant to identify their experience as traumatic. It's important for ministers to understand the gravity of the impact these teachings have had in a woman’s life; it’s not just hurt feelings. Professional counseling is an important part of healing and should be encouraged. Because repression and personal silencing is a common theme, a minister walking alongside her would be wise to offer a safe space to process as well as validate her struggle. Because she may have been judged and rejected, she would benefit from grace while dealing with the messy emotions of anger and grief.[15] Gathering with other women and sharing experiences is also helpful in gaining an outside perspective.

Conclusion

             Much more could be said on how biblical principles of forgiveness, submission, and different opinions on gender roles have similarly been co-opted to harm women. The likelihood of a common root is worth pursuing.[16] Helping others identify and heal from religious trauma is particularly important in an age of increasing amounts of people who consider themselves “Exvangelicals”. For now, looking directly at how Evangelical Purity Culture teachings have hurt women by misusing scripture will help us develop best practices for assisting people overcome the pain of religious trauma without losing their faith.

---

[1] Emily L Hauck. “Approaching Evangelical Purity Culture with Relational Psychoanalytic Concepts: Developing an Equitable Path Forward” (PhD diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Psychology, 2021), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

[2] Joe Carter, “The FAQs: What You Should Know about Purity Culture.” The Gospel Coalition, July 24, 2019. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/faqs-know-purity-culture/.

[3] Elizabeth Gish, "Producing High Priests and Princesses: The Father-Daughter Relationship in the Christian Sexual Purity Movement" Religions 7, no. 3: 33 (March 2016): https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7030033

[4] “The History of Federal Abstinence-Only Funding.” Advocates For Youth. Accessed November 26, 2022. https://www.advocatesforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/storage/advfy/documents/fshistoryabonly.pdf.

[5]Amanda M Ortiz, "Developing a Measure of Purity Culture: Sexual Messages in Evangelical Christian Culture." (PhD diss., Biola University, 2019), iii, https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/developing-measure-purity-culture-sexual-messages/docview/2176557100/se-2.

[6]Becca Andrews, “Evangelical Purity Culture Taught Me to Rationalize My Sexual Assault.” Mother Jones, August 13, 2018, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/evangelical-purity-culture-taught-me-to-rationalize-my-sexual-assault/.

[7] Emily L Hauck, “Approaching Evangelical Purity Culture with Relational Psychoanalytic Concepts: Developing an Equitable Path Forward” (PhD diss. Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Psychology, 2021), 11, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

[8] Jessica Zimmer, “Choosing Abstinence,” Gainesville Sun, March 12, 2002.

[9] Liz Abrams, “Modesty: What Does the Bible Teach?” Answers in Genesis. February 25, 2022. https://answersingenesis.org/christianity/values/modesty-what-does-bible-teach/.

[10] Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky, The Great Sex Rescue : The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2021)

[11]David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen. The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse : Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority Within the Church. (Bethany House Publishers, 2005). 82, ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.dtl.idm.oclc.org/lib/dtl/detail.action?docID=5249391

[12]Rachel Joy Welcher. “What Comes after the Purity Culture Reckoning.” Christianity Today, October 14, 2021. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/october-web-only/purity-culture-reckoning-rules-sex-spiritual-formation.html.

[13]Rebekah Stevenson and Dennis Hiebert. "Silenced Desire: Personal Effects of the Evangelical Construction of Female Sexuality." Journal of Sociology and Christianity 11, no. 2 (2021): 63

[14]Stephanie Dubick. “How Evangelical Purity Culture Can Lead to a Lifetime of Sexual Shame.” VICE, October 16, 2018, https://www.vice.com/en/article/pa98x8/purity-culture-linday-kay-klein-pure-review.

[15]Michelle Dennyse Pate. “The Felt Sense of Evangelical Purity Culture” (PhD diss., Sofia University, 2022) ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

[16]Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (New York: Harper & Row, Harper Torchbooks 1975).

 

Annotated Bibliography

    Abrams, Liz. “Modesty: What Does the Bible Teach?” Answers in Genesis, February 25, 2022.            https://answersingenesis.org/christianity/values/modesty-what-does-bible-teach/.

This article is an example of half-truths half corrected. The author proposes to give a Biblical perspective about modesty for women. She begins with the Biblical standard that men and women are created in God’s image and goes on to note that the Biblical commands on modesty concern displays of wealth. The author explains that many places of employment have standards for attire so clothing should be chosen that would be appropriate to share the gospel in without detracting from the message. She correctly identifies that a common focus of most Christian modesty articles is the effect that women’s clothing has on men. As a corrective she ensures the reader that the bible nowhere makes women responsible for men’s lust. However, in the same paragraph she says Proverbs 7:10-23 condemns women wearing intentionally revealing clothing to invite men’s inappropriate attention. Although it begins with good news that modesty is for men and women, it returns to the gender tropes by summarizing at the end that women are responsible for dressing in a way that reflects their relationship with God and does not draw attention to their bodies while men are commanded against lust. Overall, while there are some helpful corrections, this article continues to use scripture heavily to convince the reader that the Bible has a lot to say about what women should and should not wear and Christian leaders who exhort women to “cover up for their brothers in Christ” should not come under fire.

    Advocates For Youth. “The History of Federal Abstinence-Only Funding.” Accessed November 26,     2022. https://www.advocatesforyouth.org/wp-                                    content/uploads/storage/advfy/documents/fshistoryabonly.pdf.

Fact sheet on the history of abstinence-only sexual education in the US. It presents the eight-point definition of abstinence-only education, discusses federal funding, the content required of funded curricula, and the programs’ administration and oversight. It concludes with a chart detailing the federal funding directed to abstinence-only programs since 1982.

    Andrews, Becca. “Evangelical Purity Culture Taught Me to Rationalize My Sexual Assault.” Mother Jones, August 13, 2018. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/evangelical-purity-culture-taught-me-to-rationalize-my-sexual-assault/.

A compelling first-person description of one woman’s realization of how her immersion in EPC prevented recognition of and healing from sexual assault.

    Byrd, Aimee. Recovering from Biblical Manhood & Womanhood : How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020.

     This book was the second book I read as I began to detangle myself from conservative Christian culture. It does not deal with Purity Culture but the adjacent concepts of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. I found it incredibly helpful to pinpoint teachings that are harmful while calling believers to a faithful interpretation of scripture.

    Carter, Joe. “The FAQs: What You Should Know about Purity Culture.” The Gospel Coalition, July 24, 2019. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/faqs-know-purity-culture/.

Concise overview of purity culture, its origins, and criticisms.

    Dubick, Stephanie. “How Evangelical Purity Culture Can Lead to a Lifetime of Sexual Shame.” VICE, October 16, 2018. https://www.vice.com/en/article/pa98x8/purity-culture-linday-kay-klein-pure-review.

This review of Linda Kay Klein’s book Pure features the psychological effects of purity culture that she specifically endured as well found prevalent in her research for the book.

    Gish, Elizabeth. "Producing High Priests and Princesses: The Father-Daughter Relationship in the Christian Sexual Purity Movement" Religions 7, no. 3: 33 (2016), https://doi.org/10.3390/rel7030033

Gish describes and analyzes father-daughter purity balls with an emphasis on how the idealization of rightly ordered relationships drives the narratives within the Christian sexual purity movement. This will be a helpful article to reference in connecting the themes of authority, divine headship, and purity culture.

    Gregoire, Sheila Wray, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky. The Great Sex Rescue : The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2021.

This is another valuable resource I used to detangle myself from purity culture. This book specifically addresses and names books and authors with their harmful teaching about sex. However, it also shows how we can talk about sex in a much healthier way to rescue and reframe old ways of teaching. Some of the main harmful teachings are addressed and specific consequences that were reported in their survey. 1) “All men struggle with lust; it is every man’s battle” 2) “A wife is obligated to give her husband sex when he wants it” 3) “Wives should have frequent sex with their husbands to keep them from watching porn” 4) “Boys will want to push girls’ sexual boundaries.”

     Hauck, Emily L. “Approaching Evangelical Purity Culture with Relational Psychoanalytic Concepts: Developing an Equitable Path Forward” PhD diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Psychology, 2021. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

I am indebted to this writer for a definition and abbreviation of Evangelical Purity Culture (EPC). While she focuses on EPC as a general phenomenon in the 90-00s of the American Evangelical church she helpfully notes that there was no singular force or organization creating an official “Evangelical Purity Culture.” She utilizes the abbreviation as a summary of the movement as a whole while acknowledging it is not possible to reduce an entire culture to a singular intent. I was only able to access a preview version of this research and my own model would have certainly benefitted from her case study and conclusions on intervention for those influenced by purity culture.

    Johnson, David, and Jeff VanVonderen. The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse : Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority Within the Church, Bethany House Publishers, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.dtl.idm.oclc.org/lib/dtl/detail.action?docID=5249391.

This resource is helpful to address the broader topic of spiritual abuse. Because EPC deals with spiritual manipulation and appeals to false authority, this is an important resource for the conversation on how to heal from these teachings. It speaks to how the Word of God is like a powerful sword that can be wrongfully used to put weights on people and shame them into performing someone’s agenda in the name of God. The authors specifically note how the mishandling of scripture has been used to press abused women into staying in destructive situations.

    Klein, Linda Kay. Pure : Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free. First Atria paperbacked. New York: Atria Paperback, 2019.

Although I did not have time to read this book it was referenced in almost every article I found and should be included on a list of resources for this topic. Her treatment of sin-leveling will be an important concept to consider in this discussion.

    Michael, Kelsey Sherrod. “Wearing your heart on your sleeve: the surveillance of women’s souls in evangelical Christian modesty culture.” Feminist Media Studies, 19(4): (2018):1-15 DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2018.1490915

This research focuses on the conversations that occurred after online debates over whether Christian women should wear yoga pants. The discussion highlighted how specific applications and definitions of modesty were not guided by contextual factors but rather a desire to “read” women’s piety in outward signs. More analysis of the debates revealed how women resisted the culture of male surveillance in their communities.

    Milgram, Stanley. Obedience to Authority : An Experimental View. Harper Torchbooks, Tb1983. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.

I am very interested in pursuing more research on how authority and “rightly ordered relationships” play a dominant role in white conservative evangelical subcultures. The themes of purity culture seem to originate from or at least reverberate as echoes the priority of obedience. It has puzzled me why I and other women are willing participants in our own subjugation, ignoring red flags and justifying abuse. Milgram’s experiment may be helpful to shed some light on why women are willing to obey those they consider in spiritual authority despite feeling conflicted.

    Natarajan, M., Wilkins-Yel, K. G., Sista, A., Anantharaman, A., & Seils, N. “Decolonizing Purity Culture: Gendered Racism and White Idealization in Evangelical Christianity.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, 46(3), (2022) 316-336. https://doi.org/10.1177/03616843221091116

Because the research on purity culture impacts is emerging, most studies have centered white women’s experiences. This study aims to rectify the lack of research and dismantle forms of internalized oppression existing within purity culture rhetoric. Although the limited scope of my research prevented usage of this article, it represents a valuable perspective necessary in the continuing research of harm done through purity culture teachings. 

    Ortiz, Amanda M. "Developing a Measure of Purity Culture: Sexual Messages in Evangelical Christian Culture." PhD diss., Biola University, 2019. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/developing-measure-purity-culture-sexual-messages/docview/2176557100/se-2.

This PhD dissertation expounds on the work of Worthington et al (2002) and their model of sexual identity development that accounts for social and cultural factors. Purity Culture and its influence on sexual development was an area that had not been previously studied. Recognizing that purity culture is an important cultural factor within Christian subculture, this study proposes an initial theory on its impacts. Her detailed survey of popular sources identified the main messages, and their influence was explored through the creation of a Purity Culture Beliefs Scale.

     Pate, Michelle Dennyse. “The Felt Sense of Evangelical Purity Culture” PhD diss., Sofia University, 2022. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. http://dtl.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/felt-sense-evangelical-purity-culture/docview/2716926319/se-2.

This research captured data from eight women to discover the psychological and spiritual issues encountered as a result of participation in purity culture. It examines the detrimental effects experienced by these women including anxiety and depression emerging from sexual shame and guilt. The goal of this study was to add to the literature about the felt sense of purity culture and its impact on mental health.

    Stevenson, Rebekah, and Dennis Hiebert. "Silenced Desire: Personal Effects of the Evangelical Construction of Female Sexuality." Journal of Sociology and Christianity 11, no. 2 (2021): 59-83.

This research continues to assert the negative impacts of purity culture on female sexuality and development. With specific emphasis on the naivete produced by female silence on sexuality the researchers explore the impacts of religious messages and attitudes regarding female sexuality. I appreciated this article’s acknowledgement of traditional evangelical beliefs regarding God’s design for sex as the genesis of purity culture. The impact of purity culture on female identity development is readily seen in the challenges faced by women who attempt to detangle their identity from their virginity upon marriage. In contrast to the silenced desires advocated through purity culture women need safe spaces to express their thoughts.

    Welcher, Rachel Joy. 2020. Talking Back to Purity Culture : Rediscovering Faithful Christian Sexuality. Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP, an imprint of InterVarsity Press.

This was the book that brought together so many things I had been mulling over in my mind for years. It organized and explained what the teachings of purity culture are as well as how they were applied unequally against women. As a believer she shares her own disillusionment and pain through divorce while maintaining her faith in Christ and commitment to a traditional Christian sexual ethic. This author offers something that had been missing in the previous literature on this subject: A reinterpretation that rejects the legalism of EPC as well as the license of the secular culture.

    Welcher, Rachel Joy. “What Comes after the Purity Culture Reckoning.” Christianity Today, October 14, 2021. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/october-web-only/purity-culture-reckoning-rules-sex-spiritual-formation.html.

A summary article with reflections by both Welcher and Gregoire on how to move forward in healing from purity culture.

    Zimmer, Jessica, “Choosing Abstinence,” Gainesville Sun, March 12, 2002.