Recovering Purity

It took Brian, my husband, and me some time to grasp the idea of purity while we were dating. After reading our story, you’ll see that making the commitment to purity was just the beginning. We had tasted the forbidden fruit for a number of years. Then I got to know Jesus in a new and powerful way as I recovered from an eating disorder. Brian eventually followed, and we knew things had to change. We had the difficult task of trying to figure out how to have a Christian dating relationship, living in the Garden of Eden, so to speak, right next to the tree but resisting the habit and compulsion of reaching for that fruit. How close to the forbidden tree can you get? Can you actually hold the apple in your hand but not taste it? There is no hard-and-fast rule I can give you for where to draw the line. However, I will share with you some lessons that I learned to show you how to build your relationship together through Christian dating. I will describe some strategies to keep the pilot light of your passion lit but under God’s gentle control. Then, how does it work to take two imperfect people, joined under God to become one in a loving marriage?

The generation born into evangelical purity culture has grown up, but many still struggle with its complicated legacy. Examining purity culture's teachings through the lens of Scripture, Rachel Joy Welcher charts a path forward in the ongoing debates about sexuality—one that rejects legalism and license alike, steering us back instead to the good news of Jesus.

Sexuality was a part of God's good creation from the beginning. But with sin came a world filled with sexual brokenness. Thankfully, God is always in the business of restoration. This book offers hope for both the sexually immoral and the sexually victimized, pointing us all to the grace of Jesus Christ, who mercifully intervenes each moment in our lifelong journey toward renewal. Author David Powlison casts a vision for the key to deep transformation, better than anything the world has to offer—not just fresh resolve, not just flimsy forgiveness, not just simple formulas, but true, lasting mercy from God, who is making all things new.

When Emily Joy Allison outed her abuser on Twitter, she launched #ChurchToo, a movement to expose the culture of sexual abuse and assault utterly rampant in Christian churches in America. Not a single denomination is unaffected. And the reasons are somewhat different than those you might find in the #MeToo stories coming out of Hollywood or Washington. While patriarchy and misogyny are problems everywhere, they take on a particularly pernicious form in Christian churches where those with power have been insisting, since many decades before #MeToo, that this sexually dysfunctional environment is, in fact, exactly how God wants it to be. #ChurchToo turns over the rocks of the church's sexual dysfunction, revealing just what makes sexualized violence in religious contexts both ubiquitous and uniquely traumatizing. It also lays the groundwork for not one but many paths of healing from a religious culture of sexual shame, secrecy, and control, and for survivors of abuse to live full, free, healthy lives.

Everyday, teen girls are challenged by pop culture to be thinner, smarter, and sexier. But, God calls every girl to a higher standard. Hopefully, this study will challenge girls of every age to live God's standard, and not the cheap imitation society offers. After struggling through the shame someone's sin made me feel, I recognized the pressing need for purity. Purity isn't just about not having sex until marriage; it's about every part of us. What we say, act like, dress like, and think like are all parts. If we claim to be daughter of the Righteous One, we need to reflect that. My prayer for this devotional is that it would touch hearts and minds of those around me. Specifically written for teen girls, it touches on one of the most prevalent issues in culture today: Purity, or the lack thereof. Please, join me in recovering purity in an impure world.

Women know how to work hard at marriage. Often their efforts end up sabotaging rather than building intimacy. Do you want to understand why? In this rewrite of her bestseller Finding the Hero in Your Husband, acclaimed Christian clinical psychologist and speaker Dr. Juli Slattery gently guides women through topics that are inherently woven into every imperfect marriage. Finding the Hero in Your Husband, Revisited, challenges misconceptions and outright misinformation that have misguided women for decades. In truth, women have power in marriage-but they don't often know how to use it. Illustrated with insightful real-life case examples, this book is both an educational resource as well as a practical "how-to" guide for navigating everyday trials as well as deeper difficulties. Juli offers understandable explanations of God's design, healthy expectations that re-frame experiences, and relatable applications that women of faith can practice to influence their marriage and deepen their relationship with God. Finding the Hero in Your Husband, Revisited, will help you more clearly see and encourage the hero within your husband by examining your own heart. Book jacket.

We know what is wrong with purity culture--now we need to know how to heal. Drawing on historical and psychological research, her own personal experience, and therapy case studies, Dr. Camden Morgante tackles what comes next in reclaiming our sexuality from the harmful teachings so many evangelical Christians grew up believing. With great compassion and insight, Dr. Camden · exposes five myths of purity culture and their effects on individuals and relationships · offers proven therapy techniques to replace harmful lies with healing truth · provides strategies to overcome shame in the mind and body · explores the connection between purity culture, trauma, and faith deconstruction · helps the hurting reconstruct their faith with peace and acceptance A healthy sexuality is not out of reach for those who have been harmed by purity culture. You can find freedom from shame, restrictive gender roles, and stunted relationships. Dr. Camden shows you the way forward.

In Pure, Linda Kay Klein uses a potent combination of journalism, cultural commentary, and memoir to take us “inside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it can” (Gloria Steinem) and reveals the devastating effects evangelical Christianity’s views on female sexuality has had on a generation of young women. In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls—resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—and trapped them in a cycle of shame. This is the sex education Linda Kay Klein grew up with. Fearing being marked a Jezebel, Klein broke up with her high school boyfriend because she thought God told her to and took pregnancy tests despite being a virgin, terrified that any sexual activity would be punished with an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. When the youth pastor of her church was convicted of sexual enticement of a twelve-year-old girl, Klein began to question purity-based sexual ethics. She contacted young women she knew, asking if they were coping with the same shame-induced issues she was. These intimate conversations developed into a twelve-year quest that took her across the country and into the lives of women raised in similar religious communities—a journey that facilitated her own healing and led her to churches that are seeking a new way to reconcile sexuality and spirituality. Pure is “a revelation... Part memoir and part journalism, Pure is a horrendous, granular, relentless, emotionally true account" (The Cut) of society’s larger subjugation of women and the role the purity industry played in maintaining it. Offering a prevailing message of resounding hope and encouragement, “Pure emboldens us to escape toxic misogyny and experience a fresh breath of freedom” (Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising).

Live Pure and Free is a 90-day devotional for men who want to win in their battle for purity. Dave Howe shares practical insights gained over 10 years of work with both single and married men who are committed to living the way God intended: pure and free. Dave writes for men from a unique vantage point. As someone who, by God's grace, has overcome the battle for sexual purity, it is his mission to help others do the same. Each daily reading in Live Pure and Free challenged men to get in the game and take action. Live Pure and Free is real. It's gritty. But most of all, it gives hope. Live Pure and Free is an essential resource for pastors and counselors. It's a vital tool for men's small groups and an effective one-on-one resource for accountability partners.