Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation

Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free

In Pure, Linda Kay Klein uses a potent combination of journalism, cultural commentary, and memoir to take us â€œinside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it canâ€ (Gloria Steinem) and reveals the devastating effects evangelical Christianityâ€™s views on female sexuality has had on a generation of young women.

In the 1990s, a â€œpurity industryâ€ emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual â€œstumbling blocksâ€ for boys and men, and any expression of a girlâ€™s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girlsâ€”resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorderâ€”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 communitiesâ€”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 â€œa revelation... Part memoir and part journalism, Pure is a horrendous, granular, relentless, emotionally true account" (The Cut) of societyâ€™s larger subjugation of women and the role the purity industry played in maintaining it. Offering a prevailing message of resounding hope and encouragement, â€œPure emboldens us to escape toxic misogyny and experience a fresh breath of freedomâ€ (Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising).
Country USA
Manufacturer Atria Books
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2024-02-13
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Atria Books
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2024-02-13
Format	Kindle eBook

Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free

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