From Promise Ring to Stethoscope: Confronting Purity Culture as Patient or Healthcare Provider
As a survivor of purity culture and now as a Religious Trauma Advocate, I've come to recognize the profound impact this movement has had on individuals and communities. Purity culture, which gained prominence in the 1990s within evangelical Christian circles, emphasized sexual abstinence before marriage, traditional gender roles, and modesty. While often well-intentioned, this movement has left many grappling with long-lasting effects on their mental and sexual health.
When Fear Feels Like Faith: Mistaking Dysregulation for the Conviction of Sin
Evenings at camp followed a predictable rhythm. After a full day of activities, we’d gather in the chapel for the nightly service. The speaker, typically passionate and persuasive, delivered sermons heavy with shame and condemnation. The messages fixated on sin, our teenage behavior, fear of hell, and how unworthy we were—how much we had failed and how desperately we needed to make things right with God. Vivid depictions of hell, dire warnings about unconfessed sin, and graphic descriptions of Jesus' bloody death meant to take our place were common. I remember being terrified of dying in a car crash and not being "right with God," haunted by the stories the speakers shared.