The Felt Sense of Evangelical Purity Culture

Abstract

Alongside concerns for teen pregnancy and the AIDS crisis, the purity culture movement arose in the early 1990s stemming from fears within the Evangelical community regarding the breakdown of the traditional family structure. Sexual abstinence campaigns began in 1993 under the True Love Waits banner. Sexual purity industry programs, both religious and secular, resulted across the United States that taught adolescents any sexual activity or thought outside of heterosexual marriage was damaging and sinful. Purity culture was significant as it is estimated one out of five American youth took a purity pledge to abstain from premarital sex. A main research question guided this study: What are the lived experiences of those who grew up inside of Evangelical purity culture who took a pledge of sexual abstinence and went to great lengths to keep that pledge in a culture that is predominantly not sexually abstinent? This study captured data from the interviews of eight purity culture survivors and conducted an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of having lived through strict and shaming rules of purity culture. This study investigated the psychological and spiritual issues stemming from these individuals’ participation in purity culture. The result is a careful examination of the detrimental effects experienced in these women’s adult lives, including anxiety and depression stemming from sexual shame and guilt. Results of this study add to the psychological literature about the felt sense of purity culture and provide insight into how individuals have interpreted the teaching as well as how their mental health and well-being have been impacted. Psychological damage from sexual shame and guilt can become lifelong disabilities of anxiety, depression, and chronic posttraumatic stress. The researcher’s intentions are to provide education that contributes to healthy relationships and healing from the complex problem of religious trauma.