With a blend of history, current research, and sustained analysis, this book explores how white evangelicalism has become so politically powerful, why gender and sexuality are positioned at the center of debate, and how those debates aim to obscure deeper histories of white evangelical racism.
Sara Moslener describes the effects of the “True Love Waits” movement and how purity teachings displaced all other forms of religious education in evangelicalism. Moslener also describes her own story of being a teen advocate for purity culture to becoming a researcher, scholar, and advocate for people harmed by purity.
“The need for people to understand their experiences growing up in White evangelical churches has become overwhelming as many are reeling from the impacts of White Christian Nationalism, including the harm perpetrated by evangelical purity culture,” said Moslener. “After Purity is a book that I wrote to help people connect the personal with the political in the wake of significant reckonings with religion, sexuality, and racism.”
Her book includes interviews with women who grew up in the evangelical church and discusses how purity culture affects women — and particularly women of color. The book examines how white supremacy had a hand in constructing idealized “traditional” or “biblical” views of family, white racial identity, sexuality, gender expression and religion.