The rhetoric used by the movement to discourage sexual activity conflated the worth of an individual with his or her ability to resist having sex. While this impacted many, it was not overly successful at discouraging youth from premarital sex. As it turns out, most people who wait to have sex do so out of personal conviction, not because they were forced to sign a purity pledge before they even knew what sex was.
As a result of their worth being found in sexual activity or lack thereof, many young Christians suppressed their sexual desires and developed self-hatred over the fact that humans are sexual beings. This suppression and self-hatred led to things like Sexual Aversion Disorder (commonly referred to as “asexuality” by survivors of the movement), eating disorders, self-harm, addiction, suicidal ideations, and spiritual apostasy.
These are side-effects of the movement that I know too well. I struggle with the eating disorder known as anorexia nervosa due to the lack of healthy boundaries and the need for “control” that comes out of that lack. Not only that but, apropos of the above, I have watched volumes of childhood friends slip into depression, self-harm, suicide attempts, and ultimately leave the Christian faith (a decision I briefly made as well) from the crushing weight of legalism within Purity Culture.
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