The purity movement of the 1990s is usually seen as a grassroots pushback against the sexual revolution鈥攁 return to 鈥渂iblical values鈥� in a more permissive culture. But that view misses something important: purity culture actually grew out of a much longer effort by evangelicals, spanning about a century, to figure out how to respond to the challenges of modern society.
This webinar traces how American neo-evangelicalism eventually coopted the therapeutic language it once rejected鈥攁nd how purity culture emerged as a product of that accommodation. By the 1970s, leaders like James Dobson had fully embraced the language of therapeutic Christianity. These leaders taught that the nuclear family was the foundation of a strong country鈥攁nd that adolescents were both its most vulnerable members and its greatest threat. In this period, 鈥渇amily values鈥� rhetoric鈥攅vident in anti-abortion activism, welfare reform debates, and early purity discourse鈥攃onsistently positioned young people at the center of a perceived moral crisis. Within this framework, sexual purity was framed as a corrective intervention, promising to heal adolescents, restore families, and ultimately safeguard the nation.
In this webinar, Lauren leads us to consider how understanding purity culture鈥攁nd its appropriation of therapeutic language鈥攕hapes ongoing conversations in Christian communities about sexuality, faith, and personal growth.