Faculty Webinar: Purity Culture and the Therapeutic Turn in American Evangelicalism with Dr. Lauren Sawyer
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.聽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.
Join this webinar 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.
Dr. Lauren D. Sawyer graduated from 天美视频 with her MA in Theology and Culture in 2014. She then became an Assistant Instructor before taking on the role of Notetaker for the Allender Center, focusing on Dan Allender鈥檚 teachings. In 2020, she returned to Seattle and began teaching as an Adjunct Instructor, and a year later, she expanded her role with the Allender Center as a Curriculum Specialist. In July 2022, her roles were combined: Adjunct Instructor at 天美视频 and Curriculum Coordinator at the Allender Center.聽She has since been promoted to Affiliate Faculty and Manager of Curriculum and Instruction.