Ladies, you can’t wear spaghetti-strap
shirts (because it might cause a guy
to go into a lustful rage by looking at a
woman’s shoulder).
So, while “do whatever you want”
was one extreme, the church created
a second one. One that harbored
an intensely legalistic subculture,
that usually communicated the very
opposite of Scripture (in other words,
sex and desire are bad and the reason
this country is going to hell in a
handbasket).
Christian colleges getting married at
eighteen or nineteen so they can stop
“burning with passion.” I’m sure there
are tons of people who got married
that young for the right reasons, but
again, it comes down to motivation.
The heart behind the behavior. I know
many people who are products of
the nineties’ evangelicalism who got
married more to obey their legalism
than because they thought they
actually should get married.
We created a culture that made it more
of a point to be a virgin than to be a
genuine follower of Jesus. We created
a culture that cared more about
behavior in the bedroom than heart
transformation and honoring God with
your body, thoughts, and emotions. I heard someone recently say that
we are all refugees of the sexual
revolution—the ideas and philosophies
put into motion then have left many
of us relationally bankrupt. But I’d
argue that the same is true for a
fundamentalist Christian standpoint.
Many of us are refugees and runaways
from the purity culture as well.
I’ve heard many stories of students at So, we grew up and walked into
“
We’ve bought this lie
that personal freedom is
the ultimate goal. But it
makes me want to ask,
what’s true freedom?”
62 • Solutions