Inspired by Jen Hatmaker’s 2025 memoir Awake, Lisa and Heather take a deep dive into the hellscape that is evangelical Christian purity culture.

A generation ago, purity culture was having a moment. Some of Hollywood’s most popular young actors and teen pop stars were publicly declaring their intention to abstain from sex until marriage. The media responded with a creepy level of curiosity about the sex lives of famous teens. And the buzz all this anti-sex talk created helped grow a movement that affected millions of teens, tweens, and young adult.

Now many of these now-adults are renouncing so-called purity culture and talking about the dark side of the movement. Purity culture survivors say the movement pressured young people to embrace an extreme definition of abstinence, made those who failed to do so feel unlovable and unclean, and created an atmosphere that fostered sexual abuse, blaming victims and protecting abusers.

We talk about the origins of the movement, why it’s losing steam, and how survivors are creating safe spaces for those seeking help and healing.

Trigger warning: In this episode we talk about rape, sexual coercion, and other forms of sexual and emotional abuse.

If you’re a survivor of religious trauma, please consider reaching out to:

The Reclamation Collective https://www.reclamationcollective.com/

Sources:

Awake, by Jen Hatmaker, 2025

“Evangelical Purity Culture and Its Discontents,” by Kathryn House and Sara Moslener, Theology & Sexuality, 2023

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13558358.2024.2332976

“How an Abstinence Pledge in the ’90s Shamed a Generation of Evangelicals” by Clyde Haberman, New York Times, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/abstinence-pledge-evangelicals.html https://retroreport.org/video/shamed-by-sex-survivors-of-the-purity-movement-confront-the-past/

“Findings from the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study,” Pew Research Center

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off/

Ganster Capitalism, Season 3

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/introducing-season-3-gangster-capitalism-jerry-falwell/id1460320573

“Liberty University Fined $14 Million for Mishandling Sex Assaults and Other Crimes,” by Zack Montague, New York Times, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/us/politics/liberty-university-fine-crime-sexual-assaults.html

““The Liberty Way”: How Liberty University Discourages and Dismisses Students’ Reports of Sexual Assaults,” ProPublica, 2021

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-liberty-way-how-liberty-university-discourages-and-dismisses-students-reports-of-sexual-assaults

“Abuse of Faith,” Houston Chronicle, 2019

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/abuse-of-faith/

“Josh Duggar Sentenced to More Than 12 Years in Prison in Child Sex Abuse Image Case,” NBC News, 2022

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/josh-duggar-sentenced-12-years-prison-child-sex-abuse-image-case-rcna30577