In 1997, when my first book was published by an evangelical publisher in Oregon, I met another author published by the same company. His name was Josh Harris, whose book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, helped kick start the purity movement within American Evangelicalism. The movement emphasized modest dress for women, imposed strict gender roles, and discouraged dating. Evangelical churches held purity balls, made their female members take virginity pledges and wear purity rings in the event they were tempted to kiss a boy, then would see the ring and reel in their carnal desires. Though the movement has faded, remnants of it persist, especially in the Evangelical’s hateful rejection of transgender people.
Harris eventually withdrew his support for the book, apologized for the harm it had caused young women, kissed the ministry and his wife goodbye, and is now a champion of gay rights. That same publisher fired me when I came out of the closet as a universalist, which they claimed violated the morals clause tucked away in my publishing contract. Only in Evangelical Christianity is it considered a breach of morality to say God loves everyone.
I told Josh Harris that asking young people on the cusp of sexual maturity to defy 300,000 years of evolutional biology wouldn’t work, but it’s hard to stop something when you’re making a boatload of money doing it. As for nonsensical, it seems absurd to use the words “purity” and “evangelical” in the same sentence, given the Evangelical’s embrace of Donald Trump, an adjudicated rapist, a serial adulterer, and a sexual assaulter of children. Then again, purity for the Evangelicals was never about integrity, but control. More specifically, men wishing to rule women, dominate their bodies, and narrow their opportunities. Only religion can keep half the world’s population under its thumb and sound virtuous while doing it. I weep to think of all the women who were forced to dim their light, hide their gifts, and still their voices, then made to feel guilty when, weary of oppression, they rose to their feet in protest.
Last week, I wrote about Donald Trump’s illegally parlaying his presidency into great wealth, but failed to mention another group hitting it big in the MAGA world—the plastic surgeons plumping lips, enlarging breasts, narrowing waists, smoothing wrinkles, and otherwise conditioning women to believe their only value is their sexual allure. Trump, and the Evangelicals who support him, have made their contempt for women all too clear. They are objects, used at the whim and pleasure of men; objects to be grabbed, abused, and assaulted. We’ll tolerate no more pious pronouncements from these men about complementarianism, about their God-ordained role, which is short-hand language for keeping women in their right and proper place.
It was no surprise that Trump’s Supreme Court appointees stripped women of their reproductive rights, for nothing is more intrinsic to freedom than a woman’s right to decide whether she will bear a child. Having won control of women’s bodies, MAGA’s will not stop until they also control their minds. Just this week, a young woman in Grand Rapids was arrested by two male police officers for peacefully protesting Donald Trump’s illegal invasion of Venezuela. First, they regulate their wombs, then their words, all without a peep of protest from the Evangelicals who claim to be the protectors of women.
If you’re a woman attending a church that allows you in the nursery but not in the pulpit, if you can serve as a cook but not as an elder, if you are praised for staying home with the children but not for working as a scientist unlocking the mysteries of the universe, you have joined a community that fears your potential, rejects your humanity, and silences your voice. No matter how much they claim to love you, no matter how many games they have for your children, no matter how many Bible verses they cite justifying their sexism, you are not loved for who you are but for what you offer—your unquestioning allegiance to a system whose foot is on your neck and will remain there until you throw it off and rise triumphantly to your feet.
Philip Gulley is the author ofthe popularHarmony seriesandUnlearning God: How Unbelieving Helped Me Believe.
Discover my books, stories, and more by visiting Books by Philip Gulley
Contact Philip directly at philiphgulley@gmail.com
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