Linda Kay Klein

Listened thru the first part of the book, and I was done. It’s not that I can’t sympathize or understand where the author is coming from. I grew up in a charismatic evangelical church and heard plenty of the purity business, but was able to grow into adulthood without an incredible burden of shame as a result. That being said, I can easily see how her experience turned out differently, and I think it’s despicable. I’ve seen so many darker things about the evangelical church and was interested to learn more about it, since it was contrary to my own experience and understanding.

If the writing were better, I might continue trying to learn the author’s story and the others she is trying to tell. Maybe it’s the audio format that makes it difficult to separate the statements of different women, but from just the introduction I found it hard to follow and maintain interest in what she was saying. If the topic comes up in the future as one I want to learn more about in depth, I don’t think this would be a book I would come back to.

Honestly, at this point, I’m more interested in making sure that my 3 daughters don’t grow up under this type of programming, and I feel like I can say, without too much hubris, that I could identify warning signs and would be able to take action against them, for the sake of my girls and any others in the church.

… (mer)

"Purity culture" -- the brand of evangelical Christianity that includes a huge emphasis on abstinence before marriage -- has long-lasting negative effects for many women and some men. That is the thesis of Klein's book and she sets about explaining it through exploring her own past, interviewing other evangelical and ex-evangelical women, and providing statistics and figures.

This book was more than I was expecting it to be. For whatever reason, I expected it to be mostly a memoir, but Klein's own story is actually a relatively small part of this. While I agree with her general thesis, I was wondering how she was going to make a whole book out of 'abstinence education only isn't enough or particularly helpful.' But the stories she dived into also touched on additional topics like the church's teachings of women needing to be submissive to men and how things like this lead to a culture in which rape is excused or refused to be acknowledged. The victim-blaming episodes are the most upsetting but sadly not surprising. Other interviewees discuss coming out as LGBT in a setting that isn't welcoming, getting married too young because of the 'sex-is-only-for-marriage' mantra, and just generally dealing with not being allowed to have a voice as a woman. Shockingly a great number of the interviewees still believe in God and/or some other form of religion that isn't fundamental Christianity; I give them credit for being more forgiving than I could be.

The audiobook is read by the author and she is surprisingly adept at making the whole book seem conversational and engaging. (I was burned by my most recent 'read by the author' audiobook and wasn't expecting much here.) She acknowledges that the book is specifically about white women on the whole because she didn't want to complicate the issue by adding in other factors like racial injustice; however, she does briefly touch on one group that is primarily Black women raised as evangelicals who are now pushing back on the purity myth due to the shaming effect it had. So it is not a super intersectional book, but at least this is explained rather than pretending like other races/ethnicities don't exist.… (mer)

I've been thinking about this book a lot since I finished reading it on Tuesday.

I won't say I enjoyed it, because I didn't. It was painful and valuable and thought provoking. And given what the culture looks like today, it was very timely.

Linda Kay Klein writes in such a way that she is engaging and honest, and she states what she sees in a factual and fair way, even as she deals with difficult interviews and struggles.

I gave Pure 5/5 stars and I definitely recommend reading it.… (mer)