My Issue with Purity Series

*** Disclaimer*** These are my opinions based on my experiences.


Alright, here goes:

I used to be a Christian. Long story, but I'm not anymore. I'm on hiatus from religion in general and plan to go back to my Jewish roots in a few years after I have taken some time off. HOWEVER, I was a Christian (born again, Evangelical believer and all) for 6 or so years. I have been going to church since birth, unless you count being a fetus in embryonic fluid while mom was at church, in which I guess you could make that claim.

My opinion now: If you want to save sex until marriage? Great. If not? Great. It's up to you. It's your body. However, I grew up in the church, and, as such, there was a lot of pressure to remain 'sexually pure' meaning no sex until marriage. If you have a religious reason to do so, or just want to for you, that's perfect. What I have a problem with is any institution that makes teenagers feel that their sexuality is wrong and that waiting until marriage is the only correct course of action.

In my own case, when I was twelve (7th grade) I did a purity series with my church middle school youth group. I wasn't a Christian at this point anyways, but I did the series for a few reasons:
1. All of my church friends were.
2. I wanted to feel involved.
3. At the age of 12, I had no idea what pledging 'purity' meant.
4. There was a ceremony at the end in which people got to dress up. I wanted to wear a pretty dress and homecoming dances weren't for a few more years.
5. At the end of the series, kids who completed it got a ring or something to symbolize there promise. Like the dress, I wanted a ring. Hey, free ring!

Once again, I was twelve. How could I have known what I was signing up for?

If people want to go through a purity series, great for them. But, as I said, I take issue with institutions making boys and girls feel bad for deciding to be 'impure'. Honestly, I don't think that sex and purity have anything to do with each other, but many people do.

And, in retrospect, the pact that I made when I was twelve was broken not too many years later. I guess that's what I get for making my promise so specific!

Here is a picture of me and my parents at the purity ceremony. I love my face- it clearly portrays the "this is unnecessary" mentality that I adopted a while later. I think I was about to say my vow at this point. I got the ring, and, as you can see, the blue-green dress. I still have the ring sitting in my room at my parents' house. I take it out every once in a while just to laugh.