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After Purity

Race, Sex, and Religion in White Christian America

Author Sara Moslener
Foreword by Linda Kay Klein
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Hardcover
$28.95 US
| $38.95 CAN
Beacon Press
On sale Dec 09, 2025 | 200 Pages | 9780807014998
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An intersectional analysis of evangelical purity culture’s influence on gender, sexuality, race, and national identity in the United States.

With a foreword by Linda Kay Klein, author of Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free.

In After Purity, purity scholar Sara Moslener conducts a nuanced investigation of purity culture in white evangelical Christianity, revealing its profound impact on gender, sexuality, race, and national identity in the United States. Moslener shares exclusive stories of participants from her research on the After Purity Project to discuss how purity culture affected women—particularly white women—who grew up in the evangelical church. These stories depict how white supremacy has a hand in constructing idealized “traditional” or “biblical” views of family, white racial identity, sexuality, gender expression, and religion, and how our physical bodies are situated within systems of power and oppression.

With a blend of history, current research, and sustained analysis, Moslener explores how white evangelicalism has become so politically powerful, why gender and sexuality are positioned at the center of debate, and how those debates aim to obscure deeper histories of white evangelical racism. She describes the full disturbing effect of the “True Love Waits” movement and how purity teachings displaced all other forms of religious education in evangelicalism. From her interviewees in the After Purity Project, she shares stories of oppressive personal piety, sexual repression, disembodiment, self-hatred, mandatory hetero-normativity, and the many layers of obligation and shame in sexuality before reaching adulthood and navigating their way out of the church. Moslener also describes her own story of being a teen advocate for purity culture to becoming a researcher, scholar, and advocate for people harmed by purity.

After Purity provides a window into the world of white evangelicalism and how its leaders and political allies have manufactured socio-sexual panic to justify the elimination of sexual and religious diversity that thrive in a flourishing democracy.
“It’s a sobering wake-up call.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Bold, brilliant, and deeply necessary, After Purity exposes how purity culture has shaped our bodies, identities, and systems of power. Sara Moslener’s work is a must-read for anyone healing from evangelicalism’s grasp or working to untangle the myths of White innocence.”
—Laura E. Anderson, author of When Religion Hurts You

“Sometimes a book comes along that connects two seemingly disparate threads and shows you how they were intertwined from the start. It confirms a hunch, a sense, one that you neither had the data nor the skills to confirm. For those of us who grew up in purity culture, there have always been nationalistic overtones—the prevailing idea that pure bodies and a pure nation go together. Weaving the stories of survivors with an unflinching look at America’s racist history, Sara Moslener has crafted a book that is necessary reading for anyone wanting to understand sexual politics, American nationalism, and White supremacy in the United States.”
—Brad Onishi, author of Preparing for War

“Purity culture was presented as a way to keep believers’ souls free of sin. In After Purity, Sara Moslener shows that, all along, purity culture’s true focus has been controlling people’s bodies, marking some as superior, innocent—and others not.”
—Sarah Stankorb, author of Disobedient Women

“As someone who grew up in White evangelical purity culture, I have found Sara Moslener’s work illuminating and essential to understanding the world I was raised in. In After Purity, she expertly untangles the complex history of purity culture, refusing to turn away from the racism and misogyny that have shaped the evangelical church as she delves deeper than individual impact to examine broader systemic issues. Moslener has helped me understand the historical context of my upbringing and become better equipped to deal with our current political climate, and I know others will find the same guidance in these pages.”
—Cait West, author of Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy
Sara Moslener is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Anthropology, and Religion at Central Michigan University. She is the author of Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence and creator of the podcast Pure White: Sexual Purity and White Supremacy.She lives in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, with her best friend and soulmate, Gibson the Chug.
Sara Moslener View titles by Sara Moslener
Foreword by Linda Kay Klein

INTRODUCTION
Pure in America

CHAPTER ONE
The Purity Myth

CHAPTER TWO
Power and Abuse

CHAPTER THREE
Evangelical Exodus

CHAPTER FOUR
Constructing the Myth of White Racial Identity

CHAPTER FIVE
Sexual Purity and Racial Formations

CHAPTER SIX
Sexual Purity and Racial Disembodiment

CHAPTER SEVEN
Myths and Martyrs of White Christian Nationalism

CONCLUSION
After Roe

Acknowledgments
Further Reading
Notes
Index

About

An intersectional analysis of evangelical purity culture’s influence on gender, sexuality, race, and national identity in the United States.

With a foreword by Linda Kay Klein, author of Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free.

In After Purity, purity scholar Sara Moslener conducts a nuanced investigation of purity culture in white evangelical Christianity, revealing its profound impact on gender, sexuality, race, and national identity in the United States. Moslener shares exclusive stories of participants from her research on the After Purity Project to discuss how purity culture affected women—particularly white women—who grew up in the evangelical church. These stories depict how white supremacy has a hand in constructing idealized “traditional” or “biblical” views of family, white racial identity, sexuality, gender expression, and religion, and how our physical bodies are situated within systems of power and oppression.

With a blend of history, current research, and sustained analysis, Moslener explores how white evangelicalism has become so politically powerful, why gender and sexuality are positioned at the center of debate, and how those debates aim to obscure deeper histories of white evangelical racism. She describes the full disturbing effect of the “True Love Waits” movement and how purity teachings displaced all other forms of religious education in evangelicalism. From her interviewees in the After Purity Project, she shares stories of oppressive personal piety, sexual repression, disembodiment, self-hatred, mandatory hetero-normativity, and the many layers of obligation and shame in sexuality before reaching adulthood and navigating their way out of the church. Moslener also describes her own story of being a teen advocate for purity culture to becoming a researcher, scholar, and advocate for people harmed by purity.

After Purity provides a window into the world of white evangelicalism and how its leaders and political allies have manufactured socio-sexual panic to justify the elimination of sexual and religious diversity that thrive in a flourishing democracy.

Reviews

“It’s a sobering wake-up call.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Bold, brilliant, and deeply necessary, After Purity exposes how purity culture has shaped our bodies, identities, and systems of power. Sara Moslener’s work is a must-read for anyone healing from evangelicalism’s grasp or working to untangle the myths of White innocence.”
—Laura E. Anderson, author of When Religion Hurts You

“Sometimes a book comes along that connects two seemingly disparate threads and shows you how they were intertwined from the start. It confirms a hunch, a sense, one that you neither had the data nor the skills to confirm. For those of us who grew up in purity culture, there have always been nationalistic overtones—the prevailing idea that pure bodies and a pure nation go together. Weaving the stories of survivors with an unflinching look at America’s racist history, Sara Moslener has crafted a book that is necessary reading for anyone wanting to understand sexual politics, American nationalism, and White supremacy in the United States.”
—Brad Onishi, author of Preparing for War

“Purity culture was presented as a way to keep believers’ souls free of sin. In After Purity, Sara Moslener shows that, all along, purity culture’s true focus has been controlling people’s bodies, marking some as superior, innocent—and others not.”
—Sarah Stankorb, author of Disobedient Women

“As someone who grew up in White evangelical purity culture, I have found Sara Moslener’s work illuminating and essential to understanding the world I was raised in. In After Purity, she expertly untangles the complex history of purity culture, refusing to turn away from the racism and misogyny that have shaped the evangelical church as she delves deeper than individual impact to examine broader systemic issues. Moslener has helped me understand the historical context of my upbringing and become better equipped to deal with our current political climate, and I know others will find the same guidance in these pages.”
—Cait West, author of Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy

Author

Sara Moslener is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Anthropology, and Religion at Central Michigan University. She is the author of Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence and creator of the podcast Pure White: Sexual Purity and White Supremacy.She lives in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, with her best friend and soulmate, Gibson the Chug.
Sara Moslener View titles by Sara Moslener

Table of Contents

Foreword by Linda Kay Klein

INTRODUCTION
Pure in America

CHAPTER ONE
The Purity Myth

CHAPTER TWO
Power and Abuse

CHAPTER THREE
Evangelical Exodus

CHAPTER FOUR
Constructing the Myth of White Racial Identity

CHAPTER FIVE
Sexual Purity and Racial Formations

CHAPTER SIX
Sexual Purity and Racial Disembodiment

CHAPTER SEVEN
Myths and Martyrs of White Christian Nationalism

CONCLUSION
After Roe

Acknowledgments
Further Reading
Notes
Index

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