After Purity: Race, Sex, and Religion in White Christian America

Does a certain strain of conservative Christianity also bolster racist ideologies within the U.S.? Moslener (Virgin Nation), host of the podcast Pure White: Sexual Purity and White Supremacy, seeks to outline a connection between “evangelical purity culture” and racism in this concise but ambitious volume. She draws extensively on her own work as founder of the After Purity Project, an interview study focused on ex-evangelicals. The book begins by showing how certain evangelical communities have come to emphasize the importance of sexual purity, especially that of women, above most other teachings and moral imperatives. This has ramifications spanning from body image issues and psychological repression to allowing sexual predation to take place unchecked, Moslener suggests. Elsewhere, she argues that purity culture has a racist origin—it emerged “as a way to maintain racial separation and segregation”—and still frequently melds with white nationalism on an ideological level. She also explores the ways women of color within the evangelical church are particularly negatively affected by notions of “purity.” While the explanation of how exactly evangelical purity culture bolsters racism remains murky, the questions that are raised throughout feel eminently relevant to life in the U.S. today, and Moslener also does an excellent job of conveying how deeply these ideological currents of purity run. It’s a sobering wake-up call. (Dec.)