

Throughout the period of adolescence, with a changing and growing body full of hormones, nothing sexual can be considered good. Your thoughts could be sins as much as your actions, and if you had questions about sexuality or your own body image, you could be shamed into not ever bringing them up. The purity movement causes feelings of shame. Purity culture damages mental health in the following five ways: 1.

It also creates strict roles for men and women which enforce patriarchal ideas about how men and women should behave. It can cause religious trauma syndrome and make you feel ashamed of your body, sexuality, or gender identity. Purity culture can have many long-lasting impacts on mental health. How Does Purity Culture Damage Mental Health? Even if someone didn’t read his book, the premises crept into many aspects of teaching a Christian sexual ethic during the purity movement. He goes so far as to recommend avoiding kissing until your wedding day, much less sex. 3 Joshua Harris, who has now renounced his book and deconverted from Christianity, emphasized virginity in I Kissed Dating Goodbye. When federal and state courts were battling out who could write the sex-education curricula for local schools, advocacy groups were fighting to incorporate religious teachings as the foundation. This includes masturbation, which was viewed as akin to premarital sex. If you do become sexually active before marriage, you are cheating on your future spouse.

Importantly, while purity culture is often associated with the evangelical Christian church, it was also incorporated into public schools in the form of “abstinence only” sex education. The basic teachings differ for males and females in some ways, although the message of “abstinence only” was the same across the board. The same is the state of your mind, a covered (read conditioned) mind is unfit for impartial self-reflection.Purity culture has come to be known as a subculture of evangelical Christian culture that emphasizes strict gender roles and norms, abstinence, and modesty. Now, envision that you cover that mirror with a piece of cloth so that it no longer shows your own image. Imagine you buy a really expensive mirror. What do I mean by moral purity or purity of discipline? You may practice severe austerities, they alone do not suffice. And until such time that you rise above intellect, you are not going to experience your true nature. Without purity in your discipline, it is not possible to rise above intellect. It is only in a state of spiritual purity that you are going to experience anything divine. What do I mean when I say pure? Does pure mean that you take care of your physical purity? Mental purity? Or, moral purity? All of these put together create what is called spiritual purity. Whatever you do, especially on the path of self-realization, you cannot discount purity. Your chances of success in any endeavor increase manifold when your actions and intentions are underscored by purity. A word without which your sādhanā, penance, is going to be incomplete. The following is an adapted snippet from the opening lines of the discourse: There is a word that can be found in most scriptures and yogic texts. Here is a video discourse for you in English. The seeker who stays committed to living a pure life certainly attains peace of mind, even if he fails at everything else. Purity of your moral, mental, and physical discipline will ensure that you get to the ultimate state of bliss. The importance of purity cannot be overstated.
