• Latest
  • Trending
Virgin Mary

From Virgin Births to Purity Movements: Christians and Their Problem With Sex

December 29, 2019
bishop michael curry

Bishop Michael Curry Recovering Post-Surgery for Brain Bleed Due to a Fall

December 5, 2023
Daddy Yankee said 'Jesus is in me' at his farewell concert

‘Jesus Lives in Me’ — Top Latin Artist Daddy Yankee Declares Faith in Christ at Farewell Concert

December 4, 2023
Tony Lowden, Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter's personal pastor, delivered the former first lady eulogy at her funeral on November 29, 2024.

Watch: Tony Lowden, Pastor to Rosalynn Carter and Jimmy Carter, Delivers Former First Lady’s Eulogy

December 1, 2023
aaron dean charged with murder

Zion Carr: Boy Who Witnessed Cop Kill His Aunt Awarded $3.5M Settlement

November 30, 2023
Botham Shem Jean

Sister of Botham Jean — Killed in Home by Off-Duty Cop — Shares Struggles With Forgiveness, Justice in New Book

November 25, 2023
Sandra Maria Van Opstal

‘The Next Worship’ Author Sandra Van Opstal Undergoes Multiple Surgeries to Fight Rare Infection

November 25, 2023
Bishop Carlton Pearson passed away. Carlton Pearson died Sunday, November 19, 2023

Bishop Carlton Pearson, Once Celebrated Pentecostal Preacher, Dies After Brief Battle With Cancer

November 20, 2023
palestinian farmer

‘These Are Biblical Lands Promised to Us,’ Say Jewish Settlers in West Bank Amid Gaza Conflict

November 18, 2023
hans schmidt shot while street preaching near victory chapel church

Victory Chapel Outreach Director Hans Schmidt Shot in Head While Evangelizing Near Church

November 18, 2023
from the river to the sea meaning

Behind the Slogan ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free’

November 18, 2023
Ayaan Hirsi Ali conversion

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Outspoken Atheist and ‘Muslim Apostate,’ Says She Is ‘Now a Christian’

November 17, 2023
Breonna Taylor was killed by cops as she was in bed.

Brett Hankison Verdict: Mistrial for Ex-Cop Who Blindly Fired 10 Shots Into Breonna Taylor’s Home

November 17, 2023
Faithfully Magazine
  • Members
    • Log In
    • Member Home
    • See All Members
    • What’s New
    • Start or Join a Group
    • Your Freebies
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Join the Team
    • Contact Us
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Exclusives
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • NJ News
  • Listen & Watch
  • Shop
    • Faith Heroes Bookmarks
    • Clothing
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Resources
    • Black Christian Content
  • Newsletter
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Join the Team
    • Contact Us
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Exclusives
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • NJ News
  • Listen & Watch
  • Shop
    • Faith Heroes Bookmarks
    • Clothing
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Resources
    • Black Christian Content
  • Newsletter
No Result
View All Result
Faithfully Magazine
Home Opinion & Analysis

From Virgin Births to Purity Movements: Christians and Their Problem With Sex

FM Editors by FM Editors
December 29, 2019
in Opinion & Analysis
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Virgin Mary

(Photo: Wes Mountain/The Conversation, CC BY-ND)

26
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It

By Robyn J. Whitaker, University of Divinity

It took 400 years, but sometime in the early fifth century Christians transformed a tradition about Jesus’s miraculous virgin birth into a doctrine that inextricably connected sex with sin. It has plagued the church ever since, doing untold damage to generations of women in particular.

In its original context, the claim that Jesus was born to a virgin mother places his birth in a long line of miraculous biblical births. The Bible tells of numerous old women, barren women and young unmarried women (“virgins” in ancient terms) who surprisingly bore children. Their offspring were seen as a sign of God’s blessing of new life, often in the midst of suffering or hardship.

The idea of original sin and its connection to sexual intercourse was popularized by African theologian Augustine. Not without controversy at the time, Augustine argued that humans were not born innocent, but rather sinful. His rationale was that sexual intercourse involves lust or sexual desire (a negative for him).

RelatedArticles

from the river to the sea meaning

Behind the Slogan ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free’

November 18, 2023
woman laptop money

Mormon Church Lawsuits Over Tithes Raise Questions About Churches Investing ‘Charitable’ Funds

November 10, 2023

While Augustine tied this “original sin” back to Adam and Eve, the parallel focus on Mary’s perpetual virginity is relevant. If sexual intercourse produces sinful offspring, it was essential Mary be and remain a virgin so Jesus could, uniquely, be born sinless.

Such logic might seem absurd to many modern readers, but Augustine’s influence on Christian tradition cannot be overstated. In her book, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, Princeton Professor Elaine Pagels argues Augustine has left a legacy of problematic and complicated attitudes towards sex in the Christian tradition.

Attitudes, it is worth noting, that are not in the Bible. There is no suggestion in the biblical text that consensual sex is anything other than a gift from God. There is even an entire biblical book devoted to rather erotic poetry.

The idea that Mary was a perpetual virgin was already in circulation at this time, but the influence of Augustine’s thinking on original sin would lead the 19th-century Roman Catholic Church to adopt the doctrine of Immaculate Conception. This was the idea that Mary herself was immaculately conceived, so she could be a sinless vessel to carry the fetal Jesus. This move consolidated the association of purity and virginity, arguably leading to the Protestant Church’s purity culture movement in the 20th century.

The purity movement has its roots in 19th-century social movements that sought to abolish prostitution, raise the age of consent and limit pornography. Often led by women with the intention of protecting women, these movements appealed to men not to misuse their social and sexual power over women. However, the late 20th-century American purity movement looks quite different and has arguably done damage to women.

In the 1990s, conservative American churches started focusing on a radical abstinence from sex, the nature of which would likely have appealed to Augustine. Known as “purity culture,” both men and women were expected to remain “pure”.

Women, however, inevitably bore the brunt of this teaching. Girls pledged their virginity and were given promise rings by their fathers, a placeholder for an engagement ring when their virginity would be promised to another man. Young women were taught that the most important thing they could offer their future husband was a body untouched by another male.

Much has been written about the culture of shame and sexual ignorance that has resulted from such an emphasis on sexual purity. There were two notable outcomes: sex outside of marriage became the worst form of sin and women who experienced sexual assault were often additionally traumatised by their church’s teaching about purity and shame.

The harm caused is now so widely acknowledged that a once vocal proponent of the no-dating purity culture, Joshua Harris, has recently apologized and retracted his views and his book on the topic.

Shame, purity and sexual ignorance continue to haunt Christian communities around the globe. In Melbourne, I have encountered Christians who abstained from anything except holding hands until marriage, only to find that the leap from total abstinence to sex in one night was painful, awkward and sometimes traumatizing. If you have been told something is shameful your whole life, it takes more than a wedding ceremony to shift to a sex-positive mindset.

I’ve met Christian women who will not report a childhood rape because they fear being seen as “tainted goods” or “impure” to Christian men who might not want to marry them. The association of sex and sinfulness is so strong for some that a rapist’s sin can be internalized as their own.

In conservative Christian circles, sexual “sins” continue to be considered the worst kinds of sin. This legacy entrenches hierarchical gender roles, can push sexual activity underground as something hidden or secret, and arguably inhibits healthy sexual development in young people. Similarly, it diminishes any robust theology of sin and, alarmingly, it can create dangerous conditions for those vulnerable to sexual predation.

These centuries of thinking about virginity, sex and sinfulness have led us a long way from the woman whose child Christians celebrate at Christmas. Somehow, a virginal young woman became used by men to support claims that sex equals sin.

Yet, in the Christian tradition, Mary is best remembered as mother of God, prophet and faithful follower of Jesus. She has long been upheld as a model of faith for women in particular. And so she should be. Not because she was ever “pure” or remained a virgin, but because she exemplifies courageous faith.

The Conversation

Editor’s note: This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.


Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity

Leave your vote

0 Points
Upvote Downvote

Browse and manage your votes from your Member Profile Page


Share This Post

Share via

Share This Post

  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • Flipboard
  • SMS
More
  • Report
Advertisement
Ancestry US
26
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It
FM Editors

FM Editors

Faithfully Magazine is a fresh, bold and exciting news and culture publication that covers issues, conversations and events impacting Christian communities of color.

More Articles

hell
Features

Hell Is God’s Absence?—What the Bible and Christians Say About Hell

April 20, 2018
kamala harris
Uncategorized

With Kamala Harris as VP Pick, Biden Reaches Out to Young Black Voters

August 24, 2020
hands lifted in church
Churches

AME Church Maintains Same-Sex Marriage Stance But Wants to Hear Black LGBTQ Christians’ Testimonies

July 12, 2021

Discussion about this post

Upcoming Events

Dec 13
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm EST

Event: ‘Framing the News: Can Humanities Build Audience Engagement?’

View Calendar

Trending

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Tony Evans and Carla Crummie engaged to be married

Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death

September 12, 2023
international church of las vegas faithfully magazine

6 Largest Churches in Las Vegas

January 15, 2020
Bishop Carlton Pearson passed away. Carlton Pearson died Sunday, November 19, 2023

Bishop Carlton Pearson, Once Celebrated Pentecostal Preacher, Dies After Brief Battle With Cancer

November 20, 2023
Ralph Douglas West II of church without walls in houston texas

Rev. Ralph D. West II of Church Without Walls Must Pay $2.45M to Woman for STD Infection

October 12, 2023
Christian Cultural Center

5 Largest Churches in New York City

May 29, 2018
Sandra Maria Van Opstal

‘The Next Worship’ Author Sandra Van Opstal Undergoes Multiple Surgeries to Fight Rare Infection

November 25, 2023
bishop michael curry

Bishop Michael Curry Recovering Post-Surgery for Brain Bleed Due to a Fall

December 5, 2023
Daddy Yankee said 'Jesus is in me' at his farewell concert

‘Jesus Lives in Me’ — Top Latin Artist Daddy Yankee Declares Faith in Christ at Farewell Concert

December 4, 2023
Tony Lowden, Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter's personal pastor, delivered the former first lady eulogy at her funeral on November 29, 2024.

Watch: Tony Lowden, Pastor to Rosalynn Carter and Jimmy Carter, Delivers Former First Lady’s Eulogy

December 1, 2023
aaron dean charged with murder

Zion Carr: Boy Who Witnessed Cop Kill His Aunt Awarded $3.5M Settlement

November 30, 2023
Botham Shem Jean

Sister of Botham Jean — Killed in Home by Off-Duty Cop — Shares Struggles With Forgiveness, Justice in New Book

November 25, 2023
Sandra Maria Van Opstal

‘The Next Worship’ Author Sandra Van Opstal Undergoes Multiple Surgeries to Fight Rare Infection

November 25, 2023

Most Shared Articles

  • ‘The Next Worship’ Author Sandra Van Opstal Undergoes Multiple Surgeries to Fight Rare I...
  • Bishop Carlton Pearson, Once Celebrated Pentecostal Preacher, Dies After Brief Battle With Cancer...
  • Victory Chapel Outreach Director Hans Schmidt Shot in Head While Evangelizing Near Church...
  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Outspoken Atheist and ‘Muslim Apostate,’ Says She Is ‘Now a Chris...
  • ‘Jesus Lives in Me’ — Top Latin Artist Daddy Yankee Declares Faith in Christ at Farewe...

From The Archive

Botham Shem Jean was killed in his apartment by Dallas cop Amber Guyger
Crime

Grand Jury Says ‘Murder’ in Case of Dallas Cop Who Shot Botham Shem Jean

by FM Editors
November 30, 2018
Juanita Bynum, Christian evangelist and singer
Clippings

Juanita Bynum Accused of Spiritual Hypocrisy After Evangelist Slams Secular Music

by FM Editors
August 19, 2022
The tent camp housing migrants and asylum-seekers in Matamoros, Mexico along the U.S. border
Features

Seeing Migrants and Asylum-Seekers Clearly (Why the Immigration Crisis Is a Pro-Life Issue)

by Rondell Trevino
October 3, 2020
Kanye West Christian faith
Clippings

Church Leaders Who Welcomed Kanye West’s Sunday Service Torn Over Rap Mogul’s Controversial Behavior

by FM Editors
November 13, 2022
Bible
Uncategorized

James MacDonald’s Harvest Bible Chapel Helping to Evangelize Africa

by FM Editors
February 28, 2018

Who’s Online

There are no users currently online

Latest Votes

  • FM Editors on

    Jesus Likely Had Olive Skin and Short Black Hair, But What Did He Wear?

  • valexander on

    Christena Cleveland on ‘God Is a Black Woman’ and What Compelled Her to ‘Step off the Plantation’

  • FM Editors on

    Sexuality Has Nothing to Do With Salvation, Jackie Hill Perry Says in TBN Talk About ‘Gay Girl, Good God’

Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram
Faithfully Magazine

Faithfully Magazine is a news and culture publication centered on Christian communities of color.

We participate in various affiliate programs that allow us to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. FM is independently owned and published and is supported by digital subscriptions, advertising, merchandise sales, and affiliate links. We use these funds to maintain operations and pay our writers. Donations are welcomed.

Recent News

  • Bishop Michael Curry Recovering Post-Surgery for Brain Bleed Due to a Fall
  • ‘Jesus Lives in Me’ — Top Latin Artist Daddy Yankee Declares Faith in Christ at Farewell Concert
  • Watch: Tony Lowden, Pastor to Rosalynn Carter and Jimmy Carter, Delivers Former First Lady’s Eulogy
  • Zion Carr: Boy Who Witnessed Cop Kill His Aunt Awarded $3.5M Settlement

Most Shared Posts

  • ‘The Next Worship’ Author Sandra Van Opstal Undergoes Multiple Surgeries to Fight Rare Infection...
  • Bishop Carlton Pearson, Once Celebrated Pentecostal Preacher, Dies After Brief Battle With Cancer...
  • Victory Chapel Outreach Director Hans Schmidt Shot in Head While Evangelizing Near Church...
  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Outspoken Atheist and ‘Muslim Apostate,’ Says She Is ‘Now a Christian’...
  • ‘Jesus Lives in Me’ — Top Latin Artist Daddy Yankee Declares Faith in Christ at Farewell Concert...

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

  • From The Magazine
  • Inspiration
  • News
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Profiled
  • Q&As
  • Remember
  • Specials
  • New Jersey
  • Listen & Watch
  • Web Exclusives
  • Shop
    • Clothing
    • Faith Heroes Bookmarks
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • FM Live Events
    • Community Events
  • Resources
    • Black Christian Content
  • About Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Submit Content
    • Join the Editorial Team
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Members
    • Log In
    • Your Freebies
  • Subscribe to Faithfully Magazine
  • Newsletter
No Result
View All Result

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

*By registering on our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Share via

Share This Post

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link
  • Tumblr
  • Digg
  • Flipboard
  • SMS

Add New Playlist

Log In

Sign In

Login with Facebook
Login with Twitter
Forgot password?

Don't have an account? Register

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Back to Login

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Accept

Add to Collection

  • Public collection title

  • Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.

Try a 14-day free trial today with Ancestry® (We may earn a commission) Dismiss

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
Send this to a friend