Purity culture. Is it toxic? Did it harm girls? Do we need elements of it today? This week,

we're going to talk about that. This is the Reviva Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMas Walgamuth,

author of Lies, Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free.

For May 4th, 2026, I'm Dana Gresh.

Two years ago, I was standing in a music rehearsal room at Cedarville University, my alma mater,

when someone handed me a silver envelope with a note for me. And it was from

another party. But this woman had met this individual that I knew and said, will you please

deliver this letter to Dana Gresh? And when I opened it up, the first thing I saw was a photocopy

of a newspaper clipping from the 1980s or early 90s. I can't

remember which right now, but it was of this woman who wrote the letter on her wedding day,

how the newspaper had celebrated the fact that she and her husband had saved the gift of sex

for their wedding day. This is a secular paper, and it was

being celebrated. The gift of purity was being celebrated. And then there was a handwritten letter

from this woman who had read my book, and the bride wore white, seven secrets to sexual purity

about the year 2000 or so, and she said, I loved that book.

It was such an encouragement to me in how we chose to live our life. And I have a teenage

daughter now who is in the youth group. And I would love to tell my purity story to her youth

group. But when I approached the youth pastor about it, he told me

that I was the victim of toxic teaching, toxic teaching from the era known as the purity movement

or purity culture, as some call it. And then she ended the letter with this question. She said,

do you still believe what you wrote?

And it had been a long time since I'd penned that book. But I went back to it. I pulled it out.

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