I've been asked to define purity. Well, in the Bible, God says, you should be holy because I, the Lord God, am holy.

This is Heaven Bent.

I'm Tara Jean Stevens.

We live in a world in which purity is difficult.

Look at all the pornography, look at all the exposure, and then Jesus comes and says, be pure.

Season 11, The Spirit of Fear, Episode 6, an insatiable sexual appetite.

This season has been my journey to re-contextualize some of the things that still haunt me about my religious upbringing in the charismatic church, years after I walked away.

And on this final episode, if I may, I want to address a fear that I believe was rooted deep in me

by purity culture, a movement that began in 1990s evangelicalism that greatly impressed upon

teenagers like me, maybe like you, the existential importance of having

no sex before marriage. But there was one thread of purity culture that really impressed upon me.

And it's the aspect of it where we were taught as young girls

that it was our responsibility to protect the boys and men around us

from getting sinful lust by doing things like keeping our bare knees covered.

Music things like keeping our bare knees covered. And there's always been this jump for me about how, okay, if my knees are that powerful,

what about the rest of my body?

And you might have to roll with me here because even at this very moment,

I feel like I'm not quite even sure how to accurately put this fearful feeling I've had into words.

But I feel like it's important.

So I think it's ultimately a fear of what might

happen if I, listen to me whispering, if I truly wielded the full power of my body. You know, like,

just how powerful might a woman's sexuality be if there's been so much

...