I remained confused, if not ambivalent, until I noticed the rings. What did sex and my body have to do with God? So, while I understood why theft or murder was wrong, this aspect didn’t make sense to me. Body parts like breasts or vaginas were sources of mildly skittish curiosity. I was taught that masturbation was just one of many tactics to feel good or fall asleep faster. She reiterated countless times that I should not believe the Hollywood fantasy, that sex was an animal thing, almost grotesque. I had been told what sex was at a very young age by my mother. As boys and girls were separated at church camp-boys being delivered lectures on the evils of pornography and girls being told sternly not to wear spaghetti straps lest we tempted boys to hell-I didn’t understand just how my bare shoulders had anything to do with sin. These rules changed when I hit puberty, when I discovered that defending my sexual purity with zealous fury was apparently an even bigger part of being a Christian than all the rest. You read the Bible, you prayed, you were good to other people, and forgave them when they weren’t good to you. I felt that I generally understood the rules of Christianity. In that time, I’d attended church weekly, Vacation Bible School, post-service potlucks, and summer Bible camp. This is Daughters of Eve, a monthly column by Nina Li Coomes which uses women of the Bible to dissect ideas about womanhood, power and what it means to be 'worthy.'īy the time I was twelve, I’d lived in the United States for five years.

The purity myth