When reading the texts, “Thinking Sex and American Religions” and “Evangelical ‘Sexual Purity’ Is Not About Sex — its about power” a common theme is how we view the relationship between sex and religion are through the scope of American religions. Within the Six Axioms, Axiom 1: Thinking Sex Matters, the text states how serious American religions take sex, going back to the Protestant views on sexual morality being “good old American values”. Sara Moslener talks about how her book examines the political and cultural efforts done in the name of sexual purity throughout history.
As I read these texts, I began to think of my upbringing in the church and the schools I attended as a teenager. The church preached sexual purity and among the many posters that were posted at my school, there were a couple that just had the word abstinence in bold with a little subtext of its “importance”. I always assumed sexual purity was intended for god’s purpose and the posters preaching abstinence were just to keep kids from “adult” activities, I never tied the two together or how the history of my religion and country both played a similar role in an attempt to influence my decisions and views on sex.
