When I read Salon.com, I constantly have to remind myself that it features many of America’s most “educated” leftists — people occupying prestigious positions in the halls of academe. In other words, not only do some people actually believe its nonsense, they reward it with tenure and book contracts. Earlier this week, Salon ran a piece titled “Evangelicals’ obsession with ’sexual purity’ has nothing to do with sex.” Always intrigued by the educated Left’s relentless assault on virginity, I had to click. The article was an interview with Sara Moslener — author of the new Oxford University Press (yes, Oxford) book, Virgin Nation. In her interview, Moslener purports to describe the true motivations for Evangelicals’ desire to limit sexual intercourse to the bounds of holy matrimony. Penetrating through 2,000 years of theological hocus-pocus, Moslener has discovered the true motivations for premarital virginity. Feast your eyes upon this statement:
Sexual purity movements, past and present, are not ultimately about promoting a biblical view of sexuality. They are about explaining large-scale culture crises (e.g. Anglo-Saxon decline, the Cold War, changing gender roles and sexual mores) and providing a formula for overcoming those crises.
She explains:
Each historical example I analyze demonstrates that purity work and rhetoric has emerged at moments when socially conservative evangelicals seek to assert and maintain their political power. Sexual purity isn’t about what Abby and Brendan do on a Friday night, it’s about constructing a view of the United States as a nation in distress and claiming that evangelical Christianity can not only best explain the crisis, but save us from our demise.
She hits the nail on the head here. Countless high school Friday nights, I put a stop to backseat adventures because — if I didn’t — the Army’s V Corps might not be able to stop the Soviet 8th Guards Army at the Fulda Gap. Then, when Bruce Jenner got breast implants, I realized our church youth group should pledge to go out only on group dates. No alone time for you!
What’s even more remarkable is that Moslener somehow understands what few people do — that 2,000 years ago, the church fathers wrote the New Testament to clearly prohibit premarital sexual intercourse with the United States in mind, just to drive the academic Left absolutely insane.
Alas, however, the Evangelical purity movement is much more boring than all that. It exists because Christians since time immemorial have heeded Christ’s words: “If you love me, keep my commands,” and the commands regarding sexual morality are among the clearest instructions in all of scripture. But it’s hard to build a dissertation or Oxford book around such simple, literal truths — especially when your peers are busy deconstructing, well, everything.
But the world wonders. Fresh off this intellectual triumph, what’s her next book?
I’m looking more closely at the racial origins of sexual purity.
Of course she is. Because everything comes back to race.