This book historicizes the contemporary purity movement by examining how earlier movements established the rhetorical and moral frameworks utilized by the leading purity organizations, True Loves Waits and Silver Ring Thing. This historical investigation reveals that purity work over the last two centuries has developed in concert with widespread fears of changing traditional gender roles and sexual norms, national decline, and global apocalypse. The book contends that the idea of sexual purity is most compelling at points in history when evangelical beliefs and values appear the most viable e ... More

This book historicizes the contemporary purity movement by examining how earlier movements established the rhetorical and moral frameworks utilized by the leading purity organizations, True Loves Waits and Silver Ring Thing. This historical investigation reveals that purity work over the last two centuries has developed in concert with widespread fears of changing traditional gender roles and sexual norms, national decline, and global apocalypse. The book contends that the idea of sexual purity is most compelling at points in history when evangelical beliefs and values appear the most viable explanation for and solution to widespread cultural crises. As historian Angela Lahr has shown, the cultural and political influence of evangelicals is directly related to their ability to effectively address widespread fears. For nineteenth-century purity advocates, it was the ability to address the fear of declining Anglo-Saxon privilege; for twentieth-century fundamentalists, threats of nuclear destruction and communist invasion; and for later evangelicals: the excesses of the sexual revolution coupled with lingering Cold War fears. In each case, sexual purity rhetoric proved an asset to evangelicals seeking to maintain political and cultural influence. By asserting a causal relationship between sexual immorality, national decline, and apocalyptic anticipation, leaders shaped a purity rhetoric that positions Protestant evangelicalism as the salvation of American civilization.