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ndrewfan's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
lydiastorytime's review
5.0
This book should be required reading for everyone who grew up evangelical!
Thank you for this book. This book gifted me with words for my feelings and evidence that I’m not alone. This book has helped me on my journey of untangling myself from shame.
As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and a survivor of sovereign grace ministry’s this book was painful but also healing. Like surgery, recovery from shame and spiritual abuse is painful. This book at some points was like surgery but it was also the friend who holds your hand as you are cut open. I’m so thankful that there are other people out there healing and sharing their stories. I feel I can breath easier like the metaphorical surgery removed a tumor from my lungs. This book left me with hope not only for the world but hope that maybe there is a God out there. Because I hear and see God all throughout this book. The way Linda describes her encounters with God it reminds me of so many of my experiences. The sharing of stories and journeys of healing and self love glisten with God. God is using the book and movement to bring justice and spread love. God is the love we extend to ourselves and each other as we rid our lives of shame. Uhhh thank you Linda for this beautiful book.
Thank you for this book. This book gifted me with words for my feelings and evidence that I’m not alone. This book has helped me on my journey of untangling myself from shame.
As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and a survivor of sovereign grace ministry’s this book was painful but also healing. Like surgery, recovery from shame and spiritual abuse is painful. This book at some points was like surgery but it was also the friend who holds your hand as you are cut open. I’m so thankful that there are other people out there healing and sharing their stories. I feel I can breath easier like the metaphorical surgery removed a tumor from my lungs. This book left me with hope not only for the world but hope that maybe there is a God out there. Because I hear and see God all throughout this book. The way Linda describes her encounters with God it reminds me of so many of my experiences. The sharing of stories and journeys of healing and self love glisten with God. God is using the book and movement to bring justice and spread love. God is the love we extend to ourselves and each other as we rid our lives of shame. Uhhh thank you Linda for this beautiful book.
khuizenga's review
4.0
This is a really important topic I’m glad is being discussed. While I didn’t experience all of the shades of purity culture described in this book, I would posit that most women in the evangelical church have experienced some if not many of them in the past few decades and I’m grateful to see a careful handling of the variety of ways that it has harmed people and how they are dealing with it now. There were some structural weaknesses in the book that made me mark it down a star, but I think the author tried to be as honest about her own biases and as true to the perspectives of the people in this book as possible. I think she should have done more in the final chapters on LGBTQ+ since it felt a bit like it came out of left field, when she could have drawn a stronger parallels between the ways that heterosexual women and the LGBTQ+ community have been reduced to nothing more than their sexuality within the context of many evangelical communities, a point which I think she tried to make but didn’t really solidify.
greenhedgehog's review
5.0
this was SOOO good. I would recommend this book to everyone and anyone that lived in the 80s and 90s and 00s in the conservative Christian narrative.
graceelllen12's review
5.0
This book, and topic, is incredibly important for anyone who grew up in purity culture or trying to understand how it’s shaped their sexual experiences.
There have been some comments focused on the lack of robust psychological research and historical analysis of the purity movement. I too would be interested in reading a book with that focus, but I don’t think that’s what Klein was aiming for.
Klein’s organization, Break Free Together, is centered around giving people who grew up in purity culture a space to share their store and hear from others with similar experiences. This lets us know that we’re not alone. Her idea is that as we hear from others about the effects purity culture has had on their self worth, relationships, and sex life, we can differentiate that the problem was never us. It was the culture.
Pure is primarily a book of personal experiences which shed light on damaging themes of purity culture. By bringing us other people’s stories, she encourages us to share our own. We are not alone.
There have been some comments focused on the lack of robust psychological research and historical analysis of the purity movement. I too would be interested in reading a book with that focus, but I don’t think that’s what Klein was aiming for.
Klein’s organization, Break Free Together, is centered around giving people who grew up in purity culture a space to share their store and hear from others with similar experiences. This lets us know that we’re not alone. Her idea is that as we hear from others about the effects purity culture has had on their self worth, relationships, and sex life, we can differentiate that the problem was never us. It was the culture.
Pure is primarily a book of personal experiences which shed light on damaging themes of purity culture. By bringing us other people’s stories, she encourages us to share our own. We are not alone.