Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free by Linda Kay Klein

A woman who lived through it reveals the hidden scars of evangelical purity culture—blending investigative journalism, personal memoir, and sharp cultural critique to expose its lasting harm on a generation of women.

In the 1990s, white evangelical Christianity gave rise to a “purity industry”—complete with rings, pledges, and balls—that preached a toxic ideal: girls were temptresses responsible for men’s sexual purity, their own desires a sign of moral failure. This doctrine left deep wounds, fostering shame, anxiety, and even PTSD-like trauma in countless young women.

This was the so-called “sex education” Linda Kay Klein received.

Terrified of being labeled a seductress, Klein ended a relationship at God’s imagined command and took pregnancy tests despite her virginity, convinced any sexual thought would be met with divine punishment. When her youth pastor was convicted of grooming a 12-year-old girl, Klein’s faith in this warped morality crumbled. Reaching out to peers, she discovered many shared her struggles with shame—a revelation that launched a 12-year journey across America, listening to women from similar backgrounds. Along the way, she found healing and encountered faith communities reimagining the relationship between sexuality and spirituality.

Though rooted in evangelicalism, Pure exposes a universal truth: sexual shame is a tool of oppression, and its grip on women must end.