The Bachelorette and the Purity Movement
The Bachelorette, Hannah, and the Purity Movement, Josh Harris, have made big news recently. Here are a few great quotes about both of these that I have found recently and wanted to share with you.
“What do you expect when so many Christian churches have been preaching nothing but tolerance and love for so long, demanding nothing and offering false absolution in exchange for a few bucks in the plate? You can’t understand Christ if you don’t understand sin. Too many ‘Christian-Lite’ churches preach that sin doesn’t even really exist, which is the same as preaching that God doesn’t really exist, and the Christ’s atoning sacrifice was pointless.
“Christ Himself demanded of one such woman that He forgave to ‘sin no more.’ What makes Hannah or anyone think that they can be saved in their sins after reading His words? The false teachings of false prophets. This priestcraft, as much as anything on the Left, has contributed to the erosion of our moral foundation. Shame on her pastors, preachers, and parents” (Written by an anonymous person).
“Many Christians (homeschoolers, in particular) are familiar with the Harris family — Josh’s mother and father, Gregg and Sono Harris, were pioneers in the Christian homeschooling movement of the ’80s and ’90s and Josh’s book advocating the view that dating should be avoided in favor of a courtship model sold more than a million copies . . .
“Many of us were understandably shocked and disappointed by Harris’ apostasy (the Greek word means simply a defection or revolt). An individual whom many of us admired and learned from has chosen to forsake Christ and embrace the world — he’s denounced the faith of his childhood, one that he has embraced very publicly over the last two decades. . . .
“Besides being a warning about dangers of Evangelicalism Inc.’s celebrity culture, these incidents also serve as a warning about how Satan prowls about like a roaring lion ‘seeking whom he may devour.’ Make no mistake: The prince of this world revels over each and every one of these stories” (Paula Bolyard).
“I had not heard the term ‘purity culture’ until the last couple of weeks but I’m already of sick of hearing about it. It is just a boogeyman term and a proxy term useful for attacking Christian ideas of sexual purity. The biggest complaints seem to be around the idea that there is shame associated with fornication, lust, and other sexual sins. But that shame is good. People attacking it are really just interested in moving the shame from these sins to those who are against them. It wasn’t purity culture that caused people harm, it was their sin.” (Joseph Spurgeon)
Nathan’s response to Joseph’s comment: “Good word. It’s amazing how people can take something like purity and turn it into a bad word. Puritan, puritanical, purity culture. The world hates purity. If people have a problem with legalism, call out legalism, not purity!”
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despiser of those that are good.
2 Timothy 3:1-3
7 thoughts on “The Bachelorette and the Purity Movement”
The Bachelor and bachelorette are disgusting shows. No Christian in their right mind would be in it or watch it.
As for Josh Harris, I have no words. Prayers for his wife and kids. And for him to repent of such foolishness.
It does goes to show that man cannot solve their own problems only a heart change can do that.
With regards to the purity movement and it’s rules, if you are just following these rules to please Mummy and Daddy and to try to demonstrate to others that you are holy, you will fail because you are not doing it from the heart.
Purity is not bad because this is what God requires but it is when they are having things like purity balls and pledges to father and so forth, it goes too far.
There was no such thing mentioned in the bible and folks still managed to maintain purity without all that. The point of the matter is that if people have it in their heart to fornicate, then unless they are fully in a relationship with the lord and have the fear of God, then they are going to fornicate.
I do not want to be discussing my sex life with my Father or mother as a full grown woman and if I had children, I will discuss purity with them but it is just creepy to being doing pledges with them to remain pure and have rings. Their allegiance should be to God not to me.
When they become adults and start dating, then I would be expecting them with the knowledge and the way that I have given them instruction know how to maintain their own purity both boys and girls by following and obeying God because for all the rules I create, it will make no difference if their heart thinks otherwise.
I will pray for Joshua Harris as it appears like many of these folks who were preaching to us the purity movement, they are blaming God and christianity for the fact that things did not work out the way it should when the movement was just man made solutions from the onset.
If you have a cancerous mole inside your skin, you cannot just apply a plaster over it, you have to extract it or else the cancer will always be there and then you end up blaming the doctor/hospital.
Joshua was simply filling a void that was left from the fornication culture. I am not sure he came up with the purity balls and rings but I do know that a lot of the young girls enjoyed doing these things. The greatest guarantee for a young wife having a great sex life is having a close and loving relationship with her father so I see absolutely no harm in doing these things but yes, it’s the faith and strong convictions that matter in the end, not simply actions.
1 Timothy 4:1 ►
New International Version
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
The Holy Spirit also remind me of the parable of the sower that falcons come and AKA devil comes to choke the seed of faith!
We are living in very interesting times. Because of innovations like the internet and social media, the slightest occurrence reverberates through the world giving the illusion of all hell breaking loose. However as Christians, we must remember that
“That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9, NASB)
People have been falling away from the faith since the fall of Adam. And yet, the true remnant of God has remained to this day. God’s Word and His purposes stand unwavering, unchanging and will prevail triumphant according to ALL that is written in the scriptures.
The news of Joshua Harris’ apostasy is sad indeed because of the size of his sphere of influence however it teaches us some profound lessons. The first being that as parents we should resist the temptation to launch our children into the celebrity limelight of ministry too soon. Harris had a bullseye painted on him the moment he was elevated at so young an age to the role of lead pastor. Furthermore, a young lad (as well as young women) has no business writing about courtship and marriage. They just simply are not qualified to do so because they have not proved themselves. There’s a reason why Paul tells Timothy that a leader of a congregation should not be a recent convert in 1 Timothy 3:6, lest it goes to his head and the devil ensnares him. There’s a reason why the teaching of young wives is to be done by older women in Titus 2:4-5. We have seen it many times; parents get conceited and think that just because their child demonstrates an aptitude for a ministry, then forget the Biblical restrictions on age, and let them publish their opinions so emphatically and decidedly for so young a person. This just gives occasion for the adversary and the haters of God to hound these young people and taunt them with their words for the rest of their lives, even convincing some of them that there was no truth in their writing. We know young girls who wrote about relationships only to remain single beyond their prime. They’ll never live it down thanks to the internet.
The second lesson we have here is that unlike yesteryear where we sat in church all our lives assuming that our neighbours were Christians too, nowadays, there are so many things going on that force people to speak up and let others know what they truly believe and where they stand; abortion, contraception, homosexuality, gun control, immigration, divorce, euthanasia etc. It is nigh unto impossible to hide one’s true heart condition i.e. regenerate or reprobate. As our Lord said, we shall know them by their fruit. This is a reason to rejoice in my opinion. In Africa we call this separating the men from the boys. Only trials and tribulations achieve true separation. We should not be dismayed, rather we should pray that God will continue to sustain us in our faith because in the words of R.C Sproul, “We are secure, not because we hold tightly to Jesus, but because He holds tightly to us.”
Finally I am grateful to God that unlike that Hannah Bachelorette, who is either confused about the teaching of the Bible on purity or is fiendishly seeking to deceive many; Joshua Harris did not engage in intellectual dishonesty by claiming Christ whilst divorcing his wife, affirming sodomy and walking back his support of sexual purity. Joshua Harris knows that there is no communion between Christ and those unfruitful works of unrighteousness and as such he has altogether renounced Christ which is the logical conclusion of his heart condition. This is a good thing. The sodomites may applaud him, the feminists may celebrate, the purity movement dropouts may claim vindication and try to assuage their guilty conscience for fornication by pointing at Harris but because he renounced Christ, this goes to prove what we all already know; that only by true repentance and true conversion by the power of the Holy Spirit can we be changed and enabled to walk in righteousness. Without the help of the Holy Spirit, we can window dress for a lifetime but we shall fall away without a doubt. But “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9
Mother Dearest, this is FANTASTIC. Great insight and very clearly laid out. Those of who are secure in Christ and maintain daily communion with Him they prayer and scripture study see this for what it is and should not be either shocked or lose heart.
I love your portion about parents launching their children into ministry at too young an age. I have this same issue with young married couples wanting to go into ‘marriage ministry’ when they’ve been married only 10 minutes. I always look at this as self-exaltation that will inevitably lead to scrutiny and eventually a shameful fall. We must be very careful about this type of thing.
Amen! Amen! I agree with both of you ladies. My husband and I have been having many talks with our 19 year old son about these things. He has been reading about Josh Harris and had so many questions. What you have shared gives us more to ponder. Thanks and thank you to Lori for sharing this thought provoking post.