“The Bachelorette” Trashed Christian Purity Culture (and Viewers Rejoiced)

Did you watch “The Bachelorette” last night? Of course you did. Which is why you saw a Christian man vying for the affection of Hannah Brown get shut down and sent home after his irrational, demeaning demands for sexual purity.

24-year-old Luke Parker, one of the last four contestants, made it to the part of the show where each man gets to spend an evening alone with the bachelorette. At one point, Parker told Brown he had been abstinent for years (though he wasn’t a virgin) due to his faith, and that’s what he wanted in a partner. In other words, when she spent time with the other men, he was demanding she do nothing physical with them.

She wasn’t having it.

“It’s just that you’re questioning me and you’re judging me and feel like you have the right to when you don’t at this point,” she said. “And I get when you care for somebody that you don’t want to think about somebody being intimate with another person. But guess what, sex might be a sin out of marriage, pride is a sin, too, and I feel like this is a pride thing.”

Brown eventually asked Luke P. to leave, but he wouldn’t move, telling her, “I feel like you owe me at least a minute to share my heart.”

…

“I don’t owe you anything at this point,” she said angrily. “Do you not understand that? I have like bent over backwards for this relationship, so I don’t owe you anything.”

Brown finally got him out of there after she told him she had had sex, “And Jesus still loves me.”

“I don’t owe you anything” is what you should say anytime a Christian wants to tell you about Jesus.

In any case, I guess that’s what passes for Christian drama these days: A fight over whether enjoying sex before marriage means Jesus loves you.

Ah well. He was kicked off the show and the world rejoiced. Or so I’m told. Laugh it off if you want, but it’s always good when Christian purity culture — a mentality that’s promoted in so many megachurches — is trashed on a national stage. By another Christian, no less.

(Thanks to Brian for the link)