I Kissed Dating Goodbye: A Call For Stories

I Kissed Dating Goodbye, we all know the book – we read it, our parents read it. It impacted our views of ourselves and our sexuality, it impacted our dating (or not-dating) lives, it impacted how we approached marriage. Recently Joshua Harris had an interview with NPR about his thoughts on the book, and how it’s been used. Claiming to have regrets, he is

Is Josh Harris Actually Taking Responsibility?

Josh Harris was interviewed on NPR recently. I know this because my husband started yelling at me to come into the kitchen right freaking now and I was like, wait, you can’t just order me to drop everything like that, that’s not how it works, and he was like, trust me, you’re going to want to hear this. And there it was. Josh Harris on NPR, discussing his 1997 book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye.

Don’t Touch Me — A Reflection on Courtship and Purity: Merab’s Story, Part Three

“I can’t wait to teach my children that sexual experience does not dictate their dignity and value.”

Don’t Touch Me — A Reflection on Courtship and Purity: Merab’s Story, Part Two

“To me, the courtship movement gave men and women alike a ready excuse to not speak the truth.”

Don’t Touch Me — A Reflection on Courtship and Purity: Merab’s Story, Part One

“I never deconstructed how this mindset created a harmful image of my identity—I was only as valuable as my state of purity.”

The Dangers of Ideology: Salome’s Story, Part Two

“Ideology led my parents to exercise parenting techniques which left me vulnerable, broken, and with the deeply internalized belief that I’m worthless and unclean.”

The Dangers of Ideology: Salome’s Story, Part One

“My family, my church, and my homeschooling group were up to their eyeballs in purity culture.”

I Fell in Love with My Best Friend: Achsah’s Story

“When we stripped away those rules and took off the masks, I found that I could finally breathe.”

Reprogramming: Susan Young’s Story

“My heart was presented to me as a fragile piece of china that could be damaged and would never be worth as much once given away.”

Ticking Time Bombs of Atomic Hormones: Abel’s Story

“I was conditioned by all these myths that pervade homeschooling that males are so overwhelmed by sex that they can’t exercise any semblance of self-control. But you know what? We can. And we’re not only hurting women by saying that women are responsible for mens’ thoughts. We’re also hurting men.”