A Letter of Apology to Girls in My Youth Group About Purity Culture

by Sheila Wray Gregoire | Oct 16, 2024 | Theology of Marriage and Sex

Recently in our Patreon group, a member posted a letter that she’s sending out to the girls (now young women) in a youth group she used to lead, apologizing for teaching toxic things. I thought it was so wonderful I asked if I could run it here. I just want to say:...

Overcoming Shame from the “Damaged Goods” Myth of Purity Culture

by Camden Morgante | Oct 9, 2024 | Faith

Do you need to recover from purity culture? This is a first for me–but I wrote a foreword to a book!  Dr. Camden Morgante’s first book Recovering from Purity Culture launches next week, and I’m so excited about it. Dr. Camden is a clinical...

If We Want Healthy Churches, We Need to Take Risks

by Sheila Wray Gregoire | Apr 24, 2024 | Faith

Sometimes finding a life-giving church means investing in building one. When our girls were tiny we lived in downtown Toronto, and attended an amazing Anglican church that was made up mostly of people who weren’t Anglicans. It was in a historic church building, with...

Feeling Responsible for Her Own Sexual Assault: A Youth Group Case Study

by Sheila Wray Gregoire | Mar 31, 2023 | Parenting Teens

I read a story about how a youth group culture contributed to a young woman feeling guilty about her own assaults. I’d like to share it today, because it fits in to everything we’ve been talking about with She Deserves Better, our new book that launches...

Do You Need to Get Angry at What Purity Culture Stole from You?

by Sheila Wray Gregoire | Nov 15, 2021 | Faith

Anger is not always a bad thing–and some of us would benefit from a bit of it! i’m just back from a weekend knitting retreat with my mom. About 60 knitters gathered at an inn close to where I live for some knitting classes and show and tell and just great...