Rachel Joy Welcher

It's time to talk back. The generation born into evangelical purity culture has grown up, and many have started families of their own. But as time goes on, it's becoming more evident that many still struggle with purity culture's complicated legacy—its idolization of virginity, its mixed messages about modesty and lust, and its promise of a healthy marriage and great sex for those who follow the rules. In Talking Back to Purity Culture, Rachel Joy Welcher reviews the movement carefully, examining its teachings through the lens of Scripture. Compassionate, faithful, and wise, she charts a path forward for Christians in the ongoing debates about sexuality—one that rejects legalism and license alike, steering us back instead to the good news of Jesus. It's time to talk back to purity culture—and this book is ready to jump-start the conversation.

"Ordinary magic. It's a phrase Rachel uses in one of her pieces, and it's the phrase I choose to describe this entire collection." - John Blase, author and poet of The Jubilee "I made the mistake of opening this book at my daughter's swim meet. Opening it wasn't a mistake-quite the opposite-but doing so when I wasn't in a place to sit and think and feel and grieve and hope was. Rachel's poems draw on all that from me - mind and soul. They're beautifully crafted and beautifully true, as the best poetry should be. They are portraits of feeling and place and people and God - the stuff of real, true life." - Barnabas Piper, podcaster and author of The Curious Christian "These poems should be read in order, but slowly, over years if necessary, or all at once if at all possible. Either way, though, they should be read. Mourn, laugh, and resolve with the poet: beauty comes from ashes, even ashes like these." - Lore Ferguson Wilbert, author at Sayable "I recommend that you pick up Two Funerals, Then Easter and read it carefully and slowly. If you do, you're likely to hear the echoes of your own soul, but also the echoes of the God who made you." - Scott Sauls, pastor and author of Irresistible Faith "The world doesn't need any more pretentious or self-absorbed words. We need words of beauty and grace, grit and hope. We need poetry that sounds like the language of our own heart, verse that tells the stories we long to hear when we're alone, cold, in the dead of night. We need words that make us more human, that rouse our faith. And here, we have it." - Winn Collier, author of Holy Curiosity and Love Big. Be Well." Rachel beckons you into the heaviness of grief and the relentlessness of hope in the way only a great poet can." - Jon Minnema, Fathom Magazine