美国国家公共电台 NPR Evangelical Writer Kisses An Old Idea Goodbye

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The author of a famed relationship book is rethinking his own advice. Joshua Harris wrote the book, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye." More than 20 years ago, it became a bestselling text of the evangelical purity movement. That movement promotes saving sex for marriage. It shaped the lives of many young Christians 2, including the author, who was 21 when he wrote the book. Now that he's in his 40s, Joshua Harris is sharing second thoughts in a new documentary. Here's NPR's Sarah McCammon.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE 3: Lauren and Zack Blair are kind of the textbook "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" couple. They met at a Christian 1 college, fell in love and dated for more than four years without having sex before they got married. Lauren Blair says she was raised with that expectation.

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LAUREN BLAIR: My mom would talk to me about waiting till - you know, waiting until marriage to have sex. And she would always tell me, pretty much every day, Lauren, you're worth more than a million bucks 4. Like, you're so valuable.

MCCAMMON: The Blairs told their story to author Joshua Harris earlier this year while he was filming his new documentary, "I Survived 'I Kissed Dating Goodbye.'" The film talks to people whose lives' the book shaped, people like the Blairs, who are now in their 30s living with their three kids near Pittsburgh and pastoring a church. Zack Blair says holding off on sex for all those long years helped them to focus on more important things.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "I SURVIVED I KISSED DATING GOODBYE")

ZACK BLAIR: Because sex - you can't build a relationship off sex. You know? We all know that. But we said, we're going to focus on communication, problem-solving, having fun together, getting to know each other's dreams.

MCCAMMON: But some whose lives were influenced by "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" had a less positive experience. The book promoted a fairly draconian 5 approach to romance - no casual dating, only serious courtship aimed at marriage.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "I SURVIVED I KISSED DATING GOODBYE")

JOSHUA HARRIS: You know, when I was 21, I was so confident that I had all the answers.

MCCAMMON: In the documentary, Joshua Harris talks via video conference with readers around the world, many of whom say the book contained harmful messages about their bodies, sexuality and relationships.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: So I was just, like, afraid to start anything. And it got it to a point where I can't be friends with boys anymore because...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I was so afraid to kiss her, and I leaned on that as a crutch 6 then to not trust people.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: The home-school families took it and said, OK. So when you have a crush, you have to marry that first person that you have a crush on.

MCCAMMON: Harris is 43 now, married 20 years, with three kids. His book was published in 1997 at the pinnacle 7 of the purity movement. That belief system, popular mostly in white evangelical culture, warned young people that having sex before marriage could have disastrous 8 emotional, physical and spiritual consequences. In an interview earlier this year with NPR, Harris said he had good intentions when he wrote the book, to help young Christians figure out how to love well and avoid getting hurt.

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HARRIS: And basically, I was saying the whole system of dating is flawed. It's leading to bad results. We're hurting each other in these short-term relationships. We're hopping 9 from one relationship to another.

LYZ LENZ: I think the uniqueness of what Harris did was he made it cool.

MCCAMMON: Lyz Lenz is a writer based in Iowa who's written about the negative effects she feels Harris and other purity culture leaders had on her life.

LENZ: He was this, like, superhero on the holiness circuit. Right? Like, this young guy who embodied 10 all these tenets of very conservative faith.

MCCAMMON: Lenz is 35 and just got divorced. She says the messages in Harris' book and others like it formed the foundation for some of the problems in her marriage.

LENZ: It meant that I was raised with this idea that - you know, that attraction doesn't matter, that physicality doesn't matter, that your feelings don't matter.

MCCAMMON: With some life experience, Harris says he began to rethink some of the words he'd penned at such a young age. One pivotal moment was a child sex-abuse scandal that rocked a church in Maryland he was involved in leading several years ago. Harris himself was not implicated 11 in that, but he says he should have done more to encourage victims to report the abuse to authorities.

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HARRIS: And that was the first time that I started realizing, you know what? You can have good intentions and think that you're making the right decisions, and the effect of that in people's lives can be very different than you planned. And that's the first time that I started thinking, maybe there are problems with my book.

MCCAMMON: Harris recently completed a graduate degree at a seminary in Canada, where he met Jessica Van Der Wyngaard, who directed and produced the documentary. Donna Freitas is the author of the book, "Sex And The Soul," which looks at religion and sexuality in college. She says purity culture sends harmful messages about sex, particularly to LGBT youth, but also for many straight kids, who tell her they feel like they've failed.

DONNA FREITAS: I have failed my community. I have failed my family. I have failed my future spouse 12. I have failed God. I mean, the stakes are huge.

MCCAMMON: Harris says reflecting on his book forced him to think about the pressure his ideas put on his own marriage to his wife, Shannon.

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HARRIS: I think it's made us realize how there's heartache and there's pain no matter what pathway you choose in life. There's no path that you can choose that can protect you from that.

MCCAMMON: Near the end of the film, Harris apologizes to those he hurt. He calls on churches to talk more openly about sexuality. But unlike his book, he doesn't attempt to chart a new path for romantic relationships. Harris recently announced he's asked his publisher to stop printing new copies of "I Kissed Dating Goodbye." Sarah McCammon, NPR News.