Honesty Pants

I wrote this poem out of my strong frustration, annoyance, and severe dislike of the purity conference and true love waits movement.

I do not disagree with the message of sex until marriage -- I believe it is Biblical and that God designed sex to be within marriage for our full joy, protection, and His glory, but I have a extremely difficult time with the method in which the Midwest "Bible Belt" culture attempted to convey the message.

I truly believe that it was damaging and I think many young people only know shame, guilt, and regret because of it.

The only thing emphasized was physical purity--- never anything about purity as an act of worship itself.

I am choosing to believe that purity begins at the heart.

We are all impure prodigal sons and daughters and I think it is just a matter of running to the cross and forgiveness and transformation than away from it.

Let our cry be that of David's in Psalm 51 after his big blunder with Bathsheba -- "create in me a pure heart, O God."

Matt Chandler has a fantastic video about this movement that beautifully summarizes the point of the gospel. Check it out.

Undressing Purity

I was born during the abstinence movement
Where the truth was traded for a nickel
And it was in the hallways of a remodeled mall where
She shoved a shiny coin in my face and said
Here
Squeeze this between your knees
And do not cash out
Even if the one you love says please

So I
Dutifully went to every purity conference
Just to pray like a pagan;
My heart -- already a homemaker in the
Red light district of Sodom,
I was
Ignorant
Of the value of the blood that flowed through my emotional veins
I let
Myself forget that this temple
Was bought at a price death could only pay

Because I was never told that
Naked hearts make love
Long before our bodies ever do
So if this organ is the wellspring of life
I need to start guarding it with something stronger than
Good Intentions

My friend Jesus once said that
Where my treasure is,
My heart will be also
So I am going to bury my bosom
Deep in the truth
Because a treasure is never successfully hidden on top of a roof
So I will plant treasure chest six feet deep in the kind of soil that saves
Because my heart is not mine to give away

I have lived behind pathetic chain-link defenses for far too long ---
Big enough holes for unholy hands to penetrate and gather
A harvest of sinful seeds
Planted by my own ignorance;
Strangling weeds

I am
Locked within the prison of my own negligence.
Someone call the spiritual doctor for this cardiac arrest because
I am learning that
the only place my heart belongs are in the palms
Of nail-pierced hands.
And I'm learning that
A heart, even when broken, can still be a bridge.

So maybe purity is not always about your body
and perhaps it is always
About your heart