You’ve heard about Joshua Harris, the pastor who in 1997 wrote an anti-dating book called “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” that became a mainstay of the purity culture movement.

He’s been in the headlines a lot in the last few years since he announced he’s no longer a Christian and got divorced.

Now, his ex-wife Shannon Harris has written her side of the story in her book, “The Woman They Wanted: Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife,” published by Broadleaf Books last week.

Since leaving her infamous husband, Shannon has returned to her passion for music and is currently writing a one-woman musical comedy, according to her author bio.

I’ll get to her story (promise), but first we need a little primer on the Harris’ legacy of Christian anti-dating advice and the wake left in the fallout of the purity culture movement.

Here are four Reckon stories you need to read to get the facts on Joshua Harris and purity culture:

“I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye”

Before Joshua Harris made headlines when he announced he was no longer a Christian and also divorced in 2019, he made a documentary about his purity culture curriculum he created in the 90s and early 2000s.

The documentary includes stories and interviews with real people who grew up around Harris’ version of purity culture and some of Harris’ processing of the hurt they say he caused.

You can watch the documentary for free here.

A conversation with Joshua Harris on “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”

The reporting that led to the creation of the faith, sex and politics beat at Reckon was this series on purity culture published in 2020. For that piece, Reckon did a Q&A style interview with Joshua Harris about his anti-dating advice, leaving the faith and getting divorced.

“I think that undoubtedly the decision to end our marriage is something that’s like the ultimate indictment of the book in some ways. It’s silly in some ways but I think that was a pressure in my own life of having this sense of, ‘Well, I wrote this book and I have to have a good marriage. I’m a pastor, I have to have a good marriage,’” he told Reckon.

Read our full conversation here.

Josh Harris, a key purity culture figure, created a course on losing your faith. A firestorm ensued.

After Harris denounced his faith and announced his divorce, he tried to find his way back into the spirituality and sexuality space by creating a course on deconstruction– a term that’s been widely used online to describe leaving your current religious views behind and adopting a new worldview different from the previous religious worldview.

He charged a pretty penny for it — and the internet had some thoughts about that. Read the full story here.

The racist link between purity culture and Christian Nationalism and why it matters in elections

Let’s cut to the chase: This is why all this talk about purity culture matters. Purity culture is a part of the White Christian Nationalist narrative that has been trending on more than just Twitter lately (think: your pastor’s sermon notes).

Click to read the story about why purity culture and Chritian Nationalism are so important in elections.