Shameless: My Story of Overcoming Purity Culture (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798988291503)

This is a deeply personal story of growing up within evangelical Christianity, and questioning its guidance on premarital sex.

Now updated with a new preface by the author!

Dani Fankhauser was 26, in a new city, and a virgin who'd never had a boyfriend. Her trust that God would bring her a perfect partner, as the Christian self-help books had promised, was fading. She worried she would never find love if she continued on the same path.

Shameless is a memoir of disillusionment. Fankhauser digs into formative moments in her childhood and teen years, from strict modesty dress codes at church beach outings in Southern California, to being the only student in her public school class to skip sex ed, due to her parents' preference. She enthusiastically reviews Bible passages and interrogates her own conscience, observing romantic relationships between non-Christian roommates and church leaders alike before reaching a fresh conclusion.

With the raw honesty of Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies and the hopeful perspective of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, Fankhauser presents an ethic on intimacy that is both compassionate and devotional.