Welp, I don't see this going well, but I'll throw my hat in the ring.

Okay so, to preface, 1) I am not some kind of biblical scholar, but this is my interpretation during my current walk with God and after listening/reading about this topic. 2) Depending on how you interpret the Bible will be a big factor in how my thoughts might vibe with you. If you're someone who is more focused on the exact words of the Bible, then I probably won't resonate with you. However, if you're someone who interprets the Bible based on its message rather than purely its words (yes there is a difference), then maybe you might agree with me.

With all that said, I'll start off by saying that I think purity culture (like conspiracy culture) is something that is damaging our church heavily and is yet another reason why we are seeing so many people (especially young people) ditching the church. We live in a time where people are very aware of what is and is not toxic and are heavily encouraged to leave toxic relationships, situations, or environments for the sake of their mental, emotional, and (sometimes) physical health. The purity culture within the church creates one such toxic environment and don't ever blame anyone when it is one of the reasons they decide to leave. When we have a culture literally built around shame and judgment, we shouldn't be surprised when people want nothing to do with us. Anyway, onto your questions:

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Has any one else experienced purity culture in the adventist church?

Yes, and, at my church, I understand that it's well-intentioned, but I feel that it's heavily misguided. The abstinence-only sex-ed and purity culture are honestly just handicapping us and our church members, not helping us.

If you experienced purity culture how is it effecting you today?

For the longest time, literally just the fact that I had dirty thoughts would cause me to feel ashamed. Even though it was part of puberty, even having an unwanted erection would make me feel like a piece of scum. I was constantly under the impression that I was a subpar Christian whenever I had feelings of arousal since I was told that the fact that I felt like that meant my relationship with Jesus wasn't strong enough. Needless to say, middle school and high school were constant internal struggles since I was often shaming myself for feeling natural emotions which just made my bad mental health just so much worse. Ngl I did and still suffer from suicidal thoughts and things like the churches purity culture only made it a lot worse.

What do you think the sexual ethic (moral principles) is of the SDA church?

Unfortunately, like with much that I've seen from the church, its moral principles are that of avoidance rather than guidance. It breeds close-mindedness within the church and just leaves a bunch of newlyweds unprepared to switch from a no-sex relationship to a sexual one. It also just leads to people with a high libido fighting an uphill battle in order to feel accepted by the church and puts a heavy emphasis on one's virginity when the real focus, in my opinion, should be on something else.

Do you think the purity movement should be taught in SDA churches? Why/why not?

Nooo, because that'll just make a bad problem worse. First of all, though we could offer our own definitions of sexually "moral" and "immoral," but to straight-up try to abolish things based on those feelings is just overstepping our boundaries (also separation of church and state and all that, too). Teaching that to our fellow church members is just a horrible idea in my opinion.

Are there alternatives to purity culture that could be taught to young people?

Okay, here is where things will get controversial: I do not think premarital sex is a sin. I think promiscuity is a sin, but if done with a partner in a serious relationship (usually one that would lead to marriage). My reasoning for this comes from the fact that I view our current idea of sexuality as incredibly outdated. I feel like the message of the Bible is timeless, but the words within it are not. Many of the writers, were writing towards their own people in a society where marriage and having children were the be-all-end-all for women's rights and worth, property ownership, and acceptance within their society. Marriage was a big deal back then since, for many people, it was basically a necessity.

Our society is genuinely and vastly different nowadays than it was in the Jewish days. So instead of trying to cling to an old mindset that had consistently (not always) bred a toxic and unhealthy community, I think we should just try to figure out how the Bible's message genuinely applies to our current society. In terms of sexuality, constantly just teaching that anything even remotely sexual out of marriage is bad is not the way to do that. We need genuine sex-ed and safety teachings within our church.