"Or does he want a shirt straight out of the package, all nice and clean?" Mr. Walsh, our main academy religion teacher, literally foamed at the mouth when he got excited. He dabbed ineffectually at it now with the tail of a button-down oxford before gleefully tossing it to the stage floor. "Of course, a man always wants a brand new shirt!" he squealed, trampling the unfortunate item."
"In case anyone missed the message, we also had periodic five-day revival-style "weeks of prayer" with guest speakers and ultra-dramatic presentations like Mr. Walsh's shirt stomping. During that week we had witnessed the lock that opens for any key (disgusting! useless!) versus the key that opens any lock (valuable! admirable!). We had seen the chewed gum, the licked cupcake, the denuded rose, the dirty dollar."
A Seventh-Day Adventist church school used theatrical sermons and revival-style sessions to teach sexual purity, portraying premarital and non-heterosexual activity as sinful. Female students were held responsible for male sexual behavior and subjected to vivid metaphors—soiled shirts, chewed gum, licked cupcakes, denuded roses, and dirty dollars—to stigmatize sexuality. Teachers performed public demonstrations and enforced strict dress and grooming codes, measuring hemlines and removing makeup. The environment prioritized control of female appearance and behavior, creating fear, surveillance, and moral policing that restricted autonomy and shamed natural sexual development.
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