ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the impact of the membership of Protestant church communities on young women's sexual selves. It argues that a conflict between Christian and sexual identities contributes to women leaving the church and moving towards other forms of spiritual practice that resonate with their evolvement as women and with their sense of themselves as sexual beings. The chapter focuses on the small sample of Canadian participants who took part in this study. These women are mostly from Conservative Protestant backgrounds, meaning they have spent all or a large portion of their time during the age periods of 1825 in a Baptist or Alliance church. The others attended Mainline Protestant churches such as Anglican or the United Church of Canada during this time. However, those women who have left the church have moved towards other forms of spiritual practice that resonate with their evolvement as women and with their sense of themselves as sexual beings.
