Bonus entry!

Okay, so I think I've got it. My whole creeped-out-by-the-focus-on-virginity-but-not-wanting-to-just-dismiss-it thing.

I went back over my "Katherine" means "purity" entry, where I talked about the Transfiguration, and how special it is because we see Jesus in His full glory before death touched Him. Before He became permanently changed by death. We saw the full glory of His purity so that we could understand the true beauty of the sacrifice of it. The purity is important, we were shown, which makes the loss of it more beautiful. It wouldn't be a gift if it weren't a loss. It wouldn't be beautiful and meaningful and vital if losing the purity weren't something precious. But it's also a story about how the loss of purity was the most beautiful act in all of creation (and beyond? what is the policy on beyond creation?).

So: virginity is important. It's not the be-all end-all that people want to make it, but the reason we're not supposed to throw it away with both hands is that it's supposed to mean something when we lose it. It's supposed to be a loss, that does matter, in order to make marital sex a more beautiful gift, a more beautiful offering to the spouse. To make the loss of purity as beautiful as the purity was in itself.

Giving up, renouncing, the solitary, personal, and fully internal connection to God in order to have a joint, shared, and mutually expressed connection to God alongside your spouse.

Okay, I can go with that.