Puritan, Not Puritanical

“When it comes to sexual matters, the modern use of the word puritanical to describe prudishness is really a very successful historical slander . . . The Puritans were opposed, of course, to adultery and various other forms of immorality, but not at all to sexual fidelity within the boundaries of a marriage covenant . . . But lawful sex was to be private, not because it was dirty, but rather because it was important to keep from inflaming the sexual desires of others, whose presence would intrude on the privacy of the couple. Sex was to be the private, precious possession of man and wife alone with God” (Beyond Stateliest Marble, p. 135).