JoAnn Wypijewski on The Marriage Bed, a sex site for Christian conservatives: “And so Leviticus meets Girls Gone Wild, an old story revamped. More power to the Christian wives if they want to lap dance, and to the Christian husband who asked if any of the ladies thought his wife might be turned on by his stripping for her wearing a tool belt and knee pads…”

What’s great about this piece — besides the “Jelly Finger” — is that Wypijewski takes the sex lives of fundamentalists seriously. Most writers would handle the subject with a giggle or — worse — condescending approval, a tone of “under the skin (or under the covers) we’re really all the same.”

Yes, and no. Wypijewski discovers that Christian conservatives in general do possess all the same anxieties and desires as the rest of us, but if their responses are more human than expected, they’re also troubling in ways that are particular to an emerging evangelical culture eager to taste the fruits of the world and yet intent on remembering the smell of brimstone. “[I]n aiming to banish fear and guilt among the faithful,” writes Wypijewski, “they merely displace those emotions—from the trembling bride to the fornicating teen or the single of any age warned to expect pain, sorrow, and lifelong sexual problems.”