When religious life comes to be dominated by holiness and purity categories, two things happen. First, social stigmas are created to protect our purity, pushing away people (e.g., “sinners”) who are threats to our holiness. Second, the purity emphasis creates an otherworldly focus on the spiritual, eventually privileging the spiritual life over the life of the body. Religious life becomes “too spiritual” and begins to deny human need. This undermines empathy and justice:
