Candace Cameron Bure: 'Sex needs to be celebrated within marriage,' not shamed
Candace Cameron Bure believes Christians should celebrate sex in marriage instead of shying away from discussing the topic.
Bure spoke about the importance of sex in marriage on an episode of the “Confessions of a Crappy Christian Podcast” hosted by Blake Guichet. While on the program, Bure addressed the controversial photo she posted on Instagram this summer that showed her husband groping her breast.
On the podcast, Bure described the photo taken of her and her husband as “super funny and cute.” She was upset that some of her followers blasted it as being “inappropriate," especially since she posted it "as a Christian.” Many suggested she “should be more modest.”
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“This is something to be celebrated as a Christian,” Bure told Guichet in response to the backlash. “Sex doesn’t stop once you get married. Sex is the blessing of marriage.”
“I hate when Christians are like, ‘No! You have to pretend like you’ve never had sex’ and ‘We only know that you’ve had sex three times because you’ve had three children,’” she added.
Bure and her husband, Val, a retired hockey player, were married when the “Fuller House” actress was 20. They've since been married for 24 years and have three children together: Natasha, 22, Lev, 20, and Maksim, 18.
“So sometimes there’s a skew about sex that — within the Christian community — that I get really sad about,” Bure said. “Because if we are to promise ourselves for one another and preach saving yourself for marriage, then sex needs to be celebrated within marriage, and it’s not to be shameful.”
Bure added that sex education is often shamed in the Christian community and said her own parents never discussed sex with her. The actress said she learned bits about the topic from her sister but admitted that when she married, “I didn’t know anything about sex.”
The photo of Bure and her husband caused a stir with some of her 4.4 million followers, which led her to respond on insta-story to clap back at the negative comments she received.
“For all of you Christians that are questioning my post with my husband's hand on my boob — my husband of 24 years — thinking it was inappropriate, it makes me laugh because it's my husband, we have so much fun together,” Bure, 44, shared in a series of videos. “He can touch me anytime he wants, and I hope he does. This is what a healthy, good marriage and relationship is all about.”
The Hallmark Channel star initially apologized but then took it back.
“I'm sorry if it offended you,” she continued, laughing. “I'm actually not sorry.”
She later posted the photo on her story again and said her husband approved of it.
Bure said she unapologetically takes that position because of how much she struggled with her sexual identity as a young bride.
“I lived in such a fear of like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m not supposed to be a sexual person because I have to save myself. God is going to think negatively of me if I’m having sex ...” she shared on the podcast.
Even after she wed, she said having sex was difficult because she was plagued with feelings of guilt. “It’s very difficult to flip that switch.”
In the '90s and early 2000s, an estimated 2.5 million Christian teenagers in the U.S. publicly pledged to abstain from sex until marriage as part of a purity movement. Teenagers and young adults took a vow of celibacy and wore rings that signified their purity. The slogan “true love waits” became a motto of that movement.
A study conducted for the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2001 showed that 88% of purity pledgers had premarital intercourse.
In 2014, The Christian Post reported on a study about Christians' attitudes toward dating and marriage which revealed a broad acceptance for cohabitation and premarital sex and a rejection of traditional gender roles.
According to the "2014 State of Dating in America" report published by Christian Mingle and JDate, 61% of Christians said they would have sex before marriage.
Bure said she talks to her children about sex even if it makes them uncomfortable.
“I probably annoy my kids, again because I have talked about sex with them their whole lives,” she revealed. “I just make it a part of everyday conversation.”
