I first heard about "Passion and Purity" back when I was in college (mid-1990's) -- from some co-eds who highly recommended it to me. No, I never bothered reading it, and it sounds like I wasn't really missing anything. The main complaint I remember hearing about the book was from guys who bemoaned that young ladies who read it would then break up with their boyfriends because they thought -- based on what they read in the book -- that God would bring them and their boyfriends back together if it was His will for them to be together and eventually get married. I have no idea how common that phenomenon really was, but that seemed to be the word going around about Elisabeth Elliot's opus.

Also, I admit I'm rather surprised that Jim Elliot had such an aversion toward women and marriage. Unlike Catholics and Orthodox Christians (who since ancient times have always highly respected those who follow a life of consecrated celibacy), Protestants have always emphasized marriage. Frankly, it seems that, as general rule, the Protestant mind seems incapable of grasping the very idea of consecrated celibacy. In fact, my observation (I'm a former Evangelical Protestant, by the way) has been that Protestants usually think that a person who won't marry must either 1) secretly be a homosexual or 2) just want to be free to fool around with whomever they want to. Yes, there are occasional exceptions, but in the Protestant world I grew up in, you were expected to marry.

Finally, while I acknowledge that we can't definitely know what was going on in Jim Elliot's mind, I must respectfully disagree with the apparent assumption that the man was struggling with repressed homosexual appetites. I'd be willing to wager that much of what Jim Elliot expressed can be chalked up to his youthful idealism and overactive moral scruples.

Anyway, you've certainly given me food for thought. Thank you trying to examine another possible side of the Elliot story.