Joshua Eugene Harris (1974–) is an American former preacher, author, and once-prominent figure in evangelical Christianity, best known for his influential 1997 book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which shaped purity culture for a generation of Christian youth. Born on December 30, 1974, in Dayton, Ohio, he was the eldest of seven children of Gregg and Sono Harris, pioneers in the Christian homeschooling movement, with Japanese heritage on his mother’s side. Raised in this devout environment, Harris lacked formal theological training but began his ministry career early, editing the homeschool-focused New Attitude magazine from 1994 to 1997. In 1997, he moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland, to intern under C.J. Mahaney at Covenant Life Church, a Sovereign Grace Ministries megachurch, where he married Shannon Hendrickson in 1998, later raising three children—Joshua, Mary, and Emma. Harris’s preaching career peaked as he became senior pastor of Covenant Life Church in 2004 at age 30, a role he held until 2015, preaching a strict biblical approach to relationships and sexuality that echoed his books, including Boy Meets Girl (2000) and Not Even a Hint (2003). His early work, especially I Kissed Dating Goodbye, sold over 1.2 million copies, advocating courtship over dating and abstinence before marriage, profoundly influencing evangelical youth culture. However, after resigning in 2015 to attend Regent College in Vancouver for graduate studies, he publicly reevaluated his teachings, disavowing I Kissed Dating Goodbye in 2018 following the documentary I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye. In 2019, he announced his separation from Shannon and his departure from Christianity, stating, “By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian,” a shift that stunned the evangelical community. Now based in Vancouver, Harris works in marketing and storytelling through Clear & Loud, leaving a complex legacy as a preacher whose early zeal gave way to public deconstruction of his faith.