Purity Balls: Smart Thinking or Creepy Ceremony

Have you heard of these ceremonies called Purity Balls? If not you might in the coming years as they are getting quite popular, especially among the Evangelical Christians. According to Leslee Unruh, the founder of Abstinence Clearinghouse, there were more than 1,400 Purity Balls in 2006 and they are expecting that number to double by this year.

These Balls have several dozen fathers and daughters attending at the same time. There is alot of praying as well as dancing, giving of purity rings or chastity jewelry. There are many websites that cater to just purity jewelry on the internet. One such website was chastityjewelry.com. There I found they can buy rings for as low as $30.00 to well over $200.00.

Complete with white cake, girls dressed in long gowns and fathers sporting tuxedos, these ceremonies remind you of a wedding. This almost occult like phenomena is becoming a huge trend among the Christian Conservatives across the United States.

These Purity Balls are extremely elaborate ceremonies where girls as young as nine years old pledge to their father's that they will stay virgins until they marry. The father's pledge to protect their daughter's chastity and sign a covenant stating he will live an unblemished life, keeping his mind pure by doing such things as not using pornography and staying faithful to the girls mother.

According to Feministing.com the pledge the fathers make to their daughters is this:
I, [daughter's name]'s father, choose before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity. I will be pure in my own life as a man, husband and father. I will be a man of integrity and accountability as I lead, guide and pray over my daughter and as the high priest in my home. This covering will be used by God to influence generations to come.

The father's then put purity rings or chastity bracelets on their daughters that the girls are supposed to give to their husbands on their wedding night. The daughters then lay down a while rose in front of a large cross as a symbol to live a pure lives before God.