Okay...

[bumblepudding]

I know that this is supposed to be sweet, but am I the only one who finds the following ritual a little creepy?

Across the country, growing numbers of conservative Christian evangelicals are staging just such gala affairs. They are called purity balls, and they celebrate the father-daughter bond. Tuxedo-clad dads promise to "war for" their

Comments

[spenceraloysius]

Hey, don't underrate virginity. Women can have babies and remain virgins. After all, Mary did it! Though, analyzing it, God loves Mary, plants his seed in her womb and then forces Joseph to care for Mary and raise his son. Isn't this a warped form of adultery?

Also, if a girl has sex does that mean that her Daddy won't "love" her anymore?

[drastic]

Well, it's adultery on Mary's part. It's that age-old story. Joseph's the nice guy, a steady provider, and all-around spineless sort. God's the quintessential Bad Boy. Showy troubled youth, turning cities to smoking glass, turning people to salt, throwing a big cherry bomb into the oceans and flooding the entire place; pack of cigarettes in His rolled-up shirtsleeves as He leads the Seraphim around on their celestial Harleys (wheels within wheels, that turn not as they go). Satan asking angrily "what are You rebelling against?!" and sneering back, "What've you got?"

So Mary gets to have a thrill, but keeps the steady provider back home. The only real twist is that the new covenant resulting from the love-child was the result of a moment of clarity. Other cosmic Bad Boys like Zeus and whatnot never really had those, and thus spiraled into self-destroying obscurity in the end. Mind you, the whole Revelation business is a troubling reminder that you just never know when He'll fall back into the old ways.

[lilisonna]

Ew. Ew. Ew.

[drastic]

I also enjoy this somewhat-related bit of wackiness:

"The critique of Deltano's performance at Dominion High was conducted by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. It included criticism of his decision to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of condoms against HIV by dangling a cinderblock over a male student's genital area. The group said the drill gave a message of fear and shame and misrepresented statistics about condom failure."

Full story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031400013.html?nav=rss_metro/va

Although I guess that's really just an outgrowth of Gallagher's act, so it's not fair framing that as a purely Creepy Repressed Christian demonstration.

[bumblepudding]

Dangling a cinderblock over the genitalia...

Hmm.

See, what some might call misinformation, others might consider a very special evening.

It's all in the eye of the beholder, really.