<r>What do you think of this and "<URL url="</s>purity pledges<e></e></URL>"?<br/>
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From the NY Times: <COLOR color="Navy"><s></s><URL url="</s>Dancing the Night Away, with a Higher Purpose<e></e></URL><br/>
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In their floor-length gowns, up-dos and tiaras, the 70 or so young women swept past two harpists and into a gilt-and-brocade dining room at the lavish Broadmoor Hotel, on the arms of their much older male companions.<br/>
<br/>
<e></e></COLOR><COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>The girls, ages early grade school to college, had come with their fathers, stepfathers and future fathers-in-law last Friday night to the ninth annual Father-Daughter Purity Ball. The first two hours of the gala passed like any somewhat awkward night out with parents, the men doing nearly all the talking and the girls struggling to cut their chicken. <br/>
<br/>
<e></e></COLOR> <COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>But after dessert, the 63 men stood and read aloud <B><s></s>a covenant “before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity.” <e></e></B><br/>
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<e></e></COLOR> <COLOR color="DarkOrchid"><s></s><COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>The gesture signaled that the fathers would guard their daughters from what evangelicals consider a profoundly corrosive “hook-up culture.” The evening, which alternated between homemade Christian rituals and giddy dancing, was a joyous public affirmation of the girls’ sexual abstinence until they wed.<br/>
...<br/>
<e></e></COLOR><e></e></COLOR><COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>Recent studies have suggested that <B><s></s>close relationships between fathers and daughters can reduce the risk<e></e></B> of early sexual activity among girls and teenage pregnancy. But studies have also shown that most teenagers who say they will remain abstinent, like those at the ball, <B><s></s>end up having sex before marriage, and they are far less likely to use condoms than their peers<e></e></B>.<br/>
...<br/>
<e></e></COLOR><COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>In a ballroom after dinner, bare but for a seven-foot wooden cross at one end, the fathers and daughters gathered along the walls. Kevin Moore, there with his three girls, told the men they were taking a stand for their families and their nation. Then he and Mr. Wilson walked to the cross with two large swords, which they held up before it to make an arch.<e></e></COLOR><br/>
<COLOR color="Navy"><s></s><br/>
<e></e></COLOR> <br/>
<COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>Each father and his daughter walked under the arch and knelt before the cross. Synthesized hymns played. The fathers sometimes held their daughters and whispered a short prayer, and then the girls each placed a white rose, representing purity, at the foot of the cross. Mr. Lee and Rachel walked away holding hands.<e></e></COLOR><br/>
<COLOR color="Navy"><s></s><br/>
<e></e></COLOR> <br/>
<COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>The girls, many wearing purity rings, made silent vows.<e></e></COLOR></r>
<br/>
From the NY Times: <COLOR color="Navy"><s></s><URL url="</s>Dancing the Night Away, with a Higher Purpose<e></e></URL><br/>
<br/>
In their floor-length gowns, up-dos and tiaras, the 70 or so young women swept past two harpists and into a gilt-and-brocade dining room at the lavish Broadmoor Hotel, on the arms of their much older male companions.<br/>
<br/>
<e></e></COLOR><COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>The girls, ages early grade school to college, had come with their fathers, stepfathers and future fathers-in-law last Friday night to the ninth annual Father-Daughter Purity Ball. The first two hours of the gala passed like any somewhat awkward night out with parents, the men doing nearly all the talking and the girls struggling to cut their chicken. <br/>
<br/>
<e></e></COLOR> <COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>But after dessert, the 63 men stood and read aloud <B><s></s>a covenant “before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity.” <e></e></B><br/>
<br/>
<e></e></COLOR> <COLOR color="DarkOrchid"><s></s><COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>The gesture signaled that the fathers would guard their daughters from what evangelicals consider a profoundly corrosive “hook-up culture.” The evening, which alternated between homemade Christian rituals and giddy dancing, was a joyous public affirmation of the girls’ sexual abstinence until they wed.<br/>
...<br/>
<e></e></COLOR><e></e></COLOR><COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>Recent studies have suggested that <B><s></s>close relationships between fathers and daughters can reduce the risk<e></e></B> of early sexual activity among girls and teenage pregnancy. But studies have also shown that most teenagers who say they will remain abstinent, like those at the ball, <B><s></s>end up having sex before marriage, and they are far less likely to use condoms than their peers<e></e></B>.<br/>
...<br/>
<e></e></COLOR><COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>In a ballroom after dinner, bare but for a seven-foot wooden cross at one end, the fathers and daughters gathered along the walls. Kevin Moore, there with his three girls, told the men they were taking a stand for their families and their nation. Then he and Mr. Wilson walked to the cross with two large swords, which they held up before it to make an arch.<e></e></COLOR><br/>
<COLOR color="Navy"><s></s><br/>
<e></e></COLOR> <br/>
<COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>Each father and his daughter walked under the arch and knelt before the cross. Synthesized hymns played. The fathers sometimes held their daughters and whispered a short prayer, and then the girls each placed a white rose, representing purity, at the foot of the cross. Mr. Lee and Rachel walked away holding hands.<e></e></COLOR><br/>
<COLOR color="Navy"><s></s><br/>
<e></e></COLOR> <br/>
<COLOR color="Navy"><s></s>The girls, many wearing purity rings, made silent vows.<e></e></COLOR></r>
