Girls Pledge Their Virginity at Purity Balls
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It is one of the most significant nights in the lives of many young girls, one they will always remember. No, it's not the prom or even their wedding. Its the night they make "the pledge".
The girls get dressed up to go out on a special date with their dads. And then, in front of their fathers and everyone else in attendance, they vow to remain a virgin until they are married.
Patrick Eades is the Executive Director of the Care Net Pregnancy Center, as well as the founder of BRAVEheart, a non profit that promotes abstinence.
"I'm the guy who goes around talking about sex, says Eades. A lot of people call me the sex man here in Glynn County."
Like dozens of similar organizations around the country, Eades organization sponsors "Purity Balls", or gatherings where pre-teens to twenty-somethings, in the presence of their dads, make a vow to remain sexually pure and to save themselves for marriage.
"All the research shows the same thing. When there is no father, daughter relationship, no parental relationship, the teens are more likely to make high risk decisions with high risk consequences," says Eades.
Eades started taking his daughter Alyssa to the Purity Ball when she was nine. Some might feel that nine years old is too young to expose a girl to some of these issues and concerns. But Eades disagrees.
I would say, if you think nine is too young, then you need to go to the public schools and hang around the hallways and hear what your children are being exposed to," he says.
But, a 2005 report by Yale and Columbia University researchers suggests most young woman who make the pledge, almost nine out of ten of them, won't keep it.
"Am I going to think that every student is going to wait to have sex? says Eades. No. But I do think this. You set the goals as high as you can. And if they miss, maybe they miss going high."
Its a promise to yourself, says 11-year-old Taylor Alig. You're going to wait, and you're going to have sex after marriage. So once you see it in your mind, you're like, I'm going to wait, and it makes you stronger."
The dads also make a pledge to be pure in their lives and to protect their daughters.
"It fills me with pride when my daughter makes a pledge, says Taylors dad, Tony Alig. They're really not making it to me. They are making it in my presence. But its a pledge between them and God.
The fathers who do this will tell you that its as much about building a good, trusting relationship with their daughters as anything else. Here in Jacksonville, the non-profit Project SOS is having their annual father/daughter dinner date. You'll find the information by going to their website at projectsos.com.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It is one of the most significant nights in the lives of many young girls, one they will always remember. No, it's not the prom or even their wedding. Its the night they make "the pledge".
The girls get dressed up to go out on a special date with their dads. And then, in front of their fathers and everyone else in attendance, they vow to remain a virgin until they are married.
Patrick Eades is the Executive Director of the Care Net Pregnancy Center, as well as the founder of BRAVEheart, a non profit that promotes abstinence.
"I'm the guy who goes around talking about sex, says Eades. A lot of people call me the sex man here in Glynn County."
Like dozens of similar organizations around the country, Eades organization sponsors "Purity Balls", or gatherings where pre-teens to twenty-somethings, in the presence of their dads, make a vow to remain sexually pure and to save themselves for marriage.
"All the research shows the same thing. When there is no father, daughter relationship, no parental relationship, the teens are more likely to make high risk decisions with high risk consequences," says Eades.
Eades started taking his daughter Alyssa to the Purity Ball when she was nine. Some might feel that nine years old is too young to expose a girl to some of these issues and concerns. But Eades disagrees.
I would say, if you think nine is too young, then you need to go to the public schools and hang around the hallways and hear what your children are being exposed to," he says.
But, a 2005 report by Yale and Columbia University researchers suggests most young woman who make the pledge, almost nine out of ten of them, won't keep it.
"Am I going to think that every student is going to wait to have sex? says Eades. No. But I do think this. You set the goals as high as you can. And if they miss, maybe they miss going high."
Its a promise to yourself, says 11-year-old Taylor Alig. You're going to wait, and you're going to have sex after marriage. So once you see it in your mind, you're like, I'm going to wait, and it makes you stronger."
The dads also make a pledge to be pure in their lives and to protect their daughters.
"It fills me with pride when my daughter makes a pledge, says Taylors dad, Tony Alig. They're really not making it to me. They are making it in my presence. But its a pledge between them and God.
The fathers who do this will tell you that its as much about building a good, trusting relationship with their daughters as anything else. Here in Jacksonville, the non-profit Project SOS is having their annual father/daughter dinner date. You'll find the information by going to their website at projectsos.com.
(No offense to anyone who's done this, just doesn't jive with me)
