Throughout history, various Christian groups have focused on SEX with curious proscriptions and endorsements. [Gay Talese produced an interesting exploration of some of the historical groups.] 

This seems to be a new incarnation of Christian extremism.

Click on the link below for additional information. 

These Father-Daughter Christian Purity Ball Photos Are Really Creepy

By Tiffany Willis 

As a Christian mother, I’ll admit that I’m a bit baffled by the ritualistic ceremony called “The Purity Ball.” Why are young girls having a ritual to get their fathers involved with celebrating their virginity and proclaiming himself her “boyfriend” of sorts until she marries? I don’t like it, OK? It’s just….weird. And unnecessary.

From the book Purity by David Magnusson:

“A Purity Ball is a formal event where girls or young women and their fathers participate in a ceremony. The daughters dress up in ball gowns and the evening usually consists of dinner, a keynote speech, ballroom dancing, and a vow by fathers and daughters. The girls make a pledge to remain pure and live pure lives before God, to stay sexually abstinent until marriage. Their fathers sign a commitment undertaking to protect their daughter’s purity.

The father or mentor pledges to shield and protect his daughter; to live a pure life himself as a man, husband and father; and to be a man of integrity and responsibility, acting as a role model for his family.” (via iacknowledge)

The dad actually signs a contract like the one pictured below, with his daughter as the witness.

ABC News

This isn’t just about sex. These girls are vowing to not hold hands, kiss, or even date any man other than their father until their wedding day. Come on. How realistic is this? Wouldn’t it be easier to just have them undergo female circumcision? Isn’t that the next step?

This is about one thing and one thing only: men controlling women and guaranteeing (they think) their oppression and their submission.

I think it’s creepy — yes, creepy — for a father to be so obsessed with his daughter’s virginity that he would write a book about it. My daughter would be appalled. And I’d have been appalled had I been subjected to it. These are just not topics I ever would have wanted to discuss with my dad.

Why isn’t there a ceremony like this for boys to entrust their virginity to their mothers? Now THAT creeps everyone out, doesn’t it? Anyone care to wager a guess as to why this little ceremony is non-existent?

Patheos writer Libby Anne states it wonderfully.

Why not teach girls other ways to be validated? Why not teach girls to value their skills and abilities and dreams, rather than to equate their worth with their bodies or beauty? Why not teach girls that they are internally valuable, and that what males around them think of them is completely irrelevant to that?

Instead, the father / daughter purity culture feeds the idea that girls are only valuable inasmuch as they are valued in the eyes of the men around them, be that their boyfriends or their fathers. It teaches girls that their value lies in their bodies and in their relationship to men. It tells girls that it is healthy to pin your source of validation to male affirmation, but that that affirmation should come from their fathers rather than from boyfriends.

While I was writing this article, my daughter was at her Monday night Bible study group with her friends. I called and asked her to put me on speaker phone. I asked them what they thought of the purity ball concept. Their reaction is the same as mine — it’s weird, unrealistic, and creepy. My daughter had a good point. She instantly rejected the idea because it would leave out a lot of the young girls who have already been deemed “impure” in the eyes of sexist men. This isn’t relevant, but my daughter is an 18-year-old virgin — by choice. She is in control of her sexuality. Not some random guy, not me, and certainly not her dad.

After I ended the call my 13-year-old son came into my office and offered his opinion:

“Everyone should have the right to do what they want with their bodies without everyone making them feel guilty and like they’re dirty or something. I’m not saying everyone should be out having sex all the time, but it’s not the business of everyone else, either. Misogynistic.”

So there you have it, folks.

The photos are below. I’ve analyzed these and I’ve decided that the main thing that makes them hella creepy is that no one is smiling. It’s like it’s against the rules or something. The intimate poses don’t help make it less weird, either.

http://www.liberalamerica.org/2014/05/05/these-father-daughter-christian-purity-ball-photos-are-really-creepy/

RSN: The Bernie Sanders Miracle: American Crowd in Brooklyn Cheers Palestinian Dignity, Building a Movement: From Occupy Wall Street to Bernie Sanders,

Reader Supported News | 17 April 16

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Juan Cole | The Bernie Sanders Miracle: American Crowd in Brooklyn Cheers Palestinian Dignity 
 
Juan Cole, Informed Comment 
Cole writes: "The Democratic debate in Brooklyn took an unusual turn when a grumpy old Jewish American upbraided a slightly younger Illinois Methodist for not respecting the dignity of the Palestinian people." 
READ MORE

Obama Immigration Action Goes Before Supreme Court
Lawrence Hurley, Reuters 
Hurley reports: "The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case on Monday that tests the boundaries of presidential powers, confronting the question of whether President Barack Obama exceeded his authority with unilateral action to spare millions of people in the country illegally from deportation." 
READ MORE

Building a Movement: From Occupy Wall Street to Bernie Sanders 
Jesse A. Myerson, teleSUR 
Myerson writes: "Bernie Sanders isn't the first guy you would have picked as the beneficiary of the last five years of agitation. Yet, everywhere he goes, throngs wait for hours to cheer and chant and shout 'Yuuuge' at the candidate, whose small-dollar donation effort has set new fundraising records." 
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Sex Ed Classes in the US Just Keep Getting Worse 
Tara Culp-Ressler, ThinkProgress 
Culp-Ressler writes: "The United States, which has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world, isn't exactly known for its top-notch sexual health resources. But a new study suggests that our country's sex ed has gotten even worse in recent years." 
READ MORE

Sex ed. (photo: Shutterstock)

he United States, which has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world, isn’t exactly knownfor its top-notch sexual health resources. But a new study suggests that our country’s sex ed has gotten even worse in recent years.

Even fewer teens are now getting basic sex ed information, like formal instruction about how to use birth control, according to researchers at the Guttmacher Institute who compared sexual health data over a seven year period.

The researchers compared data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during two of the agency’s survey periods: the 2006–2010 survey and 2011–2013 survey. These surveys included questions for teens about whether they ever received formal sex education materials — like how to prevent sexually transmitted infections, how to say no to sex, how to put on a condom, and how to use different methods of contraception — before they turned 18.

In the 2006-2010 survey period, 70 percent of girls and 61 percent of boys said they had received some information about birth control methods. But in the later survey period, those numbers dropped to 60 percent among girls and 55 percent among boys.

As time passed, fewer girls also reported receiving any formal education on how to prevent STDs and how to say no to sex. These declines were particularly acute in rural areas of the country, where teensalready struggle with higher rates of unintended pregnancies.

The study’s lead researcher, Laura Duberstein Lindberg, characterized the declines in sex ed instruction as “distressing.” She also pointed out that this data fits into a bigger pattern in the United States. Over the past two decades, the number of teens receiving formal instruction about birth control has been steadily declining, and abstinence-only classes that don’t include accurate information about sexual health have persisted.

“The United States is moving in the wrong direction,” said Leslie Kantor, the vice president of education at Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest sex ed provider. “Sex education can make a real difference in adolescents’ overall health and well-being. The fact that young people are being deprived of information critical to their sexual health is unacceptable.”

Only 21 states and the District of Columbia currently require sex education and HIV education to be taught in public schools. An even fewer number, 18, explicitly require information about contraception in the classroom. On the other end of the spectrum, 37 states mandate that schools should focus on lessons aboutabstinence.

There’s a lot of evidence that providing teens with accurate information about sex ed helps them make healthier choices. Sex ed classes are actually linked to a delay in sexual activity — suggesting that, instead of spurring teens to become more sexually active, talking to them about sex actually helps them make more thoughtful decisions about their bodies.

“We need to right the ship, get back on track, and make sure all students receive quality sex education that prepares them to make informed and healthy decisions,” said Debra Hauser, the president of Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit group focusing on the reproductive health issues that are important to young people.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/36364-sex-ed-classes-in-the-us-just-keep-getting-worse

John Kasich Tells Woman Asking About Sexual Assault to Avoid Parties With Alcohol 
Alice Ollstein, ThinkProgress 
Ollstein writes: "At a town hall in Watertown, Pennsylvania on Friday, a local college student asked Ohio Governor and presidential candidate John Kasich what he would do as president to make young women like her feel safer on campus. She cited what many consider a current epidemic of 'violence, harassment and rape' at colleges and universities." 
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Israel's 'Weapon Exports to Rwanda During Genocide' to Stay Secret, Following Supreme Court Ruling 
Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith, Independent 
Eleftheriou-Smith writes: "Documents detailing Israel's alleged defence exports to Rwanda during the country's civil war and genocide in the 1990s are to remain sealed, the country's Supreme Court has ruled." 
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I'm an Environmental Reporter From Flint. Even I Ignored the Water Crisis Story. 
Talia Buford, The Washington Post 
Buford writes: "I shouldn't have missed the story of lead-contaminated water in Flint, Mich. Not just because I'm an environmental reporter, but because my mom told me what was happening there, and I didn't listen." 
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Republican ‘Abstinence-Only’ Crusader’s 17-Year-Old Daughter Is Pregnant

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/07/10/republican-abstinence-only-crusaders-17-year-old-daughter-is-pregnant/

Republican 'Abstinence-Only' Crusader's 17-Year-Old Daughter Is Pregnant

A Republican lawmaker who promoted legislation to teach "abstinence-only" sex education in schools announced that his own unmarried high school-aged…

WWW.ADDICTINGINFO.ORG

TPM: The GOP's Great Mammogram Farce Of 2015

The word of the day: “Mammogram.”

Over and over during the farce that was supposed to be a hearing on Planned Parenthood, Republican representatives attacked Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards because her organization does not provide mammograms as part of its core set of services. (They do sometimes pair with organizations for programs that offer them to low-income women.) Over and over again, the fact that Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer mammograms was held out as some kind of proof that the organization doesn’t provide women’s health care. Apparently, Republicans are under the impression that women are Barbie dolls, with big breasts and nothing between our legs but a flat surface.

Breasts are a part of women’s bodies, so to the uninformed, the idea that Planned Parenthood doesn’t perform this particular kind of women’s health care might sound like a profound gotcha, indeed. But in reality, there’s no reason for them to have mammogram machines on premises. Most gynecologists don’t do them on premises, but refer women out to another location for a mammogram, because mammogram facilities are accredited by the American College of Radiology. I did a quick search in my area and found that nearly all available mammogram facilities were radiology centers or hospitals.

Women are only recommended to start mammograms at age 50, though some start younger if their doctor believes family history requires it. While Planned Parenthood serves people of all ages, they are primarily a family planning clinic, which means that most of the clientele is going to veer young. Think 20s and 30s, not 40s and 50s. The overlap between the women who need birth control pills and the women who need mammograms is pretty small. It’s a waste of precious resources for Planned Parenthood, whose focus is on women seeking sexual health care services, to have a mammogram machine to serve the relatively small number of patients who are approaching menopause—or are past it.

This obsession with mammograms belies the real agenda here, which has nothing to do with “fetal body parts” or even abortion, but with delegitimizing health care that exists so that people, particularly women, can have healthy and safe sex lives. The implication was clear: 

Mammograms are real health care, and all those other services—contraception, STI testing and treatment, Pap smears—are not. After all, virgins can get breast cancer, but you aren’t going to get the clap or an unintended pregnancy if you don’t have sex.

Republicans are smart and know they can’t just come right out and denounce the use of health care services in order to have recreational sex, because recreational sex is a nearly universal behavior. Ninety-nine percent of women who have sex have used contraception. Ninety-five percent of Americans had premarital sex. So the slut-shaming is being done sideways, by focusing heavily on non-sexual health care—or prenatal care—while pointedly ignoring the health care people centered around having sex. The omission speaks volumes.

If you thought the religious right had given up on the mission to push abstinence-until-marriage, this hearing should be a reminder that they very much have not, and instead are eager to undermine any care for the non-abstinent out of fear that it gives permission to have sex. 

Abstinence-only programs haven’t gone anywhere, either. As Erica Hellerstein of Think Progress reported over the summer, most programs were just renamed something like “abstinence-focused” or even, falsely, “evidence-based,” but they are pushing the same message: The only legitimate life choice is to refrain from having sex until marriage.

Why they don’t think married women need contraception is another question entirely, but we are talking about politicians who think you need a mammogram machine in a family planning clinic that primarily serves women in their 20s. Expertise on what women actually need in their health care is not a strong suit.

Ultimately, we don’t need to look further than the policy proposals themselves, which make it all the more obvious that sexual health care is the GOP’s true target. The funding being debated is for Pap smears, contraception, and STI testing and treatment. All this talk about fetal tissue and videos and Cecile Richards’ salary is simply a distraction from what this is really about, which is that women are having sex and Republicans would very much like for them to cut it out.

Amanda Marcotte is a freelance journalist who writes frequently about liberal politics, the religious right and reproductive health care. She's a prolific Twitter villain who can be followed@amandamarcotte.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/mammograms-planned-parenthood

Talking Points Memo

The GOP's harping on mammograms during today's hearing "belies their real agenda here, which has nothing to do with 'fetal body parts' or even abortion, but with delegitimizing health care that exists so that people, particularly women, can have healthy and safe sex lives."

The GOP's Great Mammogram Farce Of 2015

The word of the day: “Mammogram.” Over and over during the farce that was supposed to be a hearing on Planned Parenthood, Republican representatives attacked Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards because her organization…

TALKINGPOINTSMEMO.COM