Banned

[spindrifter]

Gaby Hinsliff, political editor
Sunday June 18, 2006
The Observer

It is only a band of silver, imprinted with a Bible verse, worn by a schoolgirl.
But the decision by one of the country's top state schools to ban American-style 'purity rings' - increasingly worn by Christian teenagers to symbolise a pledge not to have sex before marriage - has prompted not just a standoff with local parents, but a debate over religious expression and sex education.

Heather and Philip Playfoot have spent almost two years in dispute with Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, over their 15-year-old daughter Lydia's ring. While the school's uniform rules forbid jewellery, they argue that the rings - given to teenagers who complete a controversial evangelical church course preaching sexual abstinence - hold genuine religious significance.

<snip>

At the end of the course (on chastity), children prepared to pledge chastity can pay £10 for a silver purity ring to be given to their spouse on their wedding day: even non-virgins can be 'born again'.


US President George Bush has heavily advocated abstinence teaching, budgeting $170 million a year for it. However, research by Columbia and Yale Universities found while those who pledge chastity may delay first sex, 88 per cent of them eventually break the promise, and are then less likely than non-pledgers to use contraception.
<snip>

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1800271,00.html

+++++++++++++++++
It was difficult to pick 4 paragraphs from this article.

[dysfunctional press]

1. the last paragraph is the most important...

i'd love to see a reporter ask his illegal highness(here in the u.s.) about the numbers in that survey from his alma mater- and how it shows just how DANGEROUS abstinence-only education is to the youth(and ultimately the taxpayers via the social/economic costs of teen pregnancy and stds) in the u.s.

[NMMNG]

13. Indeed

The wingnuts push abstinence only sex-ed with the claim that it protects teens when it actually puts them in danger. It is foolhardy and gravely irresponsible, not to mention a reprehensible waste of tax dollars.

[AlCzervik]

2. according to google, Phillip is the pastor of their church

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Gee they ought to apply the same metrics based approach

to sex education methods that they are applying to general education: if the measured outcomes are bad, drop the funding. Only then the god-squad would go broke. How many STDs are attributable to sexual-ignorance indoctrination?

[Bear down under]

4. This desn't infringe freedom of religion

Wearing the hijab and the Sikh bangle are genuine religious requirements which all members of those religions are expected to conform to. This pledge ring is not; both pledge and ring are entirely voluntary.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. This is why I have so much trouble being able to stomach Christians

They waste our tax money on BULLSHIT they invent.

And the ring is not the only story. This goes along with a whole bs ceremony the evangelicals invented. My sister (who was an evangelical - she's now reformed and thinks evangelicals are full of shit), explained the ceremony. Apparently the father takes the little girl out on a "date." The father talks to the little girl about how important it is to be a virgin and not give their bodies to boys, blah blah blah. The father then hands the little girl a contract to sign. Lastly, the father puts a ring on her finger.

It sounds so frikkin' perverted to me that I expect evangelical dads to then take their daughters outside behind some tree and get it on.

[AlCzervik]

6. i'd like to know if they have to pay for the ring, maybe i'm just too

cynical but i tend to think almost everything they do is to generate $$$.

[NYC]

7. Looks like £10 for the ring.

...At the end of the course (on chastity), children prepared to pledge chastity can pay £10 for a silver purity ring to be given to their spouse on their wedding day: even non-virgins can be 'born again'.

[Corgigal]

8. sound like the men own their teenaged daughters

I would kick my husband ass if he believed he owned our 16 year old daughter. We "try" to influence her but we don't own the child.

She's doing okay too. Going overseas in two weeks to see something in this world.
See:

http://sponsoramanda.com/

She doesn't need any donations. She is all paid up.

[magellan]

10. What a wonderful experience she's about to have!

You must be so proud of her, I'll bet she's excited. I am, just looking at that itinerary! She'll have a terrific time. If she plans to update the page with reports on her trip when she returns, please let us know. I'd love to read about all she saw and learned.

[Corgigal]

15. thanks

will do. She plans on taking lot of pictures. She is going with 40 other students and 5 adults.
Thanks again.

[Erika]

12. It is sick Ask any Mormon about daughter daddy dates

Women will be subject to men's whims and will. In Mormonism, men must call their wives up to heaven, if they deem them worthy. If the husbands don't deem them worthy, the women won't go to heaven. One hell of a powerful motive for women raised in this shit to be submissive to men. Romney's one of them. The evangelicals also believe it is the man who is important, women are there for procreation and subservience purposes.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

14. "Daddy dates" by evangelicals have a more sinister truth to them

I suspect it is beyond control, and smells to me of pedophilia.

[snappyturtle]

9. Once again....

this funding is a sign that * is nuts! This is the idiot that cut funding for condoms in AIDS rich countries in Africa......wonder if he'd donate rings so the African people can sign useless pledges! If a son signs the abstinence agreement who does he have dinner with.....just wondering! I can tell you from personal experience the fear religion puts into youth about sex before marriage is VERY harmful.

Edit: P.S. I did recover but............................what a waste.

[Erika]

11. Getting gung ho against a pledge of abstinence is one thing

[Buxtehude]

16. I'm really not sure

I'd know a virgin if I ran across one, and personally don't really care.

[pooja]

17. has anyone seen a chastity ring on the Bush twins??

[leeroysphitz]

18. If the policy is no jewelry then the policy is NO JEWELRY.

If it's enforced uniformly and consistently across the board then it's a perfectly reasonable part of the dress code.

Why do some people think that their religious beliefs give them special status?

[Greyhound]

19. Privet schools get to set their policies, period.

next. :D

[Maiden England]

20. I actually think they should have the freedom to express their beliefs

I'm about as unimpressed with the fundy 'shove religion down anyones throats' as the next person, but they should still have the ability to have freedom of religious expression. Even if we don't agree with it. I should have the right to wear a star of david in school or if I choose a chai, or hamesh, they should have the right to wear a cross or some dumb chastity ring.

[insane_cratic_gal]

21. Why don't we just hand out chasity belts and be done with it!

It's more reliable then some meaningless ring on your finger, or raging teenage hormones who swear to refrain from everything "but" sex