For some reason Purity Balls, the fundamentalists culture war answer to the Babylon of western culture, has been one of the top searches here at BDBO.

It is quite one thing to read about the abstinence movement, and quite another to see a commercial for it in the form of Purity Balls.

I want to warn you.
This is disturbing.
It’s downright creepy.
The comment thread on the blog I found it on filled up with healthy people; mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters coming in to have their say. No one needs a PhD in sociology, biology or theology to see what is wrong with this picture. The very fears Purity Ball families fight are played out in divine deception.

The 2006 US budget for abstinence only programs is 206 million dollars.
This movement has been well studied and the results are disturbing.
This video is obscene on several levels to me.
It is a money making scheme, no doubt about that. It takes a few basic truths, and carries the sickness to it’s sorry extreme. It is the polar pr0nographic equivalence of triple x. It is animal husbandry concept of ownership toward daughters bordering on primal fetishism. In controlling saving the soul, punitive degradation and dehumanizing is quite glaring, hailed by people out to make a buck with the wrath of God.

For a clear eyed, rational look at this movement I recommend Michelle Goldberg, Kingdom Coming (Norton 2006). The chapter - Aids is not the Enemy: Sin, Redemption and the Abstinence Industry, gives good historical, financial and social background. Goldberg articulates a solid and healthy perspective, and puts data to ‘this is creepy.’
I need to ask Today at the Mission what the equivalent of Care Net is in Canada.