Fathers Interested in Their Daughter’s Purity

There is a growing movement among Christians in the United States to protect their children from sexual sins, and away from the casual dating scene. Books like “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” and others touting the benefits of courtship are seeing good success.

Focus on the Family discusses Father-Daughter Purity Balls. The basic idea– a prom with Dad with a point– a pledge of purity from the daughter until marriage.

The fathers and daughters paired off as they entered the elegant ballroom of the five-star Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. The dads wore suits or tuxes, the young ladies beautiful ball gowns.

The 100 father-daughter guests — some dads brought more than one daughter, and some of the daughters were as young as 4 — came from around Colorado, and a few from as far away as Pennsylvania. The highlight of the evening was when the dads signed the Covenant of Purity and Protection, witnessed by their
daughters. (See “The Pledge,” right.)

Of course, this doesn’t exactly sit well with the feminist crowd:

I can not even tell you how much it would have creeped me out to have my father take that kind of interest in my sexuality. Or to look into his eyes and *say* the word “sexually.” That’s far too much detail to be shared between a father and daughter, in my opinion. Sure, we all know that a daughter’s sexual activity is probably never far from the mind of her father, especially when she’s dating, but the idea that he would go so far as to have her pledge to him that she will remain sexually pure until she “gives” herself as a “wedding gift” to her husband is creeptastic.

…

In this worldview, the man is the head of the household, high priest, and all the members of the family are his property. And anyone will tell you that property has value; in the case of the daughter in a family like this, her value is determined by her marriageability, which is bound up inextricably in her purity. That’s why she pledges to be her husband’s “wedding gift” and to protect the value of her father’s property by not giving it away before it’s legally purchased by marriage.

I love the response by RightNation.US to the last quote:

Yeah, that’s exactly right. It has nothing to do with our love for our daughters and concern for their well being. I’m hoping to score several hundred camels for the three-year old.

It’s part of the father’s responsibility before God to lead his family well– especially in guarding his daughters in their clothing choices, friends, etc. Involved fathers create stable children.