Silver ring thing/ purity pledges

[halogirl]

https://www.silverringthing.com Has anyone heard of this ? What do you think ? Basically a public commitment to virginity until marriage with a pledge and a ring as an outward sign. Good/bad/unnecessary ? Particularly those of you stateside

 

[1ke]

I would prefer Catholic students hear a Catholic message about sexuality and purity.

This seems to be an Evangelical Protestant aligned group. Not all of their (Evangelicals) messaging is positive when it comes to sexuality.

And of course marital sexuality beliefs differ from Catholic teaching.

I am also not a fan of public purity pledges, purity rings, etc. I don’t think it accomplishes anything positive, and in some cases I think it does a lot of damage.

I would much rather see Catholic teens learning about theology of the body, purity, and appropriate marital chastity from Catholic sources.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

“Purity rings” are more of an evangelical Protestant thing. i find them a little creepy because I don’t think a young person, usually a teenager, should be put in a position of making a public commitment in front of their peers about a sensitive and private topic. If any of those young people should make a mistake later, which inevitably some of them will as we are all imperfect humans and sinners and sex drive is a hard thing to learn to control. then they’re in a position of trying to decide whether to take off the ring, thus putting their mistake/ sin on public display, or keep wearing the ring though it may be a bit hypocritical.

If someone wishes to make a personal and private commitment to chastity, and wear some Catholic item to remind them of it, like a ring, medal or scapular, then fine. Do it privately and it’s between you and God, not a big show of purity that you’re putting on for the world.

I agree that if you want to learn about chastity and purity, it’s better to learn from Catholic resources. However, I note that many if not most of the Catholic resources other than the Catechism and “Theology of the Body” (both of which are good, don’t get me wrong) are directed at either males trying to kick a porn habit, or gay people. There isn’t much out there to help normal young women with their chastity.

 

[ahs]

I think it’s a fine idea to wear a ring to symbolize that one has chosen chastity. I would not subscribe to any particular group’s view about it, though, just would learn what my faith teaches about sexuality and follow that. I wore such a ring in college to remind myself of my commitment; and my wife wore one when we were dating, but more as a pre-engagement-don’t-bother-me-because-I-have-a-boyfriend type thing.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

I think they’re gross.
First of all, it’s nobody’s dang business.
Second of all, it’s marketed to girls and not boys. How come?
And then…what happens when athe girl stops wearing it…?

Yuck

 

[twoangels]

Purity culture is toxic. We should be aware of sin, including sexual sin, but chastity is a virtue you cultivate. You don’t start pure. You start weak and grow stronger with the practice of virtue. Imagine if we dealt with the obesity issue and held meetings like this to gloat if we live a healthy weight and talked about how pure we were because we weren’t gorging out like the rest of the culture. It’s that same basic thing.

 

[BoomBoomMancini]

There isn’t much out there to help normal young women with their chastity

I think, unfortunately, a lot of the people who bang on about purity think that young women don’t really experience sexual temptation and purity is easy for them.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

If you are looking for an apostolate that fosters a commitment to chastity, why not try something that is theologically Catholic? Like the Angelic Warfare Confraternity?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

They put the burden on the girl to “Just Say No”.

The old teaching, which was still around when I was young, was that a girl is responsible for making sure her date doesn’t go too far, because men’s animal instincts take over and they can’t control themselves so the girl has to make sure they don’t get too excited.

Obviously, this is very sexist, given that the girl has sexual feelings too, the guy should be in charge of controlling himself which he is fully capable of doing, and furthermore teenage guys can get excited at the drop of a hat even if the girl is wearing a full burka and sitting 10 feet away.

If a girl does not have sex, she is often berated for being a tease, and if a girl does have sex, she’s berated for being a “woman of easy virtue” (<—insert pejorative of your choice here). This sort of thing made me a very angry young girl backintheday because it seemed that whatever one might do would just end up with somebody yelling at you.