America’s Purity Programme !

I think this type of movement has been going on for a while, an attempt to reduce sexual promiscuity by younger people themselves. There is something akin to this in UK I believe. I'm not sure why you think its creepy Bridgeit

I think the pledging abstinence to her father sounds a bit creepy in this day and age. Making the choice for herself would be a different matter.

Creepy because they sign a pledge to their Father, would be slightly but only just if they signed a pledge to their Parents, I also think that parents who have given their children a lot of guidance & have been open about sex rather than controlling have a better way of steeering their girls towards sensible attitudes & decisions.

Do the boys sign a pledge to their mother?

It's a personal decision and nobody's business but that of the young person him or her self.

I recall seeing a TV documentary about this many years ago. The only part I remember well is when there was a Dads+Daughters ball held to celebrate something or other. Girls all dressed up like for a prom, escorted by and dancing with their tuxedo-ed fathers - very uncomfortable viewing.

I remember reading about this years ago I don’t think it’s anything new
Each to his own but I think it’s going back to Puritan times
None of the fathers business once she’s 18
If you bring your children up to understand about unwanted pregnancies diseases and respect of your own body and respect of others you don’t need to follow their every move you trust them
Anyway why is she pledging to her father where’s the mother ? Doesn’t she have two parents?

I think this movement is part of the fundamentalist Christian movement.

I think it should be accompanied by a vow from father to daughter that he, himself has never had a non-marital sex and has been totally faithful in marriage. The father should be worthy of his daughter.

Hah! Love it, M0nica!

Absolutely MOnica! Brilliant!

Extremists in any walk of life are just totally illogical and basically it’s so wrong on so many levels.

I note that Louisiana state has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the US. I can only think that this awful "pledge" business will contribute to this. (It's been around for years, I'm sorry to say.)

Merlotgran. Surely she has made the decision to sign the contract i.e. she had a choice. What’s creepy about good old fashioned Christian values? The World would be a much better, and healthier, place if more youngsters abstained from sex till married. Less stds, unwanted pregnancies etc.

Chucky - I agree. The trouble is that it isn't a fashionable view.

I'd feel happier if, on the grounds that she was given free choice after explanations, she pledged to both parents, and of course boys should be encouraged to do it too! I remember at Sunday School being asked to sign the pledge that I would not drink any alcohol, I certainly was going nowhere near that!

Exactly right M0nica

Should be a personal decision without another's influence .How many are influenced by their parents beliefs.? Each country /state has laws at what age alchol can be sold to a person. What goes on behind closed doors is another matter. A parent should not have to make their child abstain, in the form of a document, from anything the child is of an age to know could cause them harm. Bad parenting if it gets to that stage.

It sounds a bit too close to the culture which prevails in certain parts of the world where religion dictates that girls should undergo 'virginity tests' is they are suspected of having been anywhere remotely near a male person they are not related to.

Boys, however, are allowed to go right under the radar. As usual.

I would understand the lack of any involvement of the mother to imply that she is also completely controlled by the father. Unfortunately the "Good old fashioned Christian values" in some parts of the world are that men have complete domination over women. It is possible her choice was sign the document or be thrown out of the home.

Chucky. Abstinence from sex prior to marriage is not the only answer to an overpopulated world. Science has given us the means to limit how many children a woman can or wants to produce, married or unmarried, in her fertile years. So isn't it in our own hands.? Yes there will be accidents but hasn't science given a woman the morning after alternative that some would not want to take ? again their choice. The world is overpopulated. There are countries where women are constantly abused married or not leading to unwanted pregnancies what do we do about that?

non of your business

Bet this was in the Southern States bible belt where they still live in the 17th century. I have watched a father and daughter holding hands like lovers throughout a church service (she was in her teens) in the good old South. I have also known a couple from the Southern States where the father actually washed & showered the daughter until she was 11 (it could have been longer, I don't know). Did this girl have the opportunity NOT to pledge to her father? What would have happened if she'd rebelled? This is subjugation of women - the sort of women who end up, ironically, voting for monsters like Trump because in many States there is still a patriarchal society. Yes, there is a movement of young people who pledge chastity and it is definitely linked to fundamentalist Christian groups. Is it unhealthy? Any kind of coercion is unhealthy. 18 of the U.S. states do not have a legal minimum age of marriage - how healthy is that?

Mmmh - takes two to tango - I would like to see boys pledging to either or both their parents that they would not get a girl pregnant! Perhaps the lack of sex education is responsible for the high teenage pregnancy rate.

Nothing Americans do surprise me! DH worked over there for a long time & I found most of them to be rude, patronising, self- centred & basically weird.

We did meet some really nice people but the vast majority were very strange.

oh dear Chucky your view sounds so naive, believing the girl has a choice of her own, hopefully she does but it’s very unlikely that she does any more than the children of the fundamentalist Baptist who shout obscenities and use their children to hold up placards abhorring homosexuality or the Middle Eastern brides who have their husbands chosen for them whether they want to be married or not or even nearer to home the young women who until recently have had to travel to U.K. to get an abortion They are brain washed into these very archaic and male controlling traditions