Chastity Rings

[scaeagles]

CP, you're right - there are innumerable valuable lessons. For us, the linking of the ring to the sex talk is because we link sex to marriage, and marriage typically involves the exchange of rings.

The whole concept of "pure" relates to the biblical concept of sexual purity. This is the standard the we (speaking of my family) try to live up to but inevitably fall short of. The knowledge of failure does not mean the goal of acheiving it is any less important. I'm just not capable of doing it...I find myself rabbit trailing into doctrine, which is not my goal whatsoever.

And to bring up ISM's point, age has a lot to do with it. We didn't talk to our daughter about it when she was 4. We talked about it when her physical body was mature enough. Many cultures throughout history have had marriages (or something similar) at much younger ages. In that way, CP, it was much like a Bar Mitzvah. It was a change for her in physical maturity and the responsibility associated with it.

If wearing a ring or some such thing as a symbol that you don't drink alcohol, and to you that is related to some concept of purity, more power to you. I guess I don't understand why this is a problem for anyone.

I do agree with you that there are certain stigma associated with behavior. More and more so on all sides of the spectrum, and often this is because of what is deemed in the "public interest". Smoking has a huge stigma associated with it that I think is ridiculous (spoken as a non smoker who does not enjoy being around it). What I fear isn't that people don't like it, but that society as a whole deems something as unacceptable too costly to society and therefore systematically criminalizes it (which is what smoking has becoming and fatty foods will at some point). That's my concern....not that someone chooses something important to them - whatever it may be - to mark in a special way, be that with a ring or a tattoo.