Purity Balls & Daddy-Daughter Dates

Update: 2025-08-29

Description

Purity is a load-bearing concept in the conservative Christian ideal of family and reproduction. From as young as five years old, Christian girls are told to guard their hearts and bodies against men with bad intentions. But what about a positive model of masculine pursuit? This week, Josh and June take a look at the men who believe the best way to teach their daughters about their worth is to take them out on dates and pledge to guard their virtue in elaborate ceremonies known as purity balls.

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EPISODE ART: Randy Wilson, field director for the Family Research Council and creator of the concept of the purity ball

AUDIO CLIPS:

13:41 – Dr. James Dobson talks about father/daughter dates in a Dr. Dobson Minute

19:42 – Dennis Rainey and Bob Lapine talk about father/daughter dates on an episode of FamilyTalk

50:54 – Hannah Lane and her father Ken in an interview from the documentary The Virgin Daughters

53:55 – Lisa Wilson in an interview from The Virgin Daughters

57:45 – Randy Wilson in an interview from The Virgin Daughters

1:00:44 – Interview from The Virgin Daughters

1:10:36 – Clip from Virgin Tales (2012)

1:16:35 – Jody Hice & Randy Wilson in an interview about Mike Johnson for the Family Research Council's Washington Watch

SOURCES:

"'Purity Balls' Get Attention, but Might Not Be All They Claim" by Mark Oppenheimer (The New York Times, July 20, 2012)

"Daddy’s Little Girls: On the Perils of Chastity Clubs, Purity Balls, and Ritualized Abstinence" by Breanne Fahs (Frontiers: A Journal of Woman Studies, 2010)