Purity ring

[12] Her father, Phil Playfoot, was the British pastor for Silver Ring Thing at the time,[13] and was ordered to pay £12,000 towards the school's costs.

[14] True Love Waits (TLW) is an international Christian group that promotes sexual abstinence outside of marriage for teenagers and college students.

[19] Some studies of the efficacy of virginity pledges have found they may be effective in delaying vaginal intercourse but ineffective in reducing the rate of sexually transmitted infection.

[22] Additionally, it has been reported that pledgers replace vaginal intercourse with other sexual activities, such as oral or anal sex, thinking they "don't count".

[24] David Bario of the Columbia News Service wrote: Under the Bush administration, organizations that promote abstinence and encourage teens to sign virginity pledges or wear purity rings have received federal grants.

[26] In the 2011 book Making Chastity Sexy: The Rhetoric of Evangelical Abstinence Campaigns, Christine Gardner criticizes True Love Waits[27] for "using sex to sell abstinence" by promising more satisfying sexual activity within marriage for those who abstain from premarital sex; she argues that this rhetoric reinforces selfish desires for gratification, sets people up for divorce and dissatisfaction with marriage, and simply adapts "secular forms for religious ends".

[28] In 2014, Jimmy Hester, one of the main founders of the program, said that although some studies have shown that many young Christians have broken their commitments, it has served as a benchmark for some who have returned to the faith.

[31] In 2013, Morgan Lee, a journalist of The Christian Post, conducted an interview with Joe Jonas and wrote:[30] In an exceptionally raw and frank interview, Jonas also mentioned that although he had made a good-faith, preteen, commitment with Christian abstinence organization True Love Waits to keep his virginity until marriage and donned a "purity ring" as an 11-year-old, he was overwhelmed when this became the focus of media attention when the band started to blow up.

[30]In 2019, the Lutheran minister Nadia Bolz-Weber called for people to send her their unwanted purity rings so that she could cast them into a sculpture of a vagina.

[32] Apologetic minister Alisa Childers criticized Bolz-Weber for her project, but acknowledged that purity ring campaigns needed to improve.