Purity ring

Purity rings (also known as promise rings, abstinence rings, or chastity rings) are rings worn as a sign of chastity. Since the 1990s, in the United States, Christian organizations, especially Catholic and evangelical Christian groups, promoting virginity pledges and virginity before marriage, like True Love Waits and Silver Ring Thing, used the purity ring as a symbol of commitment. Wearing a purity ring is typically accompanied by a religious vow to practice abstinence until marriage. Chastity rings are part of the abstinence-only sex education movement and are intended to act as a physical reminder of their chastity vow. Unaltered, formerly and commonly known as Silver Ring Thing (SRT), is an American virginity pledge program founded in 1995 by Denny Pattyn. The program encourages teens and young adults to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. For a few years, it was partially funded by the U.S. federal government. Drawing on Christian theology, SRT uses rock/hip hop concert-style events in an attempt to appeal to 21st-century teenagers. During the gathering, participants commit to a vow of sexual abstinence until marriage by purchasing rings. The organization's theme verse is . In 2004, SRT began expanding operations into the United Kingdom, with mixed results. While some teenagers in the UK embraced the message of abstinence, some critics rejected and ridiculed SRT, saying it was anti-sex or unrealistic, and that it seemed unlikely that abstinence programs would attract widespread support in the UK because of the UK's differing attitude toward sexuality and sex education. The group's Assistant National Director for the UK, Denise Pfeiffer, said there was a real need for such a movement in the UK to curb what she sees as the ever-increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancies, both of which she claims are the highest in Western Europe. In 2005, the ACLU of Massachusetts sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services because it believed SRT used tax dollars to promote Christianity.