Maybe some of you have heard about purity rings. It’s a strange practice among some socially conservative Christians where parents pressure their daughters to take vows of abstinence from sex until marriage. Teens who make the commitment wear sterling rings to show their chastity.
Studies on purity ring practices among these Christians show that it doesn’t work. When you look at STD statistics from the abstinence-only participants and compare them with people who don’t make chastity pledges, the rate of sex diseases isn’t any different. There are other studies that examine the first age intercourse, again comparing the same groups: Abstinence-only Christians had sex debuts at later ages, but again their STD rates and notch counts aren’t different than the other group.
Purity rings don’t work because the average age of marriage in the US is 33 for females and 34 for males. Centuries ago couples tied the knot at much earlier ages. That is why back then there were less out-of-wedlock births. Life-time sexual exclusivity may have been more common for the same reason: Marriage just happened earlier.
I’ve actually never had a girlfriend before and want to marry a virgin like myself: I can’t tolerate feeling extreme jealously and resentment over a would-be wife’s history. But still, I disagree with purity ring practices because it sets people up to fail. It essentially gives them a test that is nearly impossible for most people to pass; and when they fail to live up to such difficult standards, they feel lots of shame and worthlessness.
Why would anyone give someone a test that is too hard? It isn’t right. Sadly, God doesn’t share my same views on treating others with compassion…
For well over a decade now, God has been continually putting me through a horrible test that is practically impossible to pass. In fact, I have never been able to live up to his excruciating standards, otherwise I wouldn’t be in such a terrible situation—which again has been happening for over ten years. No end is in sight, and God won’t even tell me when the terror will stop despite having asked him when it will be over. I am completely broken, my life miserable because God refuses to show compassion by stopping his obscene requirement.
God tells me to be perfect. If I’m not, demons are allowed to come and attach onto me. These monsters ruin my life. They are a profound source of distress—and there isn’t anything I can do about it because God is being a complete jerk by telling me he won’t get rid of them unless I’m perfect.
If I do something completely harmless like have a glass of wine, God tells me I sinned, so I have to suffer with monstrous demons who terrorize me and ruin my life. Yet when I do manage to attain perfection, God still refuses to remove the demons: He found some other sin that I committed. So again, no help—just suffering. (In fact, it happened just recently where I somehow managed not to drink for a day, my drinking being caused by the hopelessness that God is causing by putting me through a test I cannot pass, but God didn’t remove the demons. He found other sins that I committed, and the demons spent the night tormenting me.)
I decided to make this prayer request post because something horrible happened this morning. Last night I was kept awake all night by demons. I had to sleep in the early morning hours, being sleep deprived. What happened next? The demons went and murdered other version of me on parallel worlds where the copies of me were atheists. They did so in a truly atrocious way by burning him with fire, murdering him.
I knew the murder (or murders?) would happen right before I fell to sleep, so I begged and pleaded with God for help. But no help came. God didn’t like that I had been imperfect the previous day, so my prayers were worthless to him. I guess another person’s life was worthless to him as well. In fact, I’m so worthless to God that he didn’t even reply to me: He didn’t say, “I won’t help you because you’re imperfect.” Nor did he lie to me in bad faith disguised as good faith and say, “I can’t do anything about it,” knowing well he had the ability to do something about it. God just flat-out ignored me, and people were murdered as I begged God for help.
Please pray for me and ask God to quit putting me through these horrible perfection tests. He knows I will never be capable of being perfect, since nobody is perfect. There is no point in setting me up to fail. Also please pray and ask God to give me permanent kills of the murderous demons tonight despite my imperfections.
Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Will God ever listen to my prayers? Will he ever show some compassion? I must be insane.
Studies on purity ring practices among these Christians show that it doesn’t work. When you look at STD statistics from the abstinence-only participants and compare them with people who don’t make chastity pledges, the rate of sex diseases isn’t any different. There are other studies that examine the first age intercourse, again comparing the same groups: Abstinence-only Christians had sex debuts at later ages, but again their STD rates and notch counts aren’t different than the other group.
Purity rings don’t work because the average age of marriage in the US is 33 for females and 34 for males. Centuries ago couples tied the knot at much earlier ages. That is why back then there were less out-of-wedlock births. Life-time sexual exclusivity may have been more common for the same reason: Marriage just happened earlier.
I’ve actually never had a girlfriend before and want to marry a virgin like myself: I can’t tolerate feeling extreme jealously and resentment over a would-be wife’s history. But still, I disagree with purity ring practices because it sets people up to fail. It essentially gives them a test that is nearly impossible for most people to pass; and when they fail to live up to such difficult standards, they feel lots of shame and worthlessness.
Why would anyone give someone a test that is too hard? It isn’t right. Sadly, God doesn’t share my same views on treating others with compassion…
For well over a decade now, God has been continually putting me through a horrible test that is practically impossible to pass. In fact, I have never been able to live up to his excruciating standards, otherwise I wouldn’t be in such a terrible situation—which again has been happening for over ten years. No end is in sight, and God won’t even tell me when the terror will stop despite having asked him when it will be over. I am completely broken, my life miserable because God refuses to show compassion by stopping his obscene requirement.
God tells me to be perfect. If I’m not, demons are allowed to come and attach onto me. These monsters ruin my life. They are a profound source of distress—and there isn’t anything I can do about it because God is being a complete jerk by telling me he won’t get rid of them unless I’m perfect.
If I do something completely harmless like have a glass of wine, God tells me I sinned, so I have to suffer with monstrous demons who terrorize me and ruin my life. Yet when I do manage to attain perfection, God still refuses to remove the demons: He found some other sin that I committed. So again, no help—just suffering. (In fact, it happened just recently where I somehow managed not to drink for a day, my drinking being caused by the hopelessness that God is causing by putting me through a test I cannot pass, but God didn’t remove the demons. He found other sins that I committed, and the demons spent the night tormenting me.)
I decided to make this prayer request post because something horrible happened this morning. Last night I was kept awake all night by demons. I had to sleep in the early morning hours, being sleep deprived. What happened next? The demons went and murdered other version of me on parallel worlds where the copies of me were atheists. They did so in a truly atrocious way by burning him with fire, murdering him.
I knew the murder (or murders?) would happen right before I fell to sleep, so I begged and pleaded with God for help. But no help came. God didn’t like that I had been imperfect the previous day, so my prayers were worthless to him. I guess another person’s life was worthless to him as well. In fact, I’m so worthless to God that he didn’t even reply to me: He didn’t say, “I won’t help you because you’re imperfect.” Nor did he lie to me in bad faith disguised as good faith and say, “I can’t do anything about it,” knowing well he had the ability to do something about it. God just flat-out ignored me, and people were murdered as I begged God for help.
Please pray for me and ask God to quit putting me through these horrible perfection tests. He knows I will never be capable of being perfect, since nobody is perfect. There is no point in setting me up to fail. Also please pray and ask God to give me permanent kills of the murderous demons tonight despite my imperfections.
Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Will God ever listen to my prayers? Will he ever show some compassion? I must be insane.
