'Purity Balls' step in as abstinence funds bow out

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Nashville, Tenn. » Jeiel Ballard and his girlfriend, both 16, are dressed up in their best attire, ready for a night of dancing and fun.

But there will be no close embraces or risque moves to test chaperones on the dance floor. The "purity ball" sponsored by their Seventh-day Adventist Church will feature a vow to abstain from sex until marriage and offer tips on "appropriate" touching between the sexes.

"It's tough, but when you have sex at an early age it can become addictive," Ballard said. "And when you get addicted ... it can lead you down the wrong path."

Expect to see more events like this now that abstinence-only sex education programs have lost their federal government support and churches and other religious groups step in to keep the message alive.

"With funding being cut from the government, you're going to see more responsibility placed on churches in the community to carry this banner," said Michael Polite, assistant pastor at Riverside Chapel Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nashville, which collaborated with several other Adventist congregations for the recent ball.

"And I think when we do our job," he said, "it will show the government this type of education is still necessary."

There's a measure in the U.S. Senate to restore about $50 million to abstinence education, but its passage is uncertain, and it would restore funding to less than half of what it had been under the Bush administration.

One advantage of not using federal funds is more freedom and creativity. At the purity ball, Polite uses ballroom dancing as the platform to teach teens how to interact without being tempted.

A dance instructor at the purity ball, Polite said, showed "how a woman should be touched, how a man should be touched" without being sexual.

"It doesn't have to be any of the dirty bumping and grinding," said James Brothers, an instructor at Dance World of Nashville. "It's just a great way to express yourself and really enjoy it, while still being classy at the same time."

Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, which for the past five years has promoted a national Day of Purity for teen, said depending on private money could benefit the abstinence message.

"People are able to participate and understand the importance, and then you don't have the government purse strings attached where it's on today and off tomorrow," Staver said. "People ... will take ownership of it."

Gianna Snell organized a purity ball at her church in Lexington, Ky. Snell said she and her husband are proof individuals can wait until marriage because they abstained from sex during their two-year courtship.

"At times, it was tough," Snell said with a chuckle. "I had someone who had the same goal, and we both made that commitment to each other once we started dating."

Regardless of where the message comes from, critics of abstinence-only programs say there's no solid evidence they work.

President Barack Obama's budget approves $114 million for a new "teenage pregnancy prevention" initiative that will fund only those programs with evidence of success. Supporters cite data to back their argument abstinence-only programs can be beneficial.

Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, pointed to a study in Virginia that showed students who took part in abstinence programs were about half as likely to initiate sex as their peers.

She said more than 130 programs around the country -- serving roughly 1.5 million youths -- will be affected by the cut in funding.

"If we're truly concerned about providing a strategy to students," Huber said, "let's put the politics of the selective science aside, and be more concerned about what can be done to help young people."