Steakin used negative language to describe the “purity ball” that took place one year before the now-Speaker was first elected to Congress.

The ABC News reporter called the father-daughter dinner “a controversial formal dance event, popular among some conservative Christians, that gained notoriety in the early 2000s.”

He went on to claim that pro-purity events have garnered criticism “that the practice places too much of a burden on young women” and “accusations that the balls themselves objectify young girls.”

[Father, forgive them, though they know full well what they do. I’m not necessarily all that enchanted by ‘purity balls,’ but I certainly understand that they are designed to strengthen teenage girls AGAINST objectification. The German report offers innuendo about incest based on the fact that a father escorts his teenage daughter to these events, which is particularly despicable when the point is to emphasize chastity, continence, and strong family relationships to help guide young Christians through an increasingly hostile popular culture. — Ed]