A German TV news outlet showed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) at a "purity ball" in 2015 with his daughter Hannah, who was 13 years old at the time, ABC News reported on Wednesday.
"The German news segment documented Johnson and his family preparing for and then attending a purity ball, a controversial formal dance event, popular among some conservative Christians, that gained notoriety in the early 2000s," reported Will Steakin. "At a typical event, fathers and their teenage daughters dress in formal ball attire for a night that involves dinner and dancing and culminates with the daughter signing a pledge to her father to abstain from dating and to remain sexually abstinent until marriage."
"This looks like a wedding," said the original reporter in German during the news segment on n-tv in 2015. "But they are not bride and groom -- but rather father and ... daughter."
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Research has shown that teenagers roped into signing these chastity "pledges" who break the vow are actually more likely to end up pregnant than teenagers who never signed them to begin with.
Though plenty of conservative Christians on social media leapt to Johnson's defense following the report, many commentators expressed shock and unease at the ritual Johnson and his daughter went through.
"Ewww," wrote attorney and commentator Bradley Moss.
"An obsession with gay sex, your son’s porn app, and your daughter’s sexual purity pledge is abnormally creepy. WTF is wrong with you @SpeakerJohnson and your fixations?" wrote "Doc C," referencing another earlier report that Johnson and his son use an app that alerts one if the other looks at pornography.
"Of all the creepy things about evangelical Christianity — and there are many — the 'purity ball' has got to be the creepiest," wrote podcaster David Roberts. "Imagine signing a contract with your father that you won't f--k anybody until you're married. I mean ... ew."
