Several years ago, when many Democratic strategists were demanding that the party embrace the tenets of the Christian Right in order to win over the salt of the earth, Real Americans (whom they insisted were essential to a legitimate governing majority), the media briefly reported on some of their more extreme rituals. They looked at "purity culture" practices such as gay conversion "therapy", masturbation abstinence and "purity balls" which feature a pseudo-wedding ceremony between a father and daughter.
All these practices were disturbing enough that they pretty much went underground after being publicly exposed and the culture wars turned to their next battlefield, the latest being the cruel bullying of transgender teens and the banning of gay literature in schools.
