'No respect for his child': Speaker Mike Johnson slammed for attending 'purity ball' with daughter 8 years ago

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA: A video of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson attending a Christian purity ball with his daughter has resurfaced online.

ABC News unearthed the 2015 video by the German news channel n-tv and labeled it as a "controversial formal dance event" in its article from Wednesday, December 20.

"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," ABC wrote.

"This looks like a wedding," a German news reporter said in the video about the event. "But they are not bride and groom -- but rather father and ... daughter," the reporter added about Johnson and his then-13-year-old daughter, Hannah.

The German media outlet documented the Louisiana GOP politician and his family's preparation and participation in the event. The video contains clips of Johnson, his daughter, and many other father-daughter pairs at the ball.

What is a purity ball?

A purity ball is a family-centered event where a father and daughter dance, encouraging the daughter to sexual abstinence before marriage. A conservative Christian event that gained popularity in the 1990s has since become a subject of intense debate among the Christian community.

The ABC article described the event as: "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."

Speaker Johnson, a Southern Baptist, has often upheld his conservative Christian values. For instance, in December, he sent a controversial campaign email expressing concerns about the rising number of high school students identifying as LGBTQ.

Mike Johnson's daughter's purity pledge

The video contains Johnson's daughter, who is now in her 20s, vowing to her father to live a life of purity and signing a document. She pledged "to make a commitment to God, myself, my family, my friends, my future husband, and my future children ... to a lifetime of purity, including sexual purity."

It also featured individual interviews with the Johnson family members. In one brief clip, his wife, Kelly Johnson, a Christian counselor, said, "We don't talk to her about contraception. Sex before marriage is simply out of the question."

Internet reacts to Mike Johnson's 'controversial' purity ball attendance

Netizens are outraged over the House Speaker's conservative practice, with some questioning about whether his sons will sign such an agreement.

Johnson, who recently sparked another controversy for reportedly sharing a porn accountability app with his teenage son, has not responded to the purity ball event yet.

As conservative moral values rise and Republican states ban emergency abortions, social media users express concerns about how his daughter will navigate finding a husband without dating.

One user remarked, "Obtain from dating too? That’s really weird. How do you find a husband if you don’t date? Does daddy arrange it??"

Another user opined the same, "How does he expect her to find a husband without dating? Is he going to choose her spouse?"

"Mike Johnson has no respect for his child," another user added.

One reaction read, "The more you learn…the more you cringe… Im sure its far worse than we know…"

"I'm curious about the sort of Handmaid's Tale-style policies he has in mind for his vision of "Making America Great Again,"" said one user.

Another questioned, "Do there sons also have to sign a purity agreement? They sure do like guilting young female children?"

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.