The Silver Ring Thing

I heard about this awhile ago but just read an article in the Evening Standard this new fad coming to the UK. If you don't know or haven't yet I'm sure you'll see or hear of it soon as it's bound to attract some media attention. Basically it is a group of American Christians who have decided that to show their commitment to sexual abstinence before marriage by wearing a silver ring. This seems to have really taken off in the states and there are loads of people supporting this project.

To be honest my cynical side immediately started to think of, and start to group this within other Christian gimmick or media circus such as WWJD bracelets (or really any combination of letters that can be put together to form some other catch phrase) or 'The Prayer of Jabez' marketing extravaganza (sorry that's a personal view but hey this is my blog).

My immediate thought was that is this going to be a tool that actually further alienates people that have already 'failed' in this area from the Church. Does it further demonstrate a legalistic Church that runs on rules and regulations? However I wonder if there is something in this, perhaps I need to explore more about what the philosophy actually is. If we do believe that sex finds it proper place within marriage is there anything wrong with people actually making this known. I think not but it needs to be presented in a way that is actually reasoned through and not just a 'because we say so' attitude. Has anybody else got any views or thoughts upon this?