Virgin daughter on sale: Christian dad posts outrageous ad seeking suitable son-in-law

Christianity Today magazine is in the middle of a controversy after it printed an ad by an “unworthy” dad from Wheaton in Illinois, US, looking for a son-in-law for his “26-year-old virgin” daughter. It seemed as if the dad, Stephen Stewart, was trying to sell cattle.

However, Rachel Stewart, the daughter, who is apparently “on sale,” tried to control the situation by saying her dad was merely encouraging singles to “seek the kingdom of God.” The magazine has apologised for printing such a demeaning ad, accepting that it was in bad taste.

“We want everything in our magazine to reflect beautiful orthodoxy, and this ad did not. We have taken a hard look at our ad review process, made some changes, and we can assure our readers no ad like this will appear again,” said editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, Mark Galli.

CT would like to apologize to readers for an ad that appeared in our March issue pic.twitter.com/0Hrpt9puvn

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) 4 March 2016

The ad was listed in the job section of the magazine and described the daughter as “godly, gorgeous, athletic, educated, careered, humorous, travelled, bilingual, 26-year-old virgin.” It described future son-in-law as “unworthy, though becoming less so daily.”

The apology from the magazine came after the ad, which was posted in the magazine’s March issue, sparked outrage online. The dad also provided an email address for people to get in touch.

A commenter suggested that it seemed like the dad was trying to sell cattle.

In a now-deleted blog post, the daughter responded to comments saying, “Oh my goodness! He is so BUSTED. Ha.”

“I’m not angry or embarrassed. I’m just nervous if this doesn’t work out, next I’ll find my face plastered on a billboard. Oh gosh, now I’m giving him ideas,” she added.