So did Tim buy the promise ring for Heidi? It means he is going to court her? Then promises to marry her? Not American. Have any other fundies done this?
I was just talking about this with @filthyfundie lol, Tim getting Heidi a promise ring is actually so unnecessary given their chosen system of 'dating'.
So the concept of a promise ring outside of fundie land is that it's a symbol of commitment before you decide to get engaged. Like a little more serious than just dating, but not officially fiancés yet. And the only time that's made sense to me is when a couple wants to show commitment but can't get engaged yet for whatever reason, like sometimes long-distance couples will do it if they want to wait and get engaged in person and can't do that for a while, but they still want a symbol of commitment. Or really young couples who feel like it's not the right time to get engaged will get them until they feel stable enough to plan a wedding.
But for a fundamentalist like Timothy who practices courting it makes zero sense........for people who practice it, courting 'officially' is essentially the same thing as being engaged, it's why they have such short 'official' engagements. It's just explicitly understood that courting someone means you intend to marry them, so a promise ring feels super redundant. Especially since she'll probably be getting a real engagement ring in like, 6 months max anyway?
And like the assumption with promise rings in the secular world is that you don't have to make a commitment like that to your dating partner until you're engaged, but you love them so much you're doing it anyway. Whereas with fundies like the Rods, that idea isn't even entertained in the first place? All romantic relationships are just assumed to end up in marriage. Anyway that's probably just me thinking more about the promise ring than even Tim did.
Also I'm not sure if other fundies have done 'promise' rings, but I know a few did 'purity' rings, which are more about staying 'pure' til you're married and are generally given by parents. I'm pretty sure the Bates family did this with most of their girls, I know Carlin and Katie at least had one.