Nakedness Offends Me

A lot of times I just say things before I realize I’ve said them…but this time I didn’t regret it later.

My husband treated us to dinner at a local restaurant last night. Imagine the place is divided into two rooms, with a half wall in the middle. One side is the bar, and the other is, well, not the bar.

The only thing I saw when we walked in (my husband was helping little ones behind so somehow I made it in before him) standing ON TOP of the middle wall, were two life size “cardboard people”. You know what I’m talking about…they always catch you off guard because they look real. One was facing our side, and one was facing the bar…both were visible from either side.

And it wasn’t just any life-sized person…they were identical…it was a blown-haired, brunette beauty with hardly any clothes on. Seriously. She had a teeny mini-dress, accentuating her long legs and 6-inch spiked heels, then the top of her dress..I’m sorry, there was no top. The sleeves…I mean, well anyway, lots of cleavage. There.

Just as bad as her dress was her provocative posture–let’s just say she wasn’t standing like a lady. She was the Budweiser girl, if you’re wondering why she was even there.

So, I walk in, and as soon as our waitress showed us the table (right next to the life-sized thing–she would literally be towering over our table), I pointed to it and said, “Um, could you take that down…that’s pornography and it’s offensive.”

She said, “Really, you think so?”

“Yes, I do.”

I was hoping she would save my husband and sons the view, but she had to go talk to the manager. He [unhappily] came over and, you won’t believe this, turned the effigy ever so slightly (like a 20 degree turn) as if she was going to suddenly become invisible.

We were all still standing because we had decided that we would leave if he didn’t take them down, so then he looks at us, after the “turn” to see if we approved….we nodded in the negative.

So then, he said, “it’s a part of the bar”. To which I replied, “Then put her in the bar.” (Words are just coming out at this point….I’m not really proud to admit that.)

He finally picks her (them) up and throws them over the wall, to which we gave a satisfied look. By the way, there was only one other family in the building, and then right after we had the offense removed, I couldn’t believe it, another family with seven children walked in. (You know they’re “one of you” so you just give a mutual nod and smile.)

My point, seriously, is that I think if every Christian who walked in that place would express their discontent with the pornography, it wouldn’t be worth his trouble to have to relocate her each time.

If we really understood what the sensual, visual stimulus does to boys and men, we (as a Christian community) would fight it so much harder.

We go to the ends of the earth to keep from offending others (even at the cost of their souls, perhaps) while we allow our own families to be offended because we’re afraid of offending the restaurant manager!

Am I a Reverent Woman?

Since I’m posting the interview by Lindsay this weekend, I thought it a wonderful time to interject an audio series by Voddie Baucham on “Biblical Womanhood”. He is FANTASTIC. I listen and just say, “WOW”.

The first message in the series was more of an intro and less to do with the meat of his message, so I started with the second one–he asks a biblical question not asked very often anymore of godly women…”Are we reverent women?” And to the guys–”Are you looking for a reverent woman to marry?”

It’s not very long–this is GOOD STUFF!

The Feminine Power of the Skirt (Revisited)

This was too good to leave in the comments of a past entry I posted about skirts…ladies, listen up:

“Here’s a man’s view on women and skirts.I’m a college lecturer, ok? so I’m “smart”. big deal!

Costume is powerful. Its more than just something to wear.A woman in a skirt or dress looks feminnine. There’s something almost mystical about that.Skirts make me stop and think. “She’s a lady, not just a female clone trying to act like a man, or imitating a man.

“oh” some women say. “pants are more practical”.Sure they are. But you lose something.

“But”, some women will say. “My job requires body positions that skirts interfere with.”Really? Pioneer women WALKED (not rode) alongside covered wagons going out west. And they wore skirts. They had identity as women (distinct from men)

Queen Elizabeth (the first) wore gowns….not pants. She was powerful.And if skirts make your job more difficult there’s a feminine alternative: Long pants sewn with wide legs….in silky fabrics and soft colors….and almost as feminine as a skirt.

Of course, if you’re a woman who only cares about the masculine value of “efficiency at all costs”, if you don’t cherish your feminine power,as a woman; not a clone of men…..then by all means, keep wearing those pant suits.”

Fred Bear

Comment from the original post: Behold the Power of the Skirt

Tolerance Taken Too Far?

She was with me at Wal-Mart last week, on an unseasonably warm day…the kind of day that seems to beckon that pent-up winter immodesty

We passed a young girl in the produce department that was immodestly dressed. Not immodest by my standards, necessarily, but tight, thin, clinging short-shorts, a tight, low-cut spaghetti-strapped tank top which did not cover her bra straps–hopefully immodest by most Christian standards.

I saw Avi closely observing her. I knew what she was thinking, and I was pretty sure Avi would not keep silent, but I kept shopping and pretended not to notice.

Sure enough, as soon as we passed in front of the girl, Avalee, very innocently and matter-of-factly said, “Look at that girl…she’s immodest.”

My first thought was to snap at Avi’s social blunder. To scold her for being “rude”, and to instruct her not to say such things.

Comments Wanted: Pants vs. Dress

Laura writes:

What I would like to see discussed is Biblical dress for women–in particular women wearing only skirts or dresses. Is it “wrong” for women to wear pants or is it a personal choice based on a desire to combat feminism? Can a Biblical argument be made against women wearing pants or are women who wear only dresses doing as a reaction against the culture?