Here’s yesterday’s “Just a Thought” from Tony Miano’s blog. Well said, Tony. Thank you.

One woman dances in a “gentlemen’s club,” in a seedy part of town. Another woman is a model and participates in “beauty” pageants on the world’s stages. Both disrobe for money. Yet many Christians would say the former needs Christ while, at the same time, they prop up the latter as a Christian role model. Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in that?

–Source

Tony wrote more fully on the subject here.  (Photo: Carrie Prejean, Miss California. Photo had to be cropped for modesty and even that didn’t work too well.)

Hi,
You are Christian? I see why you disabled comments. You are an arrogant self-serving hypocrite at the very minimum.

The first paragraph, “Following the news today of the nude photos and Miss Prejean’s defense of her lingerie and swimsuit modeling that produced equally pornographic photos online overnight, the official YouTube video posted by Liberty University of Miss California’s appearance in chapel has been removed.” Not one mention of the issue that has brought this up, none, nada, nothing. Do you even know why some evil SOB decided to publish these old and already published photos? I didn’t think so. And why are they just now an issue for you? Lets get back to the subject shall we?

First off , Nude? Really? Nude?

You are nothing but an aggrandizing S.O.B. and DO NOT speak for most Christians! You are a charlatan!

Next we have; “Equally pornographic”? Really? “Equally pornographic”? Really?

In the FIRST sentence you went from “nude” to “Equally pornographic” of which these photos are neither! “Equally pornographic” to what?

“the official YouTube video posted by Liberty University of Miss California’s appearance in chapel has been removed”. Official bolded for your reading pleasure. Youtube is of questionable morals and YOU decide this is credible? What can you say to that? Birds of a feather and all.

I have often wondered what kinds of jobs the children on the short bus got. Now I know.

You wonder where the flock is fleeing too? We are leaving Because we have heard enough from the likes of you. You and your “mainstream religion” have lost your way along with the “mainstream media”. You and your kind are doing more damage to the image of God than Satan himself.

Not one mention from you on the topic in the media, that being marriage between a man and woman incase you never figured out what the real issue is.

Please go suck someplace else. And stop pretending you speak for even one Christian.

Rick

Er, yes, Rick. We’ll let somebody like you with an inability to identify porn and an angry toilet mouth speak for Christ and His “flock” instead. The nude photos haven’t been released. Her recent lingerie modeling shots were. While I was on the panel on CNN last night, the host of the show told the audience that he couldn’t show Prejean’s recent modeling lingerie photos (that she defended yesterday) because they were, in his words, “inappropriate.” Thank you, CNN, for seeing what this sad individual cannot. In the Scripture, Balaam’s donkey had to speak the truth. Now days it’s CNN.

**Updated**

I’ve received email from a “Christian” male and family man who says that the recent topless model shots of Carrie “aren’t porn.” I encouraged him to print these “not porn’ shots off on his printer, tack them on his fridge and let his wife decide now “not porn” they are. I also wondered aloud to him what he must be looking at to judge those shots as not porn. It’s come to this, friends. We’re having to argue with so-called believers in Christ over whether topless bikini shots are porn or not. You wonder why I use the term “fake churches?” It’s really that bad now. The hidden lust and uncleanness in many evangelical males is coming out into the open. God has used this entire scenario to show what’s really going on in private by bringing it into the light.

Following the news today of the nude photos and Miss Prejean’s defense of her lingerie and swimsuit modeling that produced equally pornographic photos online overnight, the official YouTube video posted by Liberty University of Miss California’s appearance in chapel has been removed. A separately posted video remains.

In a short while, I will be part of a panel discussion of this issue on a major news channel. Watching several videos of news coverage of these things today, I can say that this whole incident has brought much shame on the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Christian leaders who have promoted her and vaulted her to the status of Christian heroine and leader are now in the position of being openly ridiculed—not because of Jesus, but because of the woman they chose as their new poster girl.

It is a tragedy for Carrie. If she truly knows Christ, she is poorly taught and in real need of discipleship and mentoring by older Christian women in the faith. Instead, she was given the spotlight and a role she was not ready for. Also, just as fast as she was embraced and used by many of these groups, she risks now being dropped due to the appearance of these shameful photos, both those from the past and those she defends in her “Christian” modeling. Welcome to the evangelical celebrity circuit where souls and hearts don’t matter as much as an effective PR blitz for the “cause.” People are expendable.

Friends, as believers, our cause is the honor and glory of our Savior, King Jesus. The haste with which the present Religious Right leadership jumped on the bandwagon is resulting in unnecessary additional ridicule and mockery of Christianity. We didn’t need this. The cause of Jesus Christ did not need this.

Please pray that I will have the chance to honor the name of Christ in this interview. There are only seconds to speak in these situations. Ironically, the “other side” is a conservative talk show host.

The following is a small sampling of emails I have received this morning.

Just a quick note to say thank you so much for your ministry. I am a young (35) bivocational pastor of a Nazarene church … Listening to the broadcast yesterday (5/4) I was so encouraged that there are still people out there that hold tightly to the truth of the Word of God. Though I am young, I still preach “old school” and am sometimes criticized for it. The church today often praises what the Bible calls sin. I/We are praying for REVIVAL. Not a few revival services with an emotional experience or a spiritual high, but real revival that totally changes and transforms, even the community. It is hard for me to even read some of these new “Christian” authors today. Most of the books that I read by Christian authors are 30 years old or better. What has happened to biblical preaching, and the living out of holiness? God help us!
I love you guys, thank you so much for your strong stand for righteousness.

D.

Thank you so much for your article on Prejean.
As a Liberty University alumni that will be paying back student loans for years to come I was horrified to see my Pastors with their arms around her. We were taught modesty, humility and gentleness.
I was bursting with joy when I found your website. My husband and I ALWAYS say the church is becoming like Laodicea.
Praise the Lord for your wisdom! You made my day, I am not alone and I will NOT be silent anymore.

I am sharing this with my facebook.

M.

Dear Ingrid,

Thank you sooooooooooo much for your program of Monday, 4 May 2009. I am a Christian man, but my wife and I have felt like “voices in the wilderness” decrying the lack of modesty and sold-out behavior of Christians and the church today. We have not only been appalled by this response to Miss California’s simple answer during the last part of the competition, but even more to the fact that she’s been held up as someone to be emulated by other young women.

I have written to Focus on the Family before taking them to task for those in the political arena who they have ardently supported because they occasionally threw a “pro-family bone” to them. I’m sorry, but I feel they are convinced that the ends justifies the means used to get there. Absolutely not.

I would not have watched the Miss USA Pageant nor did I. How could I? I knew it would be totally inappropriate for a Christian to watch and I feel for a Christian young woman to participate in. OK, fine, I saw the little snippet of an answer that Miss California gave to the question asked of her. But, why in the world are Focus on the Family and Liberty University embracing Miss Prejean and holding her up as though she’s a huge role model for our Christian young women today to look up to? Yes, I applaud her answer to the question asked of her, but so what?

I thank you so much for being courageous enough to speak out about this on your program yesterday.

D.

I just wanted to drop you a note of encouragement. I cannot imagine being called to wade in the filth that you have to. Because you are faithful to that call, others of us benefit without all that exposure…

G.

Your remarks about Carrie Prejean being a “type of the modern church, augmenting with flesh to attract the world etc….” have me shouting as I read them! Perhaps the best compliment I could give you is this: What you wrote, would do A.W. Tozer and Leonard Ravenhill proud. You’re in the minority on this narrow road, but you’re not alone. Be encouraged, and keep it up! I preach regularly on the side of a highway in front of a strip club. It’s common for patrons to tell me that God loves them and will forgive them. I tell them noone ever went to hell because God didn’t love them, but rather because they rejected the love and mercy of God. God’s love is one thing, but God’s forgiveness is CONDITIONAL. “Except ye repent” and “If we confess” those are conditions…

K.

Dear Ingrid…Thank you for holding firm on our Lord’s truth…Amen to today’s topic, I also agree, has the church lost their minds? No matter how bleak, you are not standing alone…I came out of the homosexual lifestyle, I know there is new life in Christ in my repentance and confession…I just pray that you and crosstalk do not lose your fire and passion for the truth…It seems like everyone is falling prey to either Emergent teaching, Purpose life and just plain lack of discernment…Forget the tea party’s, our brothers and sisters in Christ are sleeping in the pews…Thank you again & again, Ingrid…Praise the Lord for your ministry…Please do not let the camel stick his nose in your tent…Thank the Lord my Hope is in Christ because I could easily lose hope as I see ministry after ministry fall away from sound doctrine…

J.

I am a middle aged man that agrees with you 100%. Your program on the California “Beauty Queen” was right on target.
I don’t have a working television, so I didn’t see the swimsuit competition, and I don’t wish to. I did, however, see two ladies in the parking lot of a local chain store not long ago. They were dressed in a manner that would be pleasing to the Lord. I wanted to jump out of my car and run up to them and thank them for their modesty. Fearing I might alarm them, I didn’t.

But tell your listeners that there are men that appreciate Godly women, not flesh peddlers. And please continue to spreading the word of God without compromise.

Thank You.

K.

As a 26 year old Christian Man who has been struggling for purity and has finally seen victory in his life over sexual sin I want to praise God for you and your ministry especially today’s program. I listened your program on rejoice.org at 3:00 about the supposedly-Christian model and I just want to say I whole-heartedly agree with what you have said and immediately went to the Lord in Prayer for these men who have been defending this model. It is my prayer that one of these men will publicly repent of their sin and their lust. Lets hope the Lord uses this event to show many a Christian man his sins and help them turn to God to desire purity. It is hard to remember Romans 8:28 in these times, but maybe this is just what we need to convict the hearts of these men.

God Bless!

B.

Thank you for speaking to the issue. From a father of seven girls, your last caller asked where are the men to speak to this issue. We are speaking, but we need the older godly women to do as you are doing. Your influence will go much further on these kinds of issue’s. Be Bold! BE Strong!

Thank you so much,

J.

I’d like to thank you for shining the light. I did not think too much about the Miss California statements, but what I did think, I just agreed with what I heard “other” conservatives/Christians saying that she had courage. What you talked about on Crosstalk today was great, it really made me think about the topic from a true Christian perspective and you are exactly right, big deal, she made a statement about marriage, but everything else she stands for is anti-Christian! I like to think of myself as a Christian that might not always see things right, but when the light is shown to me I will almost always agree with the Christian side, and that is what you did today!

J.

I just found your website and I can’t tell you how much I agree with what you are saying. I was feeling somewhat uneasy with the way Christianity is portrayed in America, how sometimes it seems like Christians are making ground, as with Miss California, but then realize that it is actually very damaging. Thank you for what you do. I am a 22 year old and I’m about to get married (in two months) to a very wonderful godly man! It’s funny that people are quite surprised to find out that although we have our apartment at the beginning of July we will not be moving in until after we are married, as we have stayed abstinent. It just feels kind of lonely sometimes when you realize that many of the people you go to church with and school with are semi-casual Christians. I want so badly not to be, I want to be all that God calls me to be. Thankfully, my soon-to-be-husband does as well. We are the “most prude” as some people call it, about movies and television, and people call us judgemental (all I do is not watch it, I don’t bash them over the head, but I suppose people feel cornered and attack).

I apologize for the rambling letter, I just feel like my life is at a turning point. I can choose God’s way or the world’s way. The world wants you to think you can have both, and I sort of fell for it for a while. But I’m realizing that that is not the truth, and I was wondering if you had any advice (I know I will start studying my Bible more every day and praying). It seems as if I have gotten into theology more than God in the past year, if that makes any sense. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks again, your site has helped open my eyes more and realize we really can’t be friends with the world. It also scared me that there are so many false teachers and even people who claim to be pastors are going down a scary road.

K.

Focus on the Family is the latest to jump on the bandwagon in the Miss California issue and is featuring Miss Prejean as the “Modern Queen Esther on two upcoming shows in May.” Tune in live at 2pm Central time for the Crosstalk program today at our website where we will be discussing how God is revealing the true biblical bankruptcy of the “family values” cause. *Update: After complaints, Focus has changed the title of their show.*

*Update Article* The topless underwear photos released last night of Carrie Prejean were followed by the release of other nude photographs. This morning’s headline at MSNBC: Miss California: I’ll Fight On Despite Nude Photos.  Pro-family groups are now on the horns of a dilemma. How do you backpeddle on this when you have Prejean’s face on your Values Voter event as a speaker? It is certainly awkward. Miss Prejean defends it because she is a model. Yes, but a model for our daughters to follow? Us Magazine additionally is featuring a photograph of Carrie at a New York nightclub, partying with a transsexual.

Embedded here is the response of thousands of Liberty University chapel students to her triumphal appearance there last week. Note the wolf whistles and cheers when she references her swimsuit competition. This, at the place where the “Moral Majority” was founded by Dr. Jerry Falwell. Even the faculty member on stage references the fact that mostly males in the audience watched the live Miss USA feed. What an unspeakable shame this is on the name of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. Lust is now considered funny and cute by conservative Christians. Are you getting a picture of how bad things are in the evangelical church? The hidden lust and sin are now shamelessly, unblushingly open, and God sees it.

Surph’s Side makes an excellent point about the Prejean controversy. Steve Camp, Paul Proctor and others have defended the breast-augmented, naked beauty queen as a Christian example for women. What they’re really showing forth is the sisssification of manhood that’s endemic in the church. Proctor even went so far as to call those women who have objected “busybodies, gossips and feminists.”

They are the militant busybodies, backbiters, gossipers and control freaks among us that may not be as skilled at dressing up as some ladies around the church house, but they are very skilled at dressing down those who are, especially when their self-esteem needs a little boost – all with a feigned purity and “Christian zeal” that serves to cover whatever deep-seated envy, jealousy and resentment they may have toward others, that, for whatever reason, get more attention, recognition and praise than they do – especially from masculine men.

Just re-watch the YouTube swimsuit competition with the dancing naked women, Mr. Proctor, that features the woman you defend. There you will have the real feminists. Real, masculine men, like my husband, Tom, for example, defend women’s honor and dignity and modesty.  You, a supposedly Christian male, defend its undoing and mock the godly women who try to speak out on this. God help you.

One of the women contacting me this weekend to thank me was Dolores Kimball, Managing Editor of Got Questions Ministries. She wrote:

The recent rush to elevate Miss California to sainthood because of her comments about homosexual marriage at the Miss USA pageant is proof positive of the lack of discernment in the Church. Our inability to separate Christianity from political conservatism is the result of a woeful lack of biblical preaching and teaching from our pulpits and a dearth of pastors who know the difference between “causes” and Truth.

 Gay marriage is a political cause. Modesty is a biblical virtue. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us that Christian women are to “adorn themselves in modest apparel” (1 Tim. 2:9). Miss California’s willingness to parade around in a bikini in front of the entire world says much more about her faith than does her stand on gay marriage. Even the heathens recognize the hypocrisy, as witnessed by a rant from a liberal blog addressing “Miss Holier Than Thou” (his words, not mine). He asks, “What does the Bible say about boob jobs and wearing bikinis in public? Anything similar to what the Koran says?” What indeed? And what does it say about us that we have to be rebuked by a non-believer?

 The response of the Christian community, on the other hand, is to lavish her with kudos and give her an appearance at the Dove Awards for gospel music. She has also received the “admiration and support” of the president of the Family Research Council. I have no doubt Miss Prejeanis a lovely young woman who believes she is representing Christ. No doubt she is reflecting what she has been taught, which is exactly my point. Until we take seriously Paul’s admonition to “preach the word… reprove, rebuke, and exhort” (2 Tim. 4:2), develop true biblical discernment, and take as literal Jesus’ statement, “My kingdom is not of this world,” Miss Prejean and her contemporaries will continue to represent Christians in the public square.

Grateful thanks is in order to those Christian men who have spoken out on this, and for Pastor Larry DeBruyn who led the way. May your number increase so that Christian women no longer have to endure the lash of the tongue of men like Mr. Proctor–someone who has abandoned biblical teachings in this area, even as he thunders against the evils in the “church” today. The church is sick because male leadership has been sick for a long time. (Thus, the number of women who are left to fend for themselves on issues of basic morality and sound doctrine.) The area of moral purity is one of the key areas where God’s Word is being ignored. The defense of lewdness and sensuality by Christian men on this issue has revealed the sordid underbelly of the church, and despite all the railing online against sin in the camp, explains much about why judgment is at the door of God’s house.

This is a post that is specifically aimed at Christian bloggers, leaders, pastors and general defenders of Carrie Prejean, Miss California, the beauty queen who participated a few days ago in the Miss USA pageant. Given standing ovations in churches, at Liberty University (they have given her a full scholarship) and among the marriage campaigners, and praised by conservative Christians, Miss Prejean promises to be the celebrity of the Christian cause in the days and weeks to come.

I am posting a video that is not intended for those who fully understand the problem with Miss Prejean being exalted to the status of courageous Christian leader and example to women—wives, sisters, and daughters. I would issue a strong warning to anyone who already understands what God says about nudity NOT to view this video clip. I am posting this video for men like Steve Camp who wrote the following about Carrie Prejean on his blog:

“BTW, Carrie is a Christian and according to her bio, her life’s verse is Phil. 4:13. I for one am grateful to the Lord for her unashamed conviction on this issue – especially in that arena. Pray for her beloved, for many opportunities will be coming her way to speak on this issue and share her faith in Christ as a result of her gracious boldness this past Sunday evening.”

For those who defend Steve and the growing number of other Christians like Mat Staver, Judge Roy Moore and the pro-family activists who are holding this woman up as a follower of Jesus Christ, this video is just for you. It was filmed the night that Carrie became the darling of the family values crowd. Something does not compute.

To everyone else, leave the link alone. I refuse to answer emails from those complaining that this material isn’t suitable for Christians. Of course it isn’t, but you won’t be told that by Steve Camp and the rest of the Prejean followers. They are raising her up as an example. Twelve seconds of the video should refute that notion completely. It was reported to the world this week that Carrie Prejean’s breast augmentation surgery six weeks prior to the pageant was, in fact, paid for by the pageant. If this is an example of Christian womanhood, who needs it?

Carrie Prejean is a type of the evangelical church in our culture. Simply Jesus is not enough. We augment the message of the Gospel with flesh to attract admiration from the unregenerate. The fakery that produced the body of this woman is the embodiment of the fakery of the false church in America that is in bed with the world. The church yearns for a crown from the world—a crown made of fake gold with rhinestones. The crown of righteousness from Jesus Christ is discarded in favor of the swill of this world’s corrupt system. It is right and fitting that this beauty pageant contestant is being upheld, because in all honesty, a nearly naked woman, strutting her surgically enhanced body parts in front of men while mouthing moral platitudes is the very picture of the carnal church today. Weep.

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

-Proverbs 31:30

As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.

-Proverbs 11:22

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

-I John 2: 16-17

The moral confusion among supposedly conservative Christians has been drawn out by, of all things, a beauty pageant. Conservative, “pro-family” activists, bloggers and pastors continue to swoon days later after Miss California responded in a politically incorrect fashion to a question posed her during the competition. Christian bloggers and commentators, most of them male, continue to exalt Miss Prejean to the status of a Christian Woman for All Seasons. Rarely has there been this kind of uniform praise for any Christian woman taking a stand on the issue of homosexuality or anything else. Ordinarily, Christian women who take a stand for what is right are told to go home and shut up. Is there a connection between a great body and female credibility among Christian males today? But then that’s another post. 

Rev. Mark Creech was so inspired by the nearly naked beauty contestant that he said her stance was a source of “rapturous joy.” Let’s think about those words for a moment. Here we have a supposed champion of rectitude, of moral values, a man who supposedly values home, hearth, wife and children, decency, biblical virtue and clean moral living granting what appears to be a Protestant version of sainthood to a woman who was the picture of public nudity. Why? Because she gave her opinion, sans Scripture, that she thinks marriage is between a man and a women. This has been said before here, and I will repeat it: Christian men, are you so blinded by the culture that you can watch a woman without clothes for any purpose, let alone in defense of decency and marriage? 

Do you have a daughter, Rev. Creech? Does it trouble you that you are holding up Prejean as an example to her of godliness and moral courage? Would you like millions of men oggling the private parts of your daughter (or wife, for that matter) as millions of men undoubtedly were that night? Would you like your daughter/wife to be judged by the size of her chest and the state of her behind? That’s what was going on, Christian male defenders of this woman.

Since Slice ran Pastor Larry DeBruyn’s piece on this, I have heard from a number of Christian women who are sickened by this entire scenario and dismayed to see even conservative male bloggers defending Miss Prejean as some kind of hero. “Thank you for defending Christian women who still believe in biblical modesty, in covering our nakedness and for standing against the growing acceptance of nudity among Christian men.” It is degrading and debasing to all women when these so-called beauty pageants are held and a woman’s value is judged by her outward appearance. That so-called Christian men can defend this and uphold this woman as exemplary beggars belief. God help men who can say this is godly. They are blinded.

Miss Prejean, however sincere, is not a hero. She is a cautionary tale about what happens when a culture so infiltrates the church that public nudity is now viewed as not only perfectly acceptable, but even admirable. Now Christian men can admire not only her stance for marriage but her measurements. Truly, a Christian female men can support.

On the Crosstalk Show today, host Vic Eliason discussed the Miss USA controversy. The phone calls and emails received have been overwhelmingly supportive and grateful to hear someone actually speak the obvious: Public defenders of biblical morality should actually wear clothes while doing it.

It beggars belief that something so obvious must now be explained to Christians, when at one time, the world itself would have objected to Miss California’s near nudity at the pageant. The tolerance of nudity and immodesty in the world is of little surprise. That God’s people see nothing wrong with a woman professing Christ while standing nearly naked before the likes of Perez Hilton for his judgment on her “beauty” demonstrates how far down we have sunk.

God’s definition of beauty has always run absoluteley counter to that of the world.  A blood-washed believer, wearing the righteousness of Christ, should care nothing for the beauty “crowns” given by the world. The only crown that we should seek after is the one that St. Paul mentioned in the Bible.

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

–2 Timothy 4:8

A reader sent me the transcript of Prejean’s comment – what one group called a “bold witness.” The reader interspersed the statement with some good observations, in bold type.  This is what is being called “bold” today. 

**************************************

“Well, I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. (Really? That’s great? It’s actually disgusting and against God’s definition of marriage. She needs to repent from such comments. She should pray for wisdom as well) Um, we live in a land that you can choose same sex marriage or opposite marriage.(Being able to “choose” shows how far our country has slid from God’s enduring commands. She should have started the sentence with “Sadly, …” In not doing so, she is sending a mixed message) And, you know what? In my country, and in my family, I think (It doesn’t matter what she thinks, or what I think. What matters is what the Word of God says about the matter) that I believe (see previous comment) that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense(Jesus was the Rock of offense, and Christian positions on topics such as gay marriage will be offensive as well. It’s an occupational hazard) to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think (again, doesn’t matter what she thinks) that it should be – between a man and a woman (Biblically, the only way it can be). Thank you.”

 I received this letter today from Pastor Larry DeBruyn of Franklin Road Baptist Church in Indianapolis. He has given me permission to publish it. Christians today are so obsessed with the moral squalor of the heathen in Sodom that they are missing the squalor within the Church. It appears that nakedness, in the cause of conservatism, is A-OK. (Concerned Women for America today joined many other conservative groups in holding up Carrie Prejean as the newest conservative hero.)

Ingrid,
I feel compelled to share my thoughts regarding the hullabaloo presently going on about Miss California and the Miss USA beauty pageant. Desperate to have their concerns about traditional marriage espoused in a public forum, evangelical Christianity, rapidly becoming marginalized in our society’s mainstream, is groping for almost anyone to give a voice for the traditional institution of marriage, one I fully endorse (marriage should be a covenant commitment between a man and a women for life).

      The irony of this whole business is that here was a scantily clad woman—this of course can provoke lust in men (Matthew 5:27-29)—who was asked about marriage by a judge who supposedly isn’t even attracted to women. She gives the politically incorrect answer and in doing so, alienated the politically correct judges, and forfeited possible victory in the beauty pageant. By giving a correct answer to a loaded question about marriage, and by doing so without hardly any clothes on, Miss Prejean has now become the cause célèbre amongst conservatives and evangelicals for her affirmation of biblically correct marriage.

      Admittedly, I at first joined the admiration society of the Miss USA contestant for boldly standing up for her beliefs in a hostile and prejudiced environment, until I realized my disconnect, until I began to think biblically about the whole matter, and recall the scriptural passages condemning nakedness. Instinctively, Adam and Eve covered themselves after sinning (Genesis 3:7). Correspondingly, they became conscious of their sin and their nakedness (By the way God covered Adam and Eve too, Genesis 3:21.). I think of Noah’s two sons who saw his nakedness (Genesis 9:18 ff.). I think of the High Priest who was commanded not to ascend the altar lest “his nakedness” be exposed (Exodus 20:26). In other words, in reverence to God the High Priest’s leg was not even to be exposed. I think of the Leviticus passages that command, “thou shalt not expose the nakedness thereof . . .” (Leviticus 18).” And women are to dress modestly that their prayers be not hindered (1 Timothy 2:8-9).

      The parade of naked or semi-clothed bodies in our culture indicates our society’s desensitization to, if not outright denial, of sin (Remember, when Adam and Eve first discovered they were sinners, they instinctively covered themselves.). Years ago in the middle of the previous century, I had a friend who was a missionary amongst the Stone Age people of the territory then known as New Guinea. On one of his furloughs in the states, he remarked to me one day that all the while—for reason of the Gospel’s penetration into their hearts—the natives were putting clothes on, we in so-called “Christian America” seemed to be taking them off!

      I recognize that I am not the last word on the subject. I grew up on the sandy summer beaches of Lake Michigan, and was on the high school swim team. During my teen age and young adult years in the 60s, I witnessed the girls’ swimsuits become skimpier and skimpier. I recognize God uses sinners. But I am aware that we sinners can also attempt to use God. I have no pretension of being a self-righteous prude. I have had, as with most all other men, a problem with lust, something Jesus pointedly warned about. So what really disturbs me as a pastor is observing how easily we Christians accommodate our values to the culture’s, to the system called the world, and seemingly without any tinge of conscience. As Christians, we are to use but not abuse the world, and God will be the judge of whether we were users or abusers, won’t He?

      I can only go by the Word, the Holy Scriptures. It seems to me that one aspect of worldliness involves “the lusts of the flesh” (1 John 2:16). Furthermore, the Bible says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lusts” (Romans 13:14). After their conversion, Paul reminds the Ephesians that, “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Ephesians 2:3). And the Apostle Peter pleaded, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11).

      The prevalence of nudity and semi-nudity in our culture may help explain—there is no excuse for terrorism—why fundamentalist Muslims, whose women dress in burkhas (i.e., loose garments with veiled holes for the eyes), detest the west (See http://www.frbaptist.org/bin/view/Ptp/PtpTopic2002-01-14).

      This whole beauty pageant controversy provides a sad commentary on both the state of the culture and to some extent, the values prevalent amongst Christians today. We have been, and are being, desensitized to nudity. Miss California may be the newest heroine amongst a desperate conservative sub-culture that sees our society sinking into a moral abyss, but this whole business ought to remind Christians of how the prevalence of human nakedness indicates our having been removed from God’s righteousness. 

Respectfully,

Pastor Larry DeBruyn