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Bikinis, Soft Porn, Masturbation & Face-book Part 2: A Rebuttal.

[The following is a rebuttal guest post from my good friend Chris. It's in response to my post from yesterday. Enjoy and please dive in and dialogue]

First of all let me say that I agree with Sammy. No, seriously, I do. 

I was once at a huge outdoor Christian conference. This conference was in a field. In Texas. In the middle of summer. It was wrath-of-God hot.

As you can imagine, some of the ladies were not exactly, well, RESPECTFUL with their clothing choices. However, one morning the weather turned gray and rather cool.

That morning Beth Moore was speaking, and I’ll never forget what she said...:

“I’m so thankful God gave us this cooler weather this morning to restore a little MODESTY to the ladies gathered here!”

If you’ve ever seen Beth Moore in person you know she was not joking when she said this. She can be pretty intense. Many a female looked sheepishly at the ground. Even I was convicted, and I’m a dude.

That Beth Moore brings the fire.

I share this to simply highlight the point so many have eloquently made on this blog that just because women claim Christianity doesn’t mean they don’t need instruction in modesty. 

There is a responsibility on every Christian woman when she is picking out her outfit to represent Christ rightly. Women should be in accordance with 1 Timothy 2:9-10:

9  likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, 10  but with what is proper for women who profess godliness--with good works.

However, I want to say this: this is a two-sided issue. Ladies need to dress modestly. But guys need to treat women with respect and not as sex objects, regardless of their clothing choices.

Apart from the redemption of Christ, women could be walking around completely covered in loose-fitting clothing from head to toe and still be the object of some guy’s lust.

How do I know this? Because it happens in many places all over the world today.

I have friends who are missionaries in a Muslim-led nation, where women have few rights and are forced to cover themselves, even their faces. They must be in this attire at all times and in all places where they could be seen by men.

The only time they are allowed to take even some of it off is in the presence of their husbands or groups made up of only other females.  All of this is done, according to Muslim law, to prevent the men in society from lusting after them.

But here’s the ironic part: My friends tell me that the men of this nation are FULL of lust. Way more than what they have seen in the U.S. 

They have these laws in place to make sure not even an ankle of a woman is showing so that there will be “righteousness,” but all it does is stir their passions and imaginations further. 

In fact, this place has way higher rates of rape and other types of abuse of women than the U.S.  I have heard tales of what goes on that would absolutely disgust you. 

But if you think about it, it makes sense, the Apostle Paul often shows in the Scriptures that it is not law that brings holiness, but grace. This is a real-life picture of “what the law could not do, God did” (see Romans 8).

The point: simply covering up women will not save you, male Christian. 

I realize you probably know that. But knowing it is not good enough. I want to call us to a higher standard.

Maybe, as guys, our goal should be the ability to look at a woman, no matter what kind of clothes she has on, and see the incredibly valuable creation that she is.

Maybe we should ask God to help us move beyond simply “averting our eyes” from the female form to seeing our sisters and honoring them the way God does.

I pray for the day that you could see one of these pictures that a girl puts on Facebook (or wherever it may be seen) and instead of making you lust, it makes you weep, because for that moment in that girl’s life, the devil won. Someone created for so much more is exploiting herself for attention, trying to satisfy desires and fill holes that can only be filled in the Savior.

These pictures aren’t just in bad taste, they are absolute tragedies. Like some kind of senseless defacing of a work of art, it should break your heart.

So tell me, now that we’ve discussed the woman’s role in modesty, and I’ve brought up the male side:

What do you see as the responsibility of males in this issue?

What are some of the “rules” we make up to “prevent lust” that seem silly? (Example: guys and girls should sit a “Bible’s width” apart, “no making purple,” etc)

Do you think it is possible to get to this “higher standard” where women are respected? How can we get there?

And finally, for the guys, please here publicly confess that you also fear Beth Moore like I do. You know you do. Her hair alone could destroy you.

That is all. Thanks so much for letting me join the conversation!

You can follow Chris on twitter or check out his blog.
[I believe todays message is equally as important as yesterdays so please SHARE on face-book. Lots of men NEED to hear what Chris has to say. BTW thanks for your 'sharing' generousity yesterday]