Brief column about modesty, culture, and politics.
Full column here, bits below.
As a conservative, I dislike the idea of government taking upon itself the right to measure pant length or hip exposure. Yet such intrusions are inevitable if people lack the common sense – and common decency – to dress with at least some semblance of normality and decorum. People only stand for so much before they call for legal fences to protect them against bad neighbors.
That should serve as a broader warning for a society enmeshed in narcissism, immorality, and the general abandonment of truth. Moral erosion leads to anarchy. Anarchy threatens lives, which results in a popular call for the restoration of order. And, thus, fascism emerges in the guise of strident leadership proclaiming “bread and peace” (Bolshevism) or “one people, one empire, one leader” (Nazism) or “socialism builds and capitalism destroys” (Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez).
In his book Twelve Types, G.K. Chesterton wrote that “politeness … is everywhere understood and nowhere defined.” Such definition really is unnecessary, since the rites of courtesy are only the formalization of intuitive conscience, of the moral stirrings that cause us to help an elderly woman up a staircase or open a door for a mother with a stroller. Or keep one’s pants pulled up over his briefs.
How oft, in nations gone corrupt,
And by their own devices brought down to servitude,
That man chooses bondage before liberty.
Bondage with ease before strenuous liberty.
– John Milton
Other also read:
I read in yesterday’s “Los Angeles Times” about a “Slut Walk” that was to be held. This, like a previous “walk” done out of “solidarity” for rape and assault victims where participants wore jeans, had participants wear clearly immodest clothes as a way of saying “no” to rape and sexual assaults. Make no mistake, words can’t describe how awful rape and sexaul assaults are. However, what these gals are doing(with regards to dress) violates God’s Law. That reminds me, at the height of the priest sex-abuse scandal, a Northern California woman said she was, as a result of being abused by a priest, going to violate God’s Law twice over; she left Holy Mother Church and abstained from skirts and dresses. Let’s pray she returns to Holy Mother Church and gives up violating Dt. 22:5 before it’s too late!
This past Thursday/Friday night, I saw something for which the word “immodest” puts it mildly. I saw a woman wearing sweat pants, and it wouldn’t have taken a pervert to notice her “crack” was showing(I feel uncomfortable talking about this). If this isn’t an example of why females should only wear skirts and dresses, I don’t know what is!
Colleen, this morning, I saw on the front cover of “Cosmopolitan” a cover with a picture of English singer Jessie J and a title mincing no words; “I’ve dated guys and girls- SO WHAT?”(her words, not mine). This is what; same-sex behavior is WRONG!
I, who will be 37 on Sunday, just read about the 17-year-old who got suspended, at a Catholic school no less, for attempting to get his female schoolmates to dress modestly. If he was my son, I(old enough to be his father) would treat him like a model son, and tell school officials to void his suspension. What he’s enduring is, literally, pushnishment for good behavior. What’s next, a student getting punished for stopping students from smoking on campus? If we are going to punish kids for doing the right thing, it’s the same as rewarding kids for bad behavior! Both need to stop!
I read in Vidal Sassoon’s obituary in today’s “Los Angeles Times”, and found out something I had given shockingly little thought to; who introduced the miniskirt. Her name is Mary Quant, and admirers “credit” her(she should be blamed) for inventing it.
Catholic Minstry encouraging parents and teens to watch Girl In Progress http://catholicyouthministry.com/teens-in-progress-a-special-life-night/
Two reviews
………… The Dove Foundation Content Description:
Sex: A daughter tells class that her mother is dating a married man which is true and lasts throughout much of the movie with implied sex but with the mother breaking it off and regretting it by film’s end; a teen girl decides she needs to rebel and decides she should lose her virginity; teen girl writes about boy who will “de-flower” her and she picks up a young man and gives him a condom but she doesn’t follow through and changes by movie’s end; a scene which shows a young man’s condom break; another girl mentions sex in the basement; an innuendo about having sex.
Language: G/OMG-6; For G*d’s sake-1; H-2; “Sc*ew you” comment; PO-1; Crap-2; D-2; A-1; Sucks-2; Idiot-1; Sl*t-1; Sl*tware; the term “retard” is used a few times as is “fat”.
Violence: A place is robbed without anyone being harmed; a girl says a boy at school looks like the type who would keep guns in his locker.
Drugs: Girl lies to get tequila and says it’s a birthday present for her mother and she gives it to other underage teens who drink at a party; several drinking scenes; a girl takes diet pills; girl says she used “gate-way” drugs before stopping and changing; a few smoking scenes.
Nudity: Cleavage; woman wears short dress; woman in lingerie; teen girl seen in bra; shirtless men; photos on young man’s wall of girls in bikinis.
Other: Man robs a business but later returns the money; girl bribes man to give her bus money as he is married and was having an affair with her mother; a young man gives another character the middle finger; an image of a demon is called a “jerk”; girl tells mother she is going to quit doing dishes; a girl says she “hacked” into a computer; disrespect by girl who tells her school class her mother doesn’t inspire her but she changes at the end; a few characters lie. (click on link to see the rest)
http://dove.org/reviewpopup.asp?Unique_ID=9236
Movie Guide ~ http://www.movieguide.org/reviews/movie/girl-in-progress.html?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Movieguide®%20Newsletter&utm_content=
I dont allow my daughters to wear bikinis why would I want them to watch a movie that has a teen in a bra. Why would I want to watch a movie where a woman is having an affair with a married man even if she finally regrets doing it and with my teen daughters? What do you think?
There’s no way we’d watch it.
On a side note…
We have ClearPlay, so NONE of the movies we watch have any sex, violence, or language that we don’t approve. Have you heard of ClearPlay? http://clearplay.com/