Friday, May 15, 2009

Immorality Is Not A Conservative Value

"All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God." ~ Voltaire

Before I offer my rant, I want to pat myself on the back (If I don't, no one else will) for a comment I left over at TOTUS's blog, in the comment thread of this post.

The post dealt with a "poetry jam", as they say, so I submitted the following original poem:

A teleprompter called TOTUS
Was relied upon often by POTUS
When it got in the way
Obama did say,
"Can we move this when we take the PHOTUS?"


OK. Fun's fun, but let's get serious.

Regarding the current big Beauty Pageant scandal, I am not surprised at the level of rancor displayed by the Liberals toward Ms. Carrie Prejean, AKA Miss California USA.

I am, however, surprised that Conservatives, who normally champion Judeo-Christian morality are rushing to her defense.

Ms. Prejean drew no small amount of fire from homosexual activists and their Liberal enablers for her incredibly sweet response to a question posed to her in the Miss USA pageant by a snarky little homosexual worm who calls himself Perez Hilton.

I won't elaborate further. All of us, unless we've been sleeping through the last week or so, undoubtedly know the details. She gave her honest opinion on the subject of gay marriage, which apparently was not the response Ms. Hilton (Yes, I said it!) wanted to hear.

Predictably, homosexuals and Liberals across the country raced to discredit and embarrass her a la "Joe the Plumber". After all, It is an absolute Liberal sacrilege to suggest one believes Homosexual marriage is wrong, and Liberals are honor bound to do their very best to totally destroy her.

Apparently, Carrie isn't too bright. And I don't say that because of her less than erudite "opposite marriage" reference.

Once the Liberal attack machine is set into motion, it will not stop until some years after the attackee is completely and utterly discredited.

Did Ms. Prejean not know this?

Perhaps if she had stopped talking immediately after her honest, albeit unfortunate answer, she might have avoided the inevitable finger pointing and accusations of hypocrisy.

Oh, but not our lovely Miss California.

She just had to complain that her answer was the reason she lost the contest. Then, if offering that excuse wasn't bad enough, she went on to announce to the world that she is a Christian, and was raised with the accompanying "Christian moral values".

Now, when I hear someone say they have Christian moral values, I would like to believe they eschew immorality of all kinds.

Then comes the revelation that Ms. Prejean had posed for some photographs some time before she entered the Miss California pageant.

Not just any photos, mind you. These particular photos were semi-nude. However one chooses to describe these photos upon seeing them, certain words that don't leap immediately to mind are "moral", "Christian", "innocent", etc.

Now, maybe I am showing my curmudgeonly side, but in my humble opinion, Ms. Prejean has done an enormous disservice to Christianity and her Christian witness by her poor judgment in agreeing to pose without her top.

All her protestations about morality and Christianity are meaningless if she doesn't at least attempt to live her faith.

I don't buy the excuse that she was only doing her job as a model, either. Many young ladies who model professionally have not agreed to be photographed naked, and they still manage to be successful.

She could have, and should have refused, if she is truly trying to follow Christ.

As it is, she has become a caricature of hypocritical Christians in the mode of Jimmy Swaggart and Elmer Gantry.

As I said, it surprises me that Christian Conservatives such as Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have defended Ms Prejean. I part ways once again, with my Conservative colleagues on this point.

Oh, I understand that when anyone is attacked by Liberals, it is incumbent on Conservatives to defend them.

But, if we call ourselves Christian, we must be consistent in our views of Christian morality.

Either posing for pornographic photos (regardless of how soft core) is immoral, or it isn't.

Sexual immorality is condemned by God in the Bible. I sincerely doubt there is anyone who denies that fact.

When a self professed Christian willfully engages in sexual immortality, it is shameful, not just for her, but for the whole of Christianity.

Moreover, if one calls himself a Conservative, he must espouse Conservative values, which means, to me, accepting personal responsibility.

Ms Prejean should, now that the cat is out of the bag, admit she made a very bad choice in allowing herself to be photographed naked, and fade quietly with all due humility, back into relative obscurity before she damages Christianity's reputation permanently.

I pray it's not too late.

13 comments:

Joe said...

Mark, I agree that it would be a good thing for her to recognize and perhaps apologize for the photographs. However, I do not think she has the ability to damage Christianity's reputation permanently.

She is a shadow passing in the night. There are others doing far "worse" and who are damaging Christianity by redesigning it to meet their own needs and philosophies.

Jim said...

"I am not surprised at the level of rancor displayed by the Liberals toward Ms. Carrie Prejean"

Don't know what you are talking about. Haven't seen any "rancor" at all except for Hilton. He was an ass for asking the question and an ass for his follow up comments.

Her answer was clumsy but she is entitled to her opinion.

Now, the story is all for Prejean, about Prejean, by Prejean (oh and Hannity and BO). Nobody on the left cares a whit about Carrie Prejean. They don't care if she's Christian, they don't care if she doesn't support gay marriage. They simply don't care. They don't even care that Trump let her keep her crown even if she apparently lied about existing photos. (Trump would have been crucified by Hannity and BO if he had canned her.)

Nobody cares!

"Predictably, homosexuals and Liberals across the country raced to discredit and embarrass her." Name one besides Perez Hilton.

Nobody cares! Really.

eyes wide open said...

I do not know that she can damage the religion any more than Ted Haggard has done. This is simply a smaller logs on the fire of our social persecution- most of which we brought on ourselves.

Our big problems today begin at the pulpit. Why does she not know about the chaste standards ARTICULATED in the Scriptures? Why do her folks not tell her about them? Why does her pastor not tell them all? I am in full agreement that her courageous answer was made empty when we all find out about her earlier photos. Dang right, if she were going to make a stand she should have been ready for it. We have too many false spokesmen- Ted Haggard.

I too believe that this whole pageant thing is incrongruent with the standards plainly laid out in the Scriptures. I am convinced that this worldliness, the conservative defense of her(Hannity), and the average christian's unquestioned support of Ms. Carrie is evidence that even the elect can be deceived. I say yes it is possible. I believe in answer to Jesus' statement about the last days deception that God would loose over the nations and the statement He made about even the elect being deceived it that is possible, is a clear YES. Apparently even the elect can be deceived, or those who we believe to be elect are not actually elect. Either way this is a glaring example of the deception over the world and the church.

Thanks for the article and putting the rock in the river to stir it up a bit.

E

Mark said...

Ok, Liberal Jim, I'm just guessing, but you've been asleep since the Miss USA pageant, right?

Mark said...

E, RE: "I do not know that she can damage the religion any more than Ted Haggard has done."

Perhaps I worded that wrong. Of course she can't damage Christianity. God won't allow that.

But she certainly gave the anti-Christians plenty of fodder with which to attack Christianity in general, and we really don't need any more of that.

Gayle said...

Christianity will always be attacked, Mark, no matter what we do or don't do, but yes, I believe Ms. Prejean should publicly admit that she made a poor choice in posing for those pictures. Whatever she does won't make any difference though. Alinsky wrote that the best way to discredit your political enemies is to slander them, and that's what the liberals do best. What really gets me is that liberals and homosexuals attack her, but at the same time they believe "if it feels good, do it" and agree with most everything under the sun except conservatism, so attacking her for doing those photos is sheer hypocrisy on their part.

Jim said...

"I'm just guessing, but you've been asleep since the Miss USA pageant, right?"

Nope. I read Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Think Progress every day. I watch Hardball, Keith, and Rachel Maddow (and Bill O'Reilly) every day.

So no, I have not been asleep. Nobody cares. The "buzz" on these blogs and these shows regarding Prejean is minimal, if anything at all.

Nobody cares. Nobody cares if she's a Christian. Nobody cares. Get it. Nobody cares. To the left of Hannity and you guys, that is. Nobody cares.

Krystal said...

Until reading this post, I didn't know she'd posed nude. But then again, I haven't watched TV in about a week (except for the Grey's Anatomy season finale which was AWESOME!).

I didn't like her the moment she started whining about loosing because of the homosexuality thing. She's a poor sport nothing more, nothing less.

I understand what you're saying about her not espousing Christian values when she posed nude. I understand what you're saying about Christians needing to act like Christians. I just don't think this Prejean thing is going to make a bit of difference.

The problem with Christianity comes from inside the church itself. We don't mentor people anymore. We don't have accountability partners anymore. We aren't out there in the community in the numbers we should be helping the down trodden.

We are judgemental, self-absorbed and seperatists. We get into our groups and rarely go out to the corners of the Earth, or just our own city block, declaring the LOVING GRACE of Jesus Christ. Too many of us would rather sit in our comfort zones saying how glad we are that we AREN'T one of "them".

Prejean is simply another piece of sand on the beach. She'll be washed away in the tide and soon enough, another piece of irritating sand will appear. For all I know, *I* may be that next piece of irritating sand.

Always On Watch said...

She could have, and should have refused, if she is truly trying to follow Christ.I agree.

But obviously, Ms. Prejean went right ahead and posed for the pictures.

Why?

Well, because many Christians rank sins, some much worse than others. Biblical? No, but frequently done nevertheless. They view heterosexual sex as normal and homosexual sex as an abomination.

Ms Prejean should, now that the cat is out of the bag, admit she made a very bad choice in allowing herself to be photographed naked, and fade quietly with all due humility, back into relative obscurity before she damages Christianity's reputation permanently.I agree again.

Her hypocrisy is doing damage.

Mark said...

Liberal Jim, RE: "I read Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Think Progress every day. I watch Hardball, Keith, and Rachel Maddow (and Bill O'Reilly) every day."

Wow! I don't know whether I should feel flattered or insulted to be included in that list.

Bryan said...

Mark said, "Now, when I hear someone say they have Christian moral values, I would like to believe they eschew immorality of all kinds."

Amen. However, some treat Christianity as clay to be molded to their liking, instead of being the clay to be molded to God's liking (Christ-likeness.)

Miss Prejean does need to repent for the seductive and immodest image she has presented to the public, especially as one who confesses to be a follower of Christ.

No ministry or conservative organization should be giving her a speaking platform at this time. There needs to be heart-rending repentance and a good time of growth in Christ, in maturity, and in decency.

Jim O said...

I agree that she's not particularly bright. OK, she's a stereotypical dumb blonde. That is as obvious to her detractors on the left as it is to us. That's why she's such an easy target for them.

They only wish that real leaders of the conservative movement, like Ann Coulter, were as dull as she is.

I defend her because, like Joe the Plumber, they attack her because they believe that she's not so smart. The left doesn't have the guts to take on conservative intellectual leaders. In my view, people like her and Joe need support because they are too weak to defend themselves. When I was a kid, and bully picked on my little brother, the bully had to reckon with me. That's how it should be.

Lord knows that the left is always willing to defend its buffons: Cynthia McKinney, Michael Moore, Joe Biden, etc, etc, etc.

As for whether the photos cross the line: that depends on where you draw the line. There are many branches to Christianity. Not all of them would deem her photos unacceptable.

I blogged a representative photo. It was no more revealing than what one sees in an ad in a mainstream magazine. That's why I blogged it. To hear the MSM describe it (without showing it, because it was "too risque")you would have thought it was X-rated porn.

Someone with more brains and/or character would not have posed for them. I would have been mortified if one of my daughters had done so. But I would not sit by silently while the hypocritical left-wing media attacked her over it.

Anyway, I rarely disagree with what I read on this blog. I guess that's why this comment is uncharactaristically long.

Marshal Art said...

Frankly, I didn't think her photos were all that bad, and I do not approve of chicks strutting their stuff in public as it is. We could easily say that hot bikini all the contestants wore is equally immodest, and equally sinful. The problem, morally, with nudity is how it "arouses the prurient interests". The bikini does that as does many modern fashions. Modesty does NOT drive the fashion industry.

I would not want my daughters posing for such pics because they do cross the line for me even as tame as they are. But I would not want them walking around in most of the fashions and swimwear that most chicks want to buy.

I've seen several interviews with Prejean. I've never heard her complain that she lost the contest over the question. Such is always asked of her in every interview and she's always said that she was happy to have the opportunity to say what she believes even IF it did cost her. She has stated that she had it in mind that it might hurt her to say what she felt, but I've never heard her "complain" that it did.

Just my observation. Another observation is that she seems like a decent enough kid.