Miss California Aftermath (Part 2)

Hopefully this will be the last post I will be making concerning Miss California, Carrie Prejean. In my previous two posts I discussed certain theological issues that swirled around the controversy that all started when Carrie came out in opposition to gay marriage during the Miss USA pageant question session. Good on her for taking a stand but I was never endorsing her as a Christian role model. Her comments merely served to contrast with Rick Warren's pathetic cowardice on the issue and also to question mainstream evangelicalism's rush to embrace her as a role model and spokeswoman.

Miss Prejean has been doing the rounds of the Christian speaking circuit and even addressed students at Liberty University. Earth to Liberty University - HELLO! She parades on TV in a skimpy swimsuit, we know little about her theological views or practice, but she holds to orthodoxy on a theological no-brainer. C'mon guys, is modern evangelicalism that pathetic and wimpy that we can't find a prophet who stands for righteousness crying "thus saith the LORD"? What does it say about our shallowness and lack of discernment when we are so quick to embrace someone just for agreeing with us on one point. Sarah Palin may be another classic example of willingness to compromise certain views (ie biblical motherhood) in order to have "one of us" running for the White House.

I suspected that something embarrasing would emerge considering Miss California's meteoric rise to the "voice of evangelicalism" . . . . and it has. Racy modelling photos (I'll say no more than that) have come to the surface of Carrie Prejean that she should be ashamed of and her "Christian constituents" should be embarrased about. But hey, we all have a past and Carrie can just come forward with remorse and repentance over her foolishness. But no, Carrie actually tried to justify her conduct by saying "I am a Christian and I am a model. Models pose for pictures including lingerie and swimwear photos". Yes and Bill Clinton didn't inhale!

Ultimately, my criticism is not directly aimed at Miss California. I am disappointed with undiscerning Christian leaders who are so quick to jump on a bandwagon in their desire to gain some sort of public credibility or "relevance" - ditto for Bono! Here are some points to consider for personal benefit and future wisdom:

1. Church discipline - we need pastors who love us enough to shield us from the public limelight when we are not ready to articulate a biblical worldview or become a public rolemodel. Also to tell us where the boundaries are and the principles concerning being salt and light before a sinful culture.

2. Expository preaching - we need pastors who teach the whole counsel of God. In Carrie's time at her local church it would seem that the virtues of being a godly, modest Proverbs 31 woman were not impressed on her strongly enough that she might aspire to that lofty goal.

3. Parenting - do we parents, raising our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, want to expose our daughters to "beauty pageants" as a barometer of feminine beauty.

4. Choosing our feeding grounds - we need to be discerning as to where we get our spiritual food. Obviously, the Bible is the starting place! It is from there that we can have spiritual ears to hear what resonates with a biblical worldview and what doesn't. Let's choose our teachers and role models cautiously and carefully. We need to be better Bereans than the Bereans were.

5. Association - don't be so quick to join a camp without a decent working knowledge of their overall theology and practice. The Muslim world can only maintian unity as long as they have a common enemy - us. Were the enemy to be removed they'd be pointing their guns at each other. As Christians, we also need to be wary of a unity based upon what we oppose rather than what we believe.

Chew on that today!

Go Back To Part 1

Miss California Aftermath (Part 1)

In an earlier post I used the current Miss California, Carrie Prejean, as an illustration of someone with more courage than Rick Warren to voice their convictions about the definition of marriage. This was not meant to be a ringing endorsement of Miss California nor beauty pageants. It merely served to highlight the tragic state of affairs in modern evangelicalism when "America's Pastor" is too much of a sissy to man up and unapologetically declare his biblical convictions. Reverend Al Mohler rightly pointed out that:

every evangelical Christian should watch this carefully, for the controversy over Rick Warren will not stop with the pastor from Saddleback. This whirlwind is coming for you and for your church. At some point, the cost of being "cool" will be the abandonment of biblical Christianity. We had better decide well in advance that this is a cost far too high to pay. (Online Source)

To try and be everybody's friend is to start the drawn out process of painting yourself into a corner where worldviews collide. This is the corner Rick Warren now finds himself in. He would do well to heed the advice of the Bible - you know, that old book!

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (words of Jesus, John 15:18-19).

"America's Pastor" needs to realize that he can't have it both ways. It is inevitable that honoring God will involve alienation from the world. The fact that Miss California has become an evangelical hero just because she stated the obvious and biblical in public is a sad indictment on the modern wimpiness found in many pulpits.

I am largely ignorant of beauty pageants and what they entail. I did, however, take an educated guess that it would involve outfits that reveal more than they hide. Several people have written and pointed out to me the "issues" they have with beauty pageants, namely the lust factor caused by the swimsuit part of the competition. I wholeheartedly agree with them and do not see a beauty pageant as a God honoring pursuit for a Christian woman. I am in no position to comment on Carrie Prejean's Christianity and am more than happy to applaud the stand she took against that angry gay blogger. But were I to meet her I would plead with her to make Proverbs 31 her first pageant for Solomon rightly said that "Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman without discretion."

Go On To Part 2

The Beauty Queen With More Guts Than Rick Warren

Who has the most integrity? Rick Warren or the Beauty Queen. Who has more courage? "America's Pastor" or Miss California. Who fears man? The Purpose Driven Guru or the girl in the tiara. Who should be wearing the skirt? You be the judge!