Unreasonable, Unmet Expectations

               A couple of old friends of mine posted an article about Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke’s MTV performance, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.  The article was speaking against people who were offended at Miley’s crotch grabbing, but fine with Robin’s contribution to the world’s rape culture.  What kept going through my mind was this question, “Who was the article written to?”

                I mean, seriously.  What kind of sick, demented freak would be fine with Robin’s Blurred Lines, and have issues with Miley?  All of the people I know take just as much issue with the hump-er, as the hump-ee.

                I do my personal best to understand people, and looking at what I see in the media, it does seem that Miley has taken more heat than Alan Thicke for rubbing their unmentionables.  Part of it is simply the injustice itself, the injustice that women tend to be easier targets.  Our world gives more leeway for men to indulge themselves.  But is that the target of the article?  Who are the people that are offended at Miley, but fine with Robin?  I wanted to know. 

Let’s Call Them, Them

                I can’t call them we, because I’m not among them, and neither do I know anyone who would be fine with what Robin Thicke represents.  I have a sneaking suspicion however, that They might be a certain kind of Christian.  It’s just a guess, but suppose that They are.

                Christians really don’t belong to this world, but there is something in most of Them that kind of wants to participate in the general goings on of this planet.  They don’t really want to boycott absolutely everything.  They would like very much to have cable/satellite or internet TV, collect DVD’s and download music on iTunes.  Really.  There is so much filth in this world, they are almost searching for something acceptable.

                So when a young Hanna Montana comes on the scene, in a strange way, many of them are more than happy to embrace her.  Perhaps that was their great folly.  Although quite superficial, glittery and seeking fame, she seemed clean enough, which made her tolerable.  She was even said to be a Christian (whatever that means), so it must be acceptable for your kids to listen to.  Right?

                That doesn’t answer it.  Does it?  Why?  Why would someone be upset at Miley, but tolerate Robin?  Why, why, why?   Allow me to answer with a phrase:

Unreasonable, Unmet Expectations

                They had hoped for more from Myley Cyrus.  Apparently she was a Christian.  It’s not like there are a lot of Christian laws on this sort of thing, but dry humping really isn’t something that is done in most churches on a Sunday morning.  Not the ones I have been to anyway.

                They had wanted Miley Cyrus to be someone they could embrace.  Never have they held similar hopes for Robin Thicke.  It was pretty much assumed from the beginning that he was a dog.  The public isn’t really outraged when a drug dealing thug shoots a police officer, or when a Muslim kills a cartoonist.  It’s kind of what you expect.  The public outrage comes when police kill a citizen, a Christian burns a Koran, or a priest molests a child, because those things are out of place.

I’m not an American, but I kind of wonder if what They see in Miley, in a way highlights the greater disappointment They have with Their own nation.  America isn’t Heaven, but isn’t there a desire in many Americans, which hoped their country would be better than the rest of the world?  They had wanted a place that’s clean, but it has ended up just as filthy, if not more so, than any other place on earth.  (I would say that it is filthier)  So what They see in Miley, brings to mind not only the immorality of celebrity culture, but the very failure of Their nation, and perhaps even that of Their own families.

                It was unreasonable for anyone to have hoped for Miley to be anything but what she is.  She is the very embodiment of what MTV hopes to produce.  Robin embodies it for the male gender, but he is what we all expected him to be.  Their expectations for Miley however were different.

              

As For Me...

                I’ve talked a lot about Them.  How about me?  Do you wonder where I stand?

                Mostly I just have a lot of questions.  I wonder why feminists are not more disdainful about how one of their own would play her part in blurring the lines between consent and rape.  I wonder how wretched we have to become, before we realize that something is dreadfully wrong.  It used to be offensive when Elvis shook his hips.  I wonder what the next step down will be.  I wonder when men will become men.  I wonder how much lower we can sink before we fall apart.  More importantly,

                How much more can we degrade ourselves?  (Yes.  BOTH men AND women)



PS - And if you are the one who wrote the original article....How about it?  Are They your Them?  Who were you writing to?

Test-Driving a Marriage

Every once in a while, whether in person, on TV, radio or the Internet, I'll hear someone say, "Waiting until marriage to have sex, is like buying a car without test driving the thing."

(Before I talk any more, lets get one thing out of the way. I am not the morality police. Make your own choices.)

Normally, I hear it from guys, but I'm sure many women think the same. What do you think about that statement? Is that really the clinching issue in finding a spouse?

This is going to sound rude. And the reason it is going to sound rude, is because it IS rude. This should be appalling.

If the deciding factor in finding a wife (or husband), is how well she performs in bed, that's pretty lame.

Today we celebrated my wife's birthday, and I've been thinking a great deal about what makes her such an amazing woman, mother, and wife. Although we do sleep together, and it is a lot if fun, that has very little to do with how wonderful she is.

The things our world values in women are very different from what I treasure about her. If you hear a song about a woman, it likely has to do with how she 'does it', shakes her hips, looks, feels when you hold her tight, smells or turns you on.

And when I ask men what they like about their wives, the men who are happy in their marriages have yet to mention any sexual technique.

If you are worried about buying the car without a sexual test drive, don't worry about it. Dogs can figure it out. I'm sure you'll get by.

Shellfish Bad, Incest Good

  Conversations never really get old and die.  They just find new people to participate in them.  Likewise, I find myself compelled to join in the same discussions over and over, with new faces.  The specific conversation that I have in mind has to do with why Christians seem to cling to some parts of the law, but not others.  Have you ever read through the law?  There is some odd stuff in there.  At one time, God forbade polyester cotton.  I’m serious.   Sometimes, people notice these apparent inconsistencies in our thinking.  This week I found myself back in that same old conversation. 

  There was a guy who noticed that some of us seem to be fine with eating shellfish, but hold to some other laws as found in the Old Testament.  I’m not one to argue with people, but I did pose the question, “Do you know why that is?”

  To be honest, I didn’t anticipate ever having to answer back to a response.  I don’t answer people who already have it figured out.  I’m busy enough trying to walk with people who really want to know about God, than to take on anyone who is just trying to make a point.  So I was surprised when a friend of mine asked me on Facebook.  Why do many Christians hold to some OT laws and not others?  Being convinced that it was an honest question, here are my thoughts.

  There are many approaches one might take in answering the question.  As for the shellfish, you might want to read Acts 10.  One of my other friends brought to mind Matthew 15:11, where we’re told that it isn’t what goes in our mouth that defiles us.

  If the topic interests you, I encourage you to read the story line beginning in Acts 15.  In Antioch of Syria, Gentile converts were told that in order to become believers, they would have to be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.  Acts 15:5

  It was very troubling, and why wouldn’t it be?  Have you ever read the law?  A few years ago, there was an article published in Macleans magazine where a man tried to do everything found in the law.  The conclusion he came to was exactly the same conclusion that Peter had come to.  It wasn’t possible.  Peter challenged the apostles on the issue saying as much in verse 10, “...Why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?”

   The law was an unbearable burden.  If you don’t believe me, try it on sometime.  So what do you do with the law then?  I mean, some of the laws were good right?  How about murder?  Is that fine?  Incest?  Some people are fine with incest.   How would you have answered the issue?  Would you have answered as Peter did?

“...We should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating meat of strangled animals and from consuming blood.”  Acts 15:20

   I won’t get into the blood, road kill or idolatry for the moment because I want to remain on the question at hand.  God is still very serious about sexual immorality, so when many Christians read through the law, it seems like a safe bet to assume that He is still serious about the stands He took, when speaking through Moses in the book of Leviticus.  For some of those sins, God used to punish people by having them publicly executed. 

  I say that in order to express the following;  If God wanted people to be killed for doing something, it’s pretty safe to say that He was rather serious about it.

    I hope this helps you my friend.  Keep asking honest questions.

Yin and Yang

There is more to God’s standard for human sexuality, but this should be a decent start. Suppose you haven’t come to Christ yet, how do you respond to the law? Have you done any of these?

(See last post.)

As for me, I have. Please don’t ask me to tell you which one(s) I’ve violated. I hope that it is sufficient for me to be honest enough in saying that I have violated one (or more) of these laws found in Leviticus 18. Would you like a number? If I said, “Three”, would you look through the list again wondering which three I have broken? The law was intended to reveal our sin and to point us to Christ, but that isn’t how everyone responds.

The easy route is to tell ourselves that this God is little more than a spooky fairy tale. However, I’m convinced that for anyone who is honest with their conscience, that this doesn’t really seem to settle one’s heart. Many or most atheists seem to spend much of their lives fighting against a God they claim doesn’t exist. That's Wierd.


http://kevinabell.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-lies-beneath-part-iii.html


The good old fashioned ‘balance’ theory is a good one too. It’s okay for me to do things that are vile, as long as I do enough good things to counteract the bad. How does that really work in real life? Suppose someone kills your son, but they do a lot of charitable work. Would that wash with you? If I beat my wife and children, but I help at a soup kitchen on weekends, does that really make it all better? To me, that kind of thinking is just dumb. Sorry if you disagree with me, but I can’t yield on this one. Even if it did work, how do you know what the score is?

There is a place for balance in life. It’s not good for me to spend every waking hour at work. It isn’t good to choose not to work so that I can live an impoverished life and stay at home with my family. I shouldn’t spend all of my evening hours out with the guys. We do need to balance work and family life. What I’m saying, is that as far as good and evil are concerned, embracing evil isn’t right, even if we do give to the food bank.

Doing nice stuff doesn’t erase the evil we have done in this life. If we see our sin as sin and if we are honest with ourselves, no Boy Scout good deed actually erases it.