Monday Morning Mentations

While it is still morning …

Obviously, i have been thinking a lot about my art lately and where that is taking me. It’s been such an incredible journey to explore, play and create. Never, in my childhood, would I have dreamed of becoming an artist. It’s wonderful to still be discovering new things about myself and others as well. Humans are incredibly intricate beings. I am astounded that anyone could become bored with another person. There is always so much more to know!

My own journey came as I began to accept myself as a woman, to accept my worth, my contribution, my individuality. Though I didn’t really know it, I had allowed myself to absorb a mindset that considered me, as a woman, second class, as merely an object. Our culture certainly does a fine job of objectifying women but the church culture is right in there as well.

It is illustrated so clearly in the consistent teaching about modesty in the church. Last year at Cornerstone, I heard Marissa Cwik speak on the subject. She presents her points in this article

1. It tends to place the origin of sin in the female body.

2. This understanding of modesty encourages a sense of shame about the female body.

3. The way modesty is taught disempowers women

For me, the message went so far and so deep into my soul and affected what I thought I could do with my life. What a weight of guilt and shame I carried for many years. I wrongly accepted full responsibility for sexual assault and for sexual exploitation. Those feelings haunted me well into my adult years, really until just a 2 – 3 years ago when I started being able to own my responsibility and release what was no fault of mine.

I’m a day late and a dollar short to a recent conversation about modesty but I wanted to highlight one particular part.

It started with Wes. Who, as a parent especially, shares some concerns about immodesty. He doesn’t seem to be looking for a dress code but really wants to understand how to raise children to care about how they dress.

Makeesha commented

Do not make this about society or the man. Make this about your daughter and her beautiful body created by God to be enjoyed and cherished. If you lift her up and talk to her about the person she wants to “put out there”, you likely won’t have any problems with issues of “modesty”. If from the beginning you teach her strength and self dignity and identity in Christ and promote healthy boundaries, she will make godly decisions about her own body.

I think Sonja really gets to the heart of the issue though in this comment on her own post:

Okay … everyone … back to the drawingboard. Go back. Read the post again. Especially, read the scriptures again. And again. The text of 1 Timothy is not about sex/lust/temptation. It’s about reverence and respect and the poor. Which is something completely different than what we’ve been taught lo, these many years. God does not seem to be concerned about lust and temptation in this instance, but He does seem to be concerned about our attitudes … with men He’s concerned about anger; with women He’s concerned about vanity, pride and a lack of concern for the poor and how that is expressed in our clothing. But it really has nothing to do with sexual lust or sexual temptation as we’ve been taught. That’s my point (which I obviously did not make very clearly ).

Personally, I am a new person since I began to understand God’s view of modesty In many ways, that’s a good thing. It is good to be free from the formula, from the dress code. But, it is also challenging to realize that this is so much deeper. It requires even more from me. It challenges my American consumerism actually. Sometimes I think that adhering to the rules was easier but I wouldn’t go back for anything. I choose to submit to God and allow God to transform this mind.

~ by Cynthia on May 26, 2008.