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Home  News News Still Say She's A Tramp
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Written by bigpig
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Thursday, 20 May 2004 |
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Page 1 of 2 FMeekins sent us this: "A few weeks ago, my column on American Idol drew unprecedented criticism for daring to raise concerns regarding the moral character of contestant Fantasia Barrino. Most chided me for judging her for having a child outside of marriage, arguing such a birth is no biggie under the sensibilities of the New Morality and that those not having their offspring hacked to death at the local abortatorium ought to be on the shortlist of this year’s Nobel nominees. But even setting this issue aside, it’s my contention she is still of questionable repute." Read the rest
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FMeekins sent us this:
A few weeks ago, my column on American Idol drew unprecedented criticism for daring to raise concerns regarding the moral character of contestant Fantasia Barrino. Most chided me for judging her for having a child outside of marriage, arguing such a birth is no biggie under the sensibilities of the New Morality and that those not having their offspring hacked to death at the local abortatorium ought to be on the shortlist of this year’s Nobel nominees. But even setting this issue aside, it’s my contention she is still of questionable repute.
Though clothes don’t necessarily make the man (or in this case woman) and we are all familiar with the admonition that one ought not judge by appearance, how one dresses on the outside --- whether we want to admit it or not ---- is a reflection of what is on the inside. Since that is the case, it would seem Fantasia is not the epitome of young Christian womanhood those rushing to her defense make her out to be.
On the May 12th broadcast, viewers caught a glimpse of a shiny diamond stud protruding from her navel and what appeared to be a tattoo on the small of her back (a little hard to decipher since its difficult to read skywriting at night). Wishy-washy Christians might be able to overlook illegitimate children, splitting theophilosophical hairs by claiming it’s fornication and not having children born of such unfortunate circumstances that the Bible looks down upon, but they can’t as easily brush aside injunctions speaking to these other matters. And if they do, there is less hope for the Church and ultimately the nation than I originally thought.
As to the issue of tattoos, Christians have traditionally opposed the practice on the grounds of Leviticus 18:28: “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.” Besides that, they are just plain ugly and are usually indicative that one is in league with the degenerate elements of society.
It isn’t surprising then that this form of mutilation is gaining in popularity in our anti-aesthetic postmodern era that revels in the grotesque. So if everything boils down to a matter of choice, you won’t find me marrying some hag with them scribbled all over her.
Even as a number of Christians hop on the tattoo bandwagon as some deluded believers flaunt their alleged piety by defacing their personal temples with religious graffiti or to promote a neo-gnostic spirituality eschewing the importance of appearance and the body ( Jim and Tammy Bakker’s creepy looking son being a prime example), the injunctions against sleazy dress aren’t as easy to explain away. I Timothy 2:9 says, “...women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety...” Kind of hard to excuse boogie-wooging with your bellybutton and back tattoo hanging out.
If Fantasia didn’t want attention drawn to that part of her anatomy, then why did she stick a shiny diamond in it sure to catch the eye of even the most disinterested viewer? Frankly, I am sure all the female contestants could have acquired wardrobes with a little more class at various times throughout the competition.
For readers having no problem with any of this, would you want your mother to trounce about with her stomach hanging out bedecked with tattoos like some bawdy pirate wench on shore leave? Some might see nothing wrong with such youthful shenanigans, but once you’ve had a kid it’s time to put away childish things, looking like a floozy being one of them.
As a member of a preaching family, you’d think Fantasia would know better. One shudders at the lack of sound doctrine and decorum being taught in her family’s church and the rest of the American ecclesiastical landscape for that matter. One doesn’t have to wear a tie or dress to church as I don’t go dressed liked Ward Cleaver when I go either; but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or the Pope for that matter) to realize that the proper Christian should at least have their torso concealed.
Blessed with grandparents owning an extensive collection of Christian literature published in a day when truth was considered more important than social acceptance, I remember one tract titled something like “The Price Of Paganism” with the picture plastered across the front of some savage with ghastly body piercings and markings all over this misguided soul’s body. Who would have thought one day we wouldn’t have to travel to the backwards part of the earth to behold such a disconcerting spectacle but instead simply turn our televisions on to see something not much more advanced socially being broadcast from one our nation’s alleged centers of culture and enlightenment.
Copyright 2004 by Frederick Meekins
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