March 31, 2007
OK. Kill me. Go ahead.
Prelims:
1) I am a really normal guy, with a very healthy, earthy, grateful, humorous, un-prudish attitude about all things related to sex.
2) Dress codes- which I am surrounded by in my life- have never impressed me. I get the point, and I can see where they can be helpful. But I mostly see the limitations, problems and legalism.
3) I am generally annoyed by hyper-modesty appeals. Though I am wired up by God to think like a male, I am still responsible for my own thoughts and actions. I don’t need to see whatever to think about whatever.
That said, I say the following to the sisters:
1) I don’t want to see your stomach, or your hips, or your back, or your lower back exposed in the context of worship. Men, double for you.
2) Cleavage is sometimes unavoidable. I realize that. It is also sometimes on purpose, with no other purpose than to say “Here! Look!” That puts the pressure on guys to not notice, and I feel that it’s a bit gamey. The “I just won ‘t think about it” option isn’t available for guys. Sorry. Complain to the manufacturer.
3) Back to #1. I don’t want to see the large tattoo just above your backside. Not in church and for free. As a fundraiser at a Catholic picnic….maybe. (jn)
4) Certain motions in worship draw attention to you in sexual way. If you believe the spiritual intent of these motions removes the attention factor, you’re wrong. Ever see kids do “Pharaoh, Pharaoh” and do the “Umph” part with the big thrust? OK….if a normal attractive female does that motion, even with a big “Praise Jesus,” it’s distracting.
5) The sexual subtext of a lot of worship motions seems obvious to me. I’m mad at Pirate for deleting a great post he wrote on this once at his old blog, but it seems undeniable that some worship actions on stage and among responders are extremely sexual. It’s like kids telling me that hugging isn’t sexual, because its friendly. male crickets
And finally….
6) If you say men are gross, and shouldn’t think like this, you’re an idiot.
7) Oh yeah. Low cut pants + no belt + bending over with short shirt = embarrassment for you, a ruined sermon/service for me.
The Boar’s Head Tavern » A Little Ultraviolence to go with the Old In-Out said,
April 2, 2007 @ 9:50 pm
[...] I followed with no little interest the posts dealing with the not-so-subtle sexuality of modern worship. (Michael 1, Michael 2, Pirate, Travis). One month ago, I had a brief email exchange with one of our FOBs (Friend of BHT) on exactly this topic. I was reacting to this interview with Leigh McLeroy in which she took on a challenging question about the character-forming aspect of our music. I wrote to our FOB: One factor that I would like to explore some other time, and which I think is really a part of what is going on with the aggressiveness of individual expression through music, is another of youth’s aggressions: sex. There is an orgiastic quality that I think my older sisters and brothers would be too modest to name, but which I think also gives them the sense they are either prey for the predators or irrelevant to the experience. I would like to hear some knowledgeable depth psychological analysis of the various fetishistic practices which are on display in contemporary worship. I think we’d be shocked. [...]