scorecards, slut-shaming & shining a Light

Last week, a popular Christian blogger published a scorecard detailing how guys can identify girls in church who "have a past."

So they could prey on them?  Pray for them?  That part wasn't clear.  Multiple disclaimers evolved onto the post's header claiming the goal was to "call-out" male foolishness, but the post itself only detailed a point system to sort out "girls with a past" from other [re: boring] church girls.

It painted with awfully broad brushstrokes:  girls women are either Madonnas or Whores (it's math!) and the 514 comments spelled this out to a truly ugly degree.  Egregious slut-shaming peppers the threads and anyone who found the post untoward is generally dismissed as humorless or jealous.  Within the comments, women are repeatedly told that the post wasn't for or about them at all:  it was about how men see girls women, so stop being so emotional, will ya?

I rarely write reactive posts, but a week later, it's still haunts me.  In his final update, the site owner wrote "if you’ve got a past, I’m sorry if it seemed like this post was picking on it."  That quasi-apology missed the heart of the criticism:  a woman's value is independent of her sexual experience or appearance, and attempts to rank and score women (and pit them against one another) are demeaning and destructive--even if done in jest.

Women take a lot of shit from the media and our culture at large:  is it too much to ask that the Church be a place where women are heard, honored and valued as image-bearers of God?

this is a man's world {on shining a light} originally published 10/13/11

Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of, right?

But what makes a woman?  A cursory glace at any newsstand or television reveals our cultural value quite clearly: 

Sexual availability and impossible beauty are two sides of the same losing coin.

They're lies, of course, promising everything and delivering shame, depression and disorder.

We are not our weight, faces or bodies.

We are not defined by our sexuality.

We are not objects in a story told by men.

Scripture tells another Story, in which our value comes from being created in the image of God.

Each of us.  All of us.

{Even if you can't yet believe.}

We are strong and thoughtful.  Kind and wise.  Passionate and funny and sexy in ways that can't be commodified.

We are created in the image of a creative God to reflect his glory and goodness and creativity in ways that are unique.  In ways this world thirsts for.

Our daughters need us to realize our identity as image-bearers of God.  Our sons need it, too.  God knows Hollywood, Congress and the Church are crying out for transformation.

Expose the glossy lies for what they are.  Where Light shines, shadows flee. 


{images: on the issues, dwr}

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