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To Any Girl Who May Read This:

First of all I want to apologize. I want to apologize on behalf of males everywhere. We are sinful people. Unfortunately girls, many of those sins involve you. As males, we are visual creatures. We take things we see and we process them in our mind and over and over again. Those images become imprinted upon our minds. Sadly, we take things we see much further than we should. We lust. We sin. It’s our fault. It’s 100% our fault. We can’t blame this on anyone else. When we sin it’s because we have chosen to let our mind escape God’s plan for us to be pure and holy. Instead, we have lustful thoughts, often taking a simple image and turning it into something sexual. We’ve viewed girls as objects, not as God’s creation. We’re sinful. We have no excuse. I’m sorry.

Girls, I ask you to help us with this battle. Once again, it is sin on our part and we are responsible for the impure thoughts that enter our minds. However, you can help us. The Bible discusses “stumbling blocks.” Many girls, whether they know it or not are stumbling blocks. You may say, “It’s not my fault if a guy lusts after me,” but if that’s your attitude, you are only contributing to a deadly problem. Girls, I plead that you won’t take that type of attitude, but rather will aim to help us guys who are struggling. You often don’t know how little it takes to set off a spark in our minds, but there’s little things you can do to help us with this issue. Consider the pictures you post on Facebook. Are you showing off your midriff? Do you show your off portions of your back? Are you showing the world your tattoos or piercings which are in “convenient” places? Do you post pictures of yourself at the beach or pictures of you and your friends in bikinis? You may think it’s completely innocent, but you have no idea what is happening in the mind of a guy when he sees that. You may say that it’s no different than what a guy would see at the pool or beach. While that may be true, I implore that you aim to be modest when at the pool or beach. Not only that, but please remember that the pictures you post on Facebook and MySpace–the pictures that show up in our main feed and stay there for days–are a constant visual reminder of your your body, bikini, stomach, tan lines, etc. Do you want our minds dwelling on that image for days?

Unfortunately, this issue is very prominent inside the church as well. It constantly amazes me what some girls wear to church. Once again, if we lust it is our sin, but girls there is no need to show cleavage in any circumstance, most notable inside the walls of the church. Whether it’s showing cleavage, a “shadow,” or just allowing your shirt/blouse to reveal too much skin, your dress can be very distracting to our worship. When we are trying to concentrate on the things of God, the last thing we need is a lustful distraction. This makes me sick and I feel like it is a battle I have to face many Sundays. Whether it is a girl wearing a skirt that is too short or a girl wearing a top that is either too low cut or too loose fitting, I hate trying to have a conversation with a girl while my concentration is constantly being tempted by something else.

I have a fear that many girls who read this will champion the cause but never stop to think about their own dress, actions, or pictures. Unfortunately, for many girls, the definition of modesty is “any girl who dresses more immodest than me.” That definition is dangerous and self-righteous.

I also have a fear that many girls do the things they do to attract certain attention. They want to receive attention from guys and/or want to feel good about themselves. They affirm themselves by receiving glances/stares from men. Once again, this is a dangerous problem with pride at its root. If a girl dresses provocatively to receive attention, is she truly receiving attention that glorifies God, or is she the object of another man’s lust. Sadly, for many girls, I don’t think it matters…as long as they receive the attention.

Girls, I ask you for your help. Help the husbands who are trying to stay faithful to their wives in thoughts and actions. Help the boyfriends who are trying to stay faithful to their girlfriends through pure thoughts and deeds. Help the single men who may be struggling to find some type of intimate fulfillment. In a world that is becoming more pornographic everyday, I plead you to take a stand right now and decide to become part of the solution and not part of the problem. I do not believe you can take a neutral stand on this position.

If this was an issue that only affected a small portion of guys, or only applied to the girls we label as “sluts,” I would not even mention it. Unfortunately, I believe this problem affects nearly every man on this planet. Sadly, stumbling blocks have come from girls who are friends inside and outside the church, acquaintances, and mere strangers.

Francis Chan says that every morning we should ask God, “Are the things I’m wearing bringing glory to Your name?” There is no neutral answer. Either we honor God with our bodies and our dress, or we dishonor His name.

Girls, please help us in this fight. If you could see inside our heads for just 1 minute, it might revolutionize everything about the way you live. We need your help. Please don’t be that stumbling. Rather, be the godly encouragement every man needs.

Several weeks ago, I finally purchased Alan Moore’s graphic novel, Watchmen, after putting it on the back-burner for several months. The novel, credited by Time Magazine as one of the Top 100 novels of all time, has received much attention lately with the new Watchmen movie debuting this Friday, March 6, 2009. Within a couple hours of reading, I knew why. I started reading the novel on Friday night, and by Sunday afternoon I was halfway through the 400+ page comic book.

The novel, which takes place in the mid 1980s, is seemingly outdated. It talks of conflict with Afghanistan and Russia, problems with Nixon, the assassination of Kennedy, and other issues that were way before my time. However, Moore’s captivating writing is undeniable. After diving headfirst into the book, I was extremely excited about the movie. I even happened to have 2 sneak preview passes to see it early.

Things started to change for me as early reviews rolled in. I expected the movie to stir up a great amount of publicity, and it did and has, but not exactly for the reasons I was hoping. 

Here’s what some critics and reviewers have been saying about the movie:

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Nobody over twenty-five could take any joy from the savagery that is fleshed out onscreen, just as nobody under eighteen should be allowed to witness it. You want to see Rorschach swing a meat cleaver repeatedly into the skull of a pedophile, and two dogs wrestle over the leg bone of his young victim? Go ahead. You want to see the attempted rape of a superwoman, her bright latex costume cast aside and her head banged against the baize of a pool table?  

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Snyder fills the screen with eye candy. [There's]  brutal murders, dismemberments, attempted rape. The sex is graphic, the violence more so. 

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Snyder’s biggest impact is felt in the action sequences, which are also the film’s weakest scenes: overstylised, repetitive and pornographically violent. 
Snyder rides roughshod over such subtleties: ‘Watchmen’ may be the nastiest blockbuster ever devised. It luxuriates in snapping bones and literal explosions of gore. It’s here that the gulf between comic and movie becomes most clear: Gibbons’s drawings were often shocking, but they served a purpose. Snyder employs violence for the rush, and while this approach is sometimes brutally effective, it’s also deeply crass.

Joe Lozito, Big Picture Big Sound: To keep his audience interested, Mr. Snyder has made the film alternatively cheesy (the 80s dialogue, a gratuitous sex scene) and brutally violent (the opening fight, in particular, goes on far too long).

I could list many more reviews that say similar things, but I think you get the point. The movie inevitably uses extreme violence and extreme sex/nudity to bring in its audience. While some may argue the movie is only staying true to the book, those who have read the book know this isn’t quite the case. Zack Snyder took many liberties to make the movie as gory and sexual as possible.

Some might not see this as an issue, but there is a huge issue at hand. I had a recent discussion with my boss, Jonathan Yandell, about movies that use extreme violence and sex. He mentioned that movies used to only use one of the two elements, not a combination of both. However, as times have changed, people seek both elements when they go to movies. The scary thing is, a mindset that craves and enjoys graphic sex and graphic violence is the same mindset that is found in serial killers. The craving starts out small, but the desire keeps increasing and increasing until it reaches a level of absolute sex and violence.

No one would dare argue Watchmen is a wholesome movie, but how many people are actually thinking about how the movie affects them? How many people realize how the mind reacts to seeing extreme violence, sex, and nudity on screen?

For those who would say “It doesn’t affect me” I would say 1 of 2 things to you: 1) You’re lying or; 2) You’ve become so numb and desensitized by violence and sex that it doesn’t bother you anymore. That is a scary thing!

So who watches the Watchmen? Not this guy!

I heard a pastor tell a story about a sermon he preached on modesty. While he was preaching, a woman, dressed in an provocative leather tube top kept “amen”ing everything he said. Why? Because in that woman’s mind, she dressed modest, and immodesty began with women that dressed worse than her.

Modesty is obviously a major issue in our culture. My high school had to make a rule said a girl’s shirt had to cover her entire stomach. The outrage was amazing! Certain towns have tried to pass laws that outlaw sagging pants. The outrage over that has been amazing as well! Read more…