The Wages of Skin

Miss California, Carrie Prejean, came to fame for an answer she gave at the 2009 Miss USA Pageant. When asked about gay marriage, she responded that her personal belief was that marriage should be between a man and a woman. She was clear about her opinion and respectful of those who disagree. Good answer, right? Well, not everyone thought so. Since the pageant, she has been attacked for her position, and gay rights activists have been seeking a way to strip her of her title.

As of Monday, it looks like they might have found their solution.

Apparently, when Prejean was a teenager she posed semi-nude in hopes to become a Victoria's Secret model. An internet gossip site found and recently published that photograph. She's in trouble because she kept this picture a secret, which breaches her contract with the Miss California officials.

I don't care if she remains Miss California or not. I thought her answer at the pageant took courage, and I commend her for that. I even cited the incident in a sermon recently. But my concern is that she has become a new 'celebrity' for evangelical Christians. She goes to a Christian college. She attends an evangelical church. She is out front talking about her Christian faith. She recently signed with a Christian publicity agency. All that is fine. But read one of her comments in response to this photograph controversy:

"I am a Christian, and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos."

Yes, models pose for those pictures, Ms. Prejean. But my question is, do Christians pose for those kinds pictures... especially the kind that would require one to be semi-nude? The obvious answer to that is, "No!" or at least they shouldn't. Rather than defending this, Ms. Prejean should repent of it. And rather than blindly rallying to her support, the people of God should not accept this casual attitude toward immodesty (at best) and soft core pornography (at worst).

Please don't misunderstand me. I sin every day... every day. My point here is not that Christians never mess up. We do; I do. Carrie Prejean may be a dedicated follower of Christ. I don't know; I've never met her and I'm certainly not against her. But when a physically beautiful woman allows herself to be photographed in a way that exposes much of her body (even in swimwear), knowing that photograph will be seen by countless men, that is sinful.

1 Timothy 2:9 says, "Women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control." Modeling lingerie and swimwear is in direct disobedience to God's Word. And if being a model requires doing those things, then Christians should not model.

You may think this view to be puritanical and irrelevant. But if we're going to affirm what the Bible says about homosexuality, then we've also got to strive to live by what the Bible says about modesty... and everything else. Otherwise, the wages of evangelicals' sin might be complete irrelevance in the culture.