When Christian Celebrities Dress Like p-orn Stars

[Mark]

When Christian Celebrities Dress Like p-orn Stars

Modesty. It’s a topic that I’ve addressed at length this year in articles such as “Why Do So Many ‘Born-Again, Spirit-Filled’ Women Show Off Cleavage in Church?” and “Pastor Cancels Wedding Over ‘Sexy Dress,’ Persecuted for Modest Mindset.”

It seems the modesty debate continues to rage, as Erica Campbell, half of the gospel-hit duo Mary Mary, finds herself in the crosshairs for a stark white, skin-tight dress that shows off every curve of her shapely body. Campbell displays her fashion sense in a photo that is reportedly set to don the cover of her first solo album.

The Grammy-nominated Campbell is getting mixed reactions for her white-as-snow dress. According to Eurweb, one preacher put her on blast on Facebook, writing, “THIS IS NOT OKAY. Yes, you are a beautiful, curvy woman ... but NO MA’AM YOU ARE SINGING THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. Saints ... smh COME ON.”

But not everyone is throwing stones at the gospel singer. Commenting on the photos posted at AmericanPreachers.com, Sherman Elms writes, “I think nothing is wrong with dress and I don’t think it changes her heart for our Lord and Savior, so every leader or woman of God that says this dress is inappropriate, go to your closet and throw out every piece of clothing that fits to your body because if you [women] our built like she is what really can you put on that’s going to over it up? If you don’t know her personally and only see her on TV like I do, I think she’s very great representation of a godly woman, don’t be mad because you can’t wear it.”

Interesting perspectives. So who’s right?

I’m not the fashion police, though my thoughts and views on modesty are well-outlined in the columns I mentioned above. Although I wouldn’t wear Campbell’s dress, it’s hardly as provocative as what I see some everyday women wear to church or what other female Christian celebrities are wearing in public. Campbell’s dress is not low cut—it’s actually a long-sleeved turtleneck, and the length is well below her knees! Yes, it’s tight all right—too tight for my taste—but it’s not especially distasteful.

Compare Campbell’s attire to Meagan Good’s dress that made headlines this summer and you’d have to wonder why anyone is complaining about the Mary Mary singer. Good, an actress who played in Think Like a Man and married Seventh-day Adventist preacher DeVon Franklin, showed up at the 2013 BET Awards in June wearing more than a tight dress or showing a little cleavage. The front of her dress was cut so low that her breasts were not only visible—they were in your face. Highly inappropriate? Yes. But she didn’t think so.

"Regardless of what anybody thinks," Good said in response to the criticism, "I have a personal relationship with God. We talk, and we speak, and I don’t feel convicted about it, and so I have to do what’s in my heart, and I can’t allow people to manipulate my direction.”

So, again, who’s right? Where do we draw the line? Is it OK for a Christian woman to let her breasts hang out because she doesn’t feel convicted by it? Is it OK to wear a dress that’s so tight it looks painted on? If God gave it to you, should you flaunt it for His glory? Should we ignore how our wardrobe may offend or tempt others? Don’t Christian mothers teach their daughters how to dress anymore? Or is this generation so rebellious that sex-charged clothing is merely another sign of the times?

http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/watchman-on-the-wall/42131-when-christian-celebrities-dress-like-****-stars
http://tinyurl.com/o24usuu

[Kilika]

There is NOTHING modest or virtuous about what she wore! She in her vanity is glorifying her own body, and that is unprofitable and vain.

[Mark]

Controversy Erupts After Student Asked to Leave Church Prom Over Dress, Behavior

A 17-year-old homeschool graduate has generated an online firestorm after she condemned the organizers of a local prom for reprimanding her suggestive prom dress.

Clare Schlaudt is a homeschool student from Chesterfield, Virginia, who participated in the Richmond Homeschool Prom last Saturday. The prom was held at a local Methodist church building, with several hundred guests in attendance.

According to a blog post Schlaudt wrote earlier this week, she wore a “gorgeous, silver, and sparkly” dress to the prom. Schlaudt said her dress was “not trashy, but you definitely would look twice when I walked through a doorway.”

Though Schlaudt believes her prom dress met the event’s dress code standards, one of the prom organizers—identified as “Mrs. D.”—told her, “Honey, that dress is too short.” Reluctantly, the administrator eventually allowed Schlaudt to enter the prom.

However, after Schlaudt joined a group of friends on the dance floor, Mrs. D. approached Schlaudt and, according to the student, informed her that some guests at the prom had complained that her behavior was too provocative. Mrs. D. then asked her to leave the church building. After protesting, Schlaudt proceeded to leave the premises.

Schlaudt was evidently incensed by the prom officials’ decision and condemned the event dress code, which required that dresses be at least fingertip length, in her profanity-laced blog post. She describes her experience as “really awful” and evidence of a “painful, traumatizing evil.”

“When [my friends and I] walked out of the prom, frustrated and angry and feeling very disrespected and violated, some of the people in my group shouted profanities at the security guards, and I personally [showed a crude gesture],” Schlaudt wrote.

While she admits that the response was inappropriate, Schlaudt is demanding prom officials to apologize.

“What I want to know is if the people involved in this situation at the Richmond Homeschool Prom are adult enough to own up to their wrong actions as well,” she stated. “And refund my group as they verbally promised to do, and issue an apology for kicking me out of my senior prom because their husbands felt as though my body was something they had a right to control.”
Dress

Schlaudt’s prom dress


Schlaudt’s story was first published by her sister, who says she uses her blog “as a place for victims of patriarchal Christianity to speak up.”

After her blog post was published, dozens of online commenters voiced support for Schlaudt and criticized the prom officials’ actions. One blogger described the incident as “sick.”

“I absolutely agree that if what Clare reports is how it went down, that she was humiliated, and treated disgracefully all around,” another blogger wrote. “She is owed a public apology. … I am all for modesty, but this is ugly stuff.”

However, those familiar with the homeschool prom have also shared details about the incident that they state Schlaudt failed to mention in her blog post.

“My daughter and son were at the prom,” one attendee explained. “What you can’t see by the picture posted here was that [Schlaudt’s] dress was tight and kept riding up and she refused to pull it back down. Homeschoolers aren’t the prudes and creeps portrayed here. … This is unfair sensationalism at its best.”

One woman who helped organize the prom also weighed in on the controversy.

“From what I gathered that night, Clare would not allow anyone else to speak,” she wrote. “She became extremely argumentative and belligerent. Although [prom organizers] had ongoing concerns about Clare’s dress, her behavior in the hall became the reason she was finally asked to leave.”

“This entire episode has saddened many families in our community whose children attended this prom, including ours,” another local resident wrote. “The things that have been said about homeschooling parents, Christians and these fathers [are] inexcusable. … The events as portrayed in the blog and in the media are not accurate and we continue to pray for all those involved.”

Other homeschool students who attended the prom likewise assert that Schlaudt stretched the truth in her blog post.

“Everything that has been said about Clare and the Richmond Homeschool Prom has been yellow journalism and nothing short of sensationalizing,” wrote homeschool graduate Callie Hobbs in a blog post published yesterday. “Her entire story is full of lies and slander.”

“More than one person (including myself) saw her dancing suggestively, which [was] grounds for removal,” Hobbs added. “There has also been a lot of controversy about her being the only one to get kicked out, when in reality there were eight others who [were] asked to leave as well.”

http://christiannews.net/2014/05/15/controversy-erupts-after-homeschooler-asked-to-leave-prom-over-dress-behavior/

[Mark]

Dads Are Not The Problem
May 14, 2014 by calliehobbs   

I completed high school this week, and throughout my home school journey one of the most prominent and important things I learned was to always stand up for truth, no matter what it costs you in the long run. This past weekend I attended the Richmond Homeschool Prom along with over 500 other home schooled students across Central Virginia. Recently, there has been a massive frenzy about a girl being kicked out over suggestive dancing and inappropriate attire, so much so that even national media sources like Cosmopolitan Magazine have picked up on the story. I am writing this not to stir up further arguments but to share truth on what actually happened at prom.

I happen to know the girl who was kicked out. She joined my volleyball team last fall, she ended up being in my American History class this semester, and she also happens to be graduating with me in just a few short weeks. In history, our class covered material from the Civil War to World War II. During the section on the Gilded Age, we learned about something called yellow journalism. Let me define it.

 Yellow Journalism is the type of journalism that relies on sensationalism and lurid exaggeration to attract readers. There is a word in that definition that I would also like to define. Sensationalism is the use of sensational language to arouse an intense emotional response.

 Everything that has been said about Clare and the Richmond Homeschool Prom has been yellow journalism and nothing short of sensationalizing. Her entire story is full of lies and slander. I have been to many homeschool proms and the Richmond Homeschool Prom is most definitely the least conservative one I have attended. The dress code for ladies merely required that dresses be fingertip length. I personally don’t recall seeing girls with dresses violating the requirements (which are the exact same as the local high schools). Clare even approached me and showed me that her dress adhered – yes, it was edgy and as close as she could get to breaking it, but yes it was fingertip length. She writes in her blog post,

    “I assumed that she (a prom coordinator) probably just didn’t understand that when you’re 5’9″ and leggy, everything looks shorter on you then it would on anyone else, even if it’s still inside the dress code.”

I can whole-heartedly agree with that statement, as I have long legs myself and have had to refrain from wearing certain things because they appear more immodest than they would on a girl with shorter legs. It is an honest struggle. In the end, her dress was close enough to breaking the dress code that it was checked. Clare talks about how she isn’t responsible for other people’s thought or drives, but she admits in her blog post that she looked hot and would turn heads when walking through a door. Emily Collins, a lady chaperoning, states that Clare’s dress only met dress code when it was pulled down, but as she walked, the dress rose. Clare was seen by multiple sources (students) to be dancing provacatively and as she moved her dress rose. When she was approached and asked to pull it down by female chaperones, Clare responded with extreme disrespect towards the authorities, at which point she was asked to leave. Not one person ever mentioned anything about impure thoughts, she was removed from the dance because her behavior was not in line with the set rules.

I find the most disturbing part of this situation to be the accusations against the dads. The Richmond Homeschool Prom is held in a large church gym. In that gym, there is a balcony that runs the length of the room. When I walked in, I did notice that there were parents standing up there. But they were chaperoning, just the same as the parents on the floor. Yes, there were dads up there, all of whom were on rotation manning the lights and ensuring that prom ran smoothly. Clare writes,

    “We were also a little grossed out by all the dads on the balcony above the dance floor, ogling and talking amongst themselves,” Headlines are saying things like, “Teen Girl Ejected From Prom Because **** Dads Can’t Stop Staring,” or “Girl Kicked Out Of Prom Because Dads Found Her Too Sexy.”

Honestly, if I had not been at prom and Clare’s description were all I had to go on, my interpretation would be that there were fathers lined up around the balcony just to observe and eye the girls. It makes it sound totally inappropriate and disgusting! But I was there, and the dads were not talking amongst themselves about the girls dancing and they were certainly not ogling. They were only doing the jobs they had selflessly volunteered for so that the homeschool community could enjoy prom. They were up there to work the lights and fix strand of lights that had gone out. Homeschool dads are incredibly protective over their daughters and go to great lengths to ensure they are treated well and typically very loving towards children that are not their own. Homeschool dads may be just about the least creepy men there are. I would also like to briefly address the misconception that, as homeschool parents, they are required to put on prom. Prom is not a right owed to us, it is a privilege. As homeschoolers we often lose chances to participate in activities that students at public a private school enjoy, such as prom and sports teams. Our opportunity to attend prom comes directly from the parents that choose to invest their time and money so we can enjoy a special event.

But when did this become about perverted dads? The news reports manipulate the story to make it seem like sex-minded men singled Clare out and couldn’t control their thoughts when in reality, not one man made mention about Clare’s attire or behavior, only women in authority. Women use clothing and actions to attract men all the time, but as Christians and really just as moral people, ladies have a duty to dress in a way that earns respect and doesn’t tempt men. Everyone (not just men) have a duty to guard our thoughts from things that aren’t healthy, but men shouldn’t make it harder for women and women shouldn’t make it harder for men. The Richmond Homeschool Prom was meant to be a wholesome night and when Clare was approached (by women) for what they deemed inappropriate, she got mad and acted in a childish and disrespectful manner towards the adults in authority. It was only then that she was asked to leave.

Everyone can safely assume that a homeschool prom is going to be more conservative than a public school prom. Most people who homeschool do so because they want a more conservative environment for their children. Of course there are going to be more rules and regulations, yet many of the rules are identical to the rules enforced at public school proms. If a student is found in violation of any rule, he or she is removed without refund. More than one person (including myself) saw her dancing suggestively, which were grounds for removal. There has also been a lot of controversy about her being the only one to get kicked out, when in reality there were eight others who asked to leave as well. I find it sad that all of the stories about Clare’s experience are one sided and selectively choose which facts to report to gain more attention. I look forward to a day when yellow journalism and sensationalism isn’t an issue, but as I’m learning in history class – this isn’t the first time and it will not be the last.

 http://calliehobbs.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/dads-are-not-the-problem/