Directions

At 12, Soya Keaveney was dieting, working out, "even posed for provocative photos, which are posted on her own website for anyone to access. Wearing a skimpy bikini and flaunting herself in an overtly sexual manner, Soya looks every bit the wannabe glamour model." That was at 12. That was 3 years ago. Now she's 15 and pregnant ... "and her proud mum's delighted." Why? "The council will now have to give her a bigger house." While mom, Janis, claims she is strict, Soya "was going to discos in Thornaby, Cleveland, from the age of seven, wearing make-up, mini dresses and revealing tops."

Well, you can read the story. It's horrifying. And it's not as rare as we'd like to think. Add in the preteen beauty queens. You remember JonBenét Ramsey, murdered at 6 years old. She was part of an entire group of child pageant contestants. An entire generation of little girls from very young through early teens are attempting emulate older idols. It brought Abercrombie & Fitch to the brink of selling bikinis (bad enough) with padded tops (worse) for second graders. It's really bad.

But, I have to keep in mind that it's the world. It's those who have been blinded by the god of this world. It is the product of a sinful world. And it's even held somewhat in check by the Holy Spirit. Natural Man is sinful to the core, but not as evil as he possibly can be.

So why am I bringing it up? I'm disturbed by all this and saddened. I'm upset by the messages I have to fight off for my granddaughter (my kids are grown). I'm concerned about the next generation. But what disturbs me most is that I don't see this exclusively in the world. It's not just a "them" problem. It's an "us" problem. I see it in church. I've seen presentations from the youth that had the little girls dancing like any of the pornographic pop stars, shaking things they don't even know they have. I've seen mothers dressing their children in clothes that adults shouldn't wear, let alone to church. I've seen people classified as "Christian" exhibiting all the same misguided values as the world from which we are supposed to be distinct. Now that is a problem.

I went to a private Christian school in the early years of my schooling. I remember in junior high when the teacher was talking about the problem of girls wearing two-piece swimsuits to the beach. I remember foolishly telling her, "My sister won't do that. When the rest of the world is at the beach naked, she'll be wearing a bikini." Like that's a good thing. I didn't see the erosion I was offering as "good". As the world shifts to the left, to "evil", the church stands its ground to the right. But as the world shifts further, the ground that was once "evil" to the church that was vacated by the left is the "good" ground on which the church now stands. Self-righteous, we point at those evil worldly values not realizing that yesterday's evil worldly values are today's accepted mores.

There is little doubt that our society is headed in the wrong moral direction. We've decided that what we knew to be evil a generation ago is no longer evil and what the generation before that knew to be evil we consider commendable. Kind of like Romans 1. But, brethren, these things ought not be. Remember, it isn't society that sets the standard; it's God. And it isn't society's standard that we are in danger of meeting; it's God's standards that we seek to violate. Perhaps we need to get back to biblical standards of morality. "Perhaps"? That shouldn't even be a question.