On Being Cool and Being Christian...

...Or, Just Because I Don't Agree, Doesn't Mean I Don't Understand.

There's a kid on my MSN list whose MSN display pics always feature a cartoon image of a rather attractive woman wearing rather skanky clothing. She has several of these pictures featuring different women with different outfits, but all rather inappropriate.

Today, the picture was of "Miss Italy" who was wearing a mid-riff tube top and a mini skirt that were striped like the Italian flag. More, the miniskirt was slanted at the waste, so that it fell halfway down her hip. So I said to the girl, "The girl in your pic's skirt is falling down," feigning naïveté to see what she would say. She told me that "It was supposed to be that way. It was cool." I said, it's cool to have your clothes falling off? She said, "You wouldn't understand. You're not cool."

Well, thanks a lot!

So she switched the image to a blonde girl with a gold dress that had a slit way up the leg almost to her hip, and a really lowcut neckline. She was like, there, is that better? I said, No, her neckline is really low! So she switched back.

She said, again, that I wouldn't understand, because I'm not in her grade (she's in grade 7!!)! I replied saying, "If I was in your grade, and your skirt was falling off, I'd probably make fun of you." She called me a bully. Then she said, what if someone that you liked was wearing that outfit. I said, I'd tell her to change, so other people didn't start making fun of her. She called me a bully again. Oy. (She actually threatened to "tell her mom" that I was a "mean bully.")

There's something really wrong with society, that it can convince a girl who is at the oldest, 13, that slutty dressing is "cool". There's something really wrong with her family if she thinks that she can get me in trouble with her mom for saying that slutty dressing is wrong. When I finally told her that the reason I disagreed with her pics is that dressing like that would cause guys who saw her to think impure, lustful thoughts--which is a sin--she just said, "Whatever, you just don't understand," and logged off.

Now, let's get something straight. Whether or not I'm "cool" has nothing at all to do with my ability to understand. As the subtitle above states, "Just because I don't agree with something, doesn't mean I don't understand." In fact, more often than not, if I don't agree with something, it is precisely because I understand, all too well.

In the case of the pictures, what makes an outfit like that "cool"? Basically, it attracts the attention of guys. Well, that "attention" is called "lust." It's a sin. Wearing something like that causes guys to sin (as if they need help with lusting!). Causing someone to sin, is a sin! So if you think wearing an outfit like that is "cool", you're wrong. Dead wrong. Yeah, it's just pictures. Maybe this girl would never be caught dead wearing something like that. The conversation that we had really didn't give me that impression, though.

My wife had her sister over today, and we watched the movie, "10 Things I Hate About You." In one of the characters' classrooms, there was a banner that sums up my thought in this post perfectly.

"THE POPULAR THING IS NOT ALWAYS THE RIGHT THING. THE RIGHT THING IS NOT ALWAYS THE POPULAR THING"

Jesus, when He comes again to Judge, isn't going to give us a pass by asking us "How Cool were you?" "How Popular were you?" but rather, "How well did you serve Me?" "Did you do what is right?" More often than not, in this world, being a Christian isn't going to win you any points with the In-Crowd. But then, being in the In-Crowd isn't going to win you any points with Christ.

So what's more important, really? Being with all your friends, burning alive for eternity?

Or being alone, you and Jesus, forever in Heaven?

Screw coolness. Live for Jesus.
God bless.