"Slut" is a Good Thing?

For years I had a cartoon on my wall depicting two naked women (tastefully drawn) walking down a city street, past a busy construction site. As the men whistled and cheered, the one woman says to the other "Men are such animals!"


Let's pause for a moment while all the men reading this think "Yea....and?"

In case you missed it, thousands of women in several countries have gathered over the past couple of weeks to participate in "Slut Walks." All in response to controversial comments made by a police constable earlier this year. In January, Toronto Police Const. Michael Sanguinetti told a personal security class at York University that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized."

Another brief pause while all the men reading this think "Yea....and?"

Now, before anyone reading this blows a gasket, we all agree that NOTHING, including dressing like a slut, gives a man a right to victimize a woman. A women walking down a dark street half naked is not "inviting" sexual assault, any more that a well-dressed white guy walking the streets of Compton, CA is "inviting" a carload of gang members to repeatedly shoot him. One should never lead to the other.

Unfortunately, one DOES sometimes lead to the other.

If I were to suggest that a white male...exposing himself to the pent up rage of an impoverished ethnic community...was acting irresponsibly, few would be quick to disagree. But make the same suggestion that a woman should take some degree of responsibility for her actions, and a group of angry women in fishnets and leather pushup corsets are protesting on my front lawn. I wouldn't mind that much, but my wife might take exception and it would frustrate the dog.

Which brings us back to the notion that all men are animals. (Yea....and?) Whether we like it or not, men were designed to respond to visual stimuli. Don't blame me, blame God. In his infinite wisdom, God designed the male brain with such a strong visual turn on, that walking by two grapefruit in a bowl will cause a man to forget why he came into the room. Perhaps God thought women might one day need a little help dragging their husbands from in front of the TV during March Madness.

Whatever the reason, dressing like a slut (think hooker, tramp, bimbo, hootchi, etc.) is not going to solve the age-old problem of men acting in totally inappropriate ways. Men need to be taught, from childhood, that what a woman wears (or doesn't) NEVER gives him the right to touch. On the other hand, women need to be taught, from childhood, that even good, decent, Christian men are still men. One study says that adolescent males have some form of sexual thought every 29 seconds, to which most men reply "That long?"

At our church camp we ask the young ladies to give the guys a break. One-piece swimsuits don't solve all the problems, but at least it's a start. But when so much of the clothing available to young women these days is designed to sexualize them, it's often a losing battle. How do you explain to the thirteen-year-old that while you are grateful that she purchased a new swimsuit just for camp, it would have been nice if the swimsuit designer had not chosen to accent the color of the suit by placing a color burst radiating a few inches from the crotch. Watching boys and grown men walk into utility poles (either from looking, or trying to not look) is only amusing for a few moments. And don't get me started about sweatpants designers who insist on putting their name on the backside of young girls.

So if women in Canada and the U.S. want to wear their Victoria Secret purchases in public, who am I to stop them. I get the point...the little black dress is not an open invitation to grope. But I must admit that I'm half tempted to begin carrying one dollar bills in my wallet. Because if you are going to dress like a stripper, then the only polite thing for me to do is come up to you and tip.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a strange craving for grapefruit.

Lord's Supper and Car Wash

There is a story in the Gospel account of John where Jesus does something so bizarre…so astounding…that it leaves some of his followers confused and speechless. Their Rabbi…their teacher…their Lord…gets down on his knees and washes their feet. Then he tells them they will be blessed if they do the same for each other.


Now there is not a single written account of any of the early followers of Jesus washing each other’s feet. The other Gospel writers don’t even bother to mention the event. And there is a good possibility that what Jesus was demonstrating was not proper foot hygiene, but rather, the need to serve each other.

Nevertheless, for most of my life, I participated in an annual “footwashing” ceremony, where I would find myself on my knees pouring water over the foot of some other member of my congregation—usually selected at random. Then (even worse) I would have to let them wash my feet. While I may have learned a degree of humility from this practice, the “creepy” factor usually won out.

This year I gave the leadership team of my church the opportunity to give a thumbs up or thumbs down on a footwashing ceremony during our annual Lord’s Supper celebration. The response was mixed, and there was some amount of debate. But in the middle of it all, one member made an awesome suggestion.

She pointed out the fact that what made Jesus’ act so relevant to his disciples was that their feet were their main form of transportation. Sure, they rode the occasional donkey. But their feet were what carried then through the dusty countryside of Palestine.

Her suggestion was a simple one. If we were to follow Jesus’ example…and make the event relevant to our time and culture…we should wash each other’s car, not their feet. Brilliant! An act of service that actually MEANS something. Few of us wear open sandals and walk on dirt (and other “stuff”). But we all drive cars, and they get dirty.

We couldn’t pull it off this year. Not enough time. But if I have anything to say about it next year, we are seriously going to look into planning our first annual Lord’s Supper and Car Wash. Bread, wine, the Good News story, and buckets of soapy water.

In the meantime, perhaps you might want to follow Jesus’ example yourself. Wash a car. Mow a lawn. Find some way to lay down your life in service to a brother or sister. By this shall they know that you are a follower of Christ…

And I’m sure the promise of blessing if you do this still applies.