POOR CARRIE!

This won't be a long piece. I just need to get this off my chest.

It's about Carrie. No, really it's about how we see things now as Christians. I am having a hard time admiring Carrie for her stand on gay marriage in the Miss USA pageant when every news item I saw on the internet used the photo of her in her bikini. I got a request from a well-known organization of Christian women asking me to send Carrie a thank you for taking such a brave stand even though it cost her the crown. I was already not happy with the whole situation, but this did not set well with me.

I did write to them, giving my thoughts. Have we come to the place where a person can be the spokesperson for Christians even though she felt it okay to take part in a pageant where one requirements was to parade before the audience...and the television audience...in a scanty bikini? I'm sorry. There is something wrong with that picture.

I'm told that Carrie attends Bible school. I wondered how the young men felt about seeing their classmate on television in such a lack of clothing. We are so messed up that we don't even have guidelines anymore. If you wholly follow the Lord, you are deemed a fanatic, even among fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. For me, a bikini is not something that should be in a Christian girl's wardrobe, and I know this is not a popular stand. I've had this conversation with people in my circle and this is not a popular stand. But secondly, dressed in a scanty swimming suit before a panel of judges and a crowd of people and the world outside by way of TV, cannot be pleasing to the Lord.

I don't blame Carrie but a little. I blame parents and Sunday School teachers and youth workers and grandparents who have folded. I blame me for not being more outspoken and for giving in on things that once were important to me. If something was wrong years ago, why is it okay now?

Anyway, that's what I believe. The main thing is that I won't email Carrie to tell her how proud I am that she stood up for marriage between a man and a woman if she felt at ease prancing around in high heels and a bikini. Nope.