www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall 'The Way Miss California Answered Her Question Lost Her The Crown

ehem ...

here's an interesting point to consider:
since when was "beauty queen competitions" anything close to Christian teachings the first place?

I cannot even imagine any possible way of presenting such a "beauty contest" as a Christian event.

The Oscars are something I don't particularly care to watch - I seldom like the films that they do - but at least in principle, making a good film is a genuine service to the public and recognizing such an achievement is neither unreasonable nor scandalous.

Unfortunately for me, I have pale Irish skin and I can get sunburned in the middle of the night. Unfortunately for everyone, the damage that has been done to the ozone layer makes sunbathing a dangerous exercise. If you are going to the beach, put on plenty of sunblock, swim, and get out of the sun! Better yet, find a nice, pleasant indoor pool.

Enjoy!

Fr. Serge

The only *real* problem with swimming is that you get wet

A few thoughts:
1) She is being criticized for "pushing her agenda." Why has no such thing been said about those who asked a political question with a "correct" answer?

2) That clown made news here when he used his free celebrity tickets to blather live insults about a show here, resulting int the egomaniac on stage directing a foul-mouthed tirade from the stage. (What did he expect? His show has yet to get a single positive review, and is becoming known as "Cirque de Flopp". I overheard tourists on the bus complaining about it ["all about his ego", "pieces just didn't go together"] and knew immediately where they'd just been).

3) The original Miss America contest featured local girls, and the point was to extend the tourist season another week in Atlantic City. Swimsuits, yes, but reasonably modest for the period.

4) I have fond memories of the Simpsons episode in which Lisa entered beauty contests. OK, all I remember is Bart telling her, "Lisa, this is the hardest thing a brother can ever have to say to his sister, but (gulp, stammer, hesitate) you're not ugly." [And its the bits like that that make me love the show.]

5) When the international pork exposition was still held in Des Moines, IA, they actually crowned a "Pork Queen." (Of all the "beauty titles to have . . ."). The year before I got there, she made national news for throwing pies *back* at the PETA protesters. They called that "disrespectful." Yes, these were the same pies they'd just thrown; she didn't have any of her own.

hawk

I heard her on Sean Hannity radio show today in the car. I heard what she said. She is a devout Christian who said that she initially floundered because she knew it would cost her the crown, but then decided that she could not sacrifice her Christian point of view for anything, even the title she wanted so badly, so she gave her opinion.

Apparently, this Perez Hilton guy has been publicly calling her the most crass and offensive terms one could possibly imagine anyone calling a member of the female sex. At first, she said that she was upset, but then she decided to pray for him. She said that he must have things in his life that make him like that, and that as she was speaking her whole church congregation was praying for him!

He also said that if she had won, he would have ripped the crown off of her head!

The greater gay community has apologized for his shameless tirade (good for them) and supposedly women's rights groups have spoken against this...(although, as Sean said, he hasn't actually heard N.O.W. (National Organization of Women) speak up anywhere--I wonder if that is because although women everywhere have been degraded by Perez's unbelievably offensive words, N.O.W. is notoriously liberal, and that means that they probably dislike having to defend a conservative Christian like the contestant).

Anyway, that is the latest....for the little time I was in the car to hear the show.

Alice

Pork Queen?

Some woman who relatively recently married one of the Battenbergs in England became known as the "Duchess of Pork" - which she understandably found offensive and hurtful. But a "Pork Queen"? Is this supposed to be an honor?

Fr. Serge

Alice and Terry -

so true.

I am reminded of the story of St. Nilus and the harlot Pelagia (who was known for her great beauty): as she rode naked through the streets of Antioch, all the clergy around Saint Nilus hid their faces, but he "gazed long and intently at her, then turning to those around him he said,'Did not the sight of her great beauty delight you? Verily, it greatly delighted me....'"

Not being Saint Nilus, or indeed Saint Anyone Else, I prefer those who appear in public to be fully clothed!

Fr. Serge

LOL!!

"Not being Saint Nilus, or indeed Saint Anyone Else, I prefer those who appear in public to be fully clothed! "

Having been in a Berlin park on a bright spring day that brought out hundreds of German "naturalists", I fully concur.

Me too--

This also raises a very interesting thing about Protestants, particularly American Protestants. Catholics often debate the balance of modesty and admiration of the beauty of the human body, etc. But Protestants have this weird obsession with not just the admiration of God's handiwork but with gilding the lily. A few years ago, my wife taught at a poor Southern public school where she was the frequent object of racial epithets ("cracker," "redneck," etc.) from her minority students.

At one point, during a lesson on Christianity (it was a history class), a student said, "You ain't no Christian!" This puzzled her. Then she tied it together with other snippets of conversations she'd overheard, and she realized that, to the populace who attended that school, the word "Christian" meant "someone who dresses nicely." (Not that my wife doesn't dress nicely, but she dresses like a modest Catholic woman).

While this discovery was made among African Americans, it's also true of white Southern Protestants. That was a huge part of the culture shock when my family first moved here 20 years ago: the amount of make-up girls wear, the way girls dress, etc.

To Evangelicals, it is somehow considered a matter of virtue for a woman to be vain.