Preserving holy things...

The Anchoress says:

'Thoughtlessly, we give away our boundaries, physical, spiritual, and psychic – we allow breeching and encroaching without understanding that our natural or learned boundaries are not prisons but safety zones, the places reserved for ourselves and God and those most beloved to us.

'All-too-seldom do we reserve those things for their proper dispersal. Instead, like Chesterton’s “dead things that go with the stream” instead of against it, we bow to the popular culture and morality. We give away our chastity for a very temporary pleasure that brings with it a strange hollowness; with repeated behavior it can only grow into an aching void.

'We give away our sensible reserve, rather than be thought haughty. We give away our better instincts to kindness, in order to make the cheap joke, and when the snickers are over we must listen to our consciences.

'All are guilty, from time-to-time, of throwing away our Holy Things, and when we do it, we contribute to the coarsening of the culture, and the hardening of our own hearts.'

She speaks of "chastity" in a very broad theological sense. The Anchoress begins the post by discussing Carrie Prejean, a pretty girl who believes she got into pageants in order to glorify God. How well she did so is ultimately God's business not mine. Nonetheless, I cannot think of a more difficult life to live in holiness than to be admired, rewarded, gawked at, discussed, observed, made up, clothed, bikinied, and crowned because of one's personal beauty.

If beauty pageants were not an industry, but simply a surprise vote on the subway, they might be more meaningful. But thousands of young women dedicate years of effort to wear a crown and be recognized not merely as pretty, but to be certified as prettier than the next girl. I am trying to teach my daughter that being pretty is a gift that should not be exploited, but merely enjoyed and given to others in visitation and sacramental relationships.

I would not encourage my daughter to spend years practicing her walk and stance in order to gain the attention of pageant judges (though we do teach her to walk confidently, shake hands, and hold her head up). The pageant scene, like modeling, is full of people who love human beauty at best and shamelessly exploit beauty as a matter of course. Miss Prejean found that to be Miss USA she had to flatter and tickle the sensibilities of the judges. She found, as most winners do, that being Miss California is a full-time job of constant public appearances and no time of your own. When she found her cause and voice as Miss USA runner-up and Fox News commentator, being Miss California was no longer important. Moreover, she felt exploited, even if she didn't understand that the entire pageant culture is exploitive by nature.

I won't segregate various human endeavors from stripping furniture to stripping one's clothes as inherently "Christian" or "un-Christian." (Context, intent, and purpose are everything.) If you absolutely would not want at least one of the following to observe a particular endeavor- your mother, your father, your spouse, your child, or your priest- the endeavor will probably put you in a position to commit a mortal sin. You don't have to do so, but you have to be strong every time, not just most of the time. Ask Gov. Mark Sanford (and Cain).

Our real enemies, as King David learned as he stayed home from war and observed Bathsheba from his roof, are boredom and self-pity. We fail to believe that God can fulfill us through His sacramental order and our vocations. Thousands of generations after Adam and Eve, we are still biting into the fruit in hopes of being God.