Celebrities- Then and Now Part 2
Jackie Kennedy: Regal Fashion
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was the wife of John F. Kennedy and was known as Jackie Kennedy. She served as First Lady until her husband’s assassination in 1963.
Since her death, many Americans remember how she captivated the attention of her nation and the rest of the world with her intelligence and grace. With a deep sense of devotion to her family and country she dedicated herself to raising her children and to making the world a better place through art, literature, and a respect for history. She left a discrete legacy of strong commitment to many causes. She was no overnight, flamboyant, lightweight sensation but a generational force; a Madonna of the palace.
Her well beloved designer Oleg Cassini (who created her entire wardrobe while in the white house) described her as:
“In one exquisite moment, Jackie Kennedy became the epitome of glamour and elegance-the uncrowned Queen of America. Her legacy is one of beauty, grace and charm.â€
Can you imagine her going to jail for a suspended license? I think not.
I need not go into details on Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton or Britney Spears. Their lives are plain enough. Their reputation as “the bad girls†precedes them. The tragedy lies in the fact that their mothers did not train them to become ladies, that our culture has forgotten even what a lady looks like.
Will they leave an enduring legacy? I think not.
The solution:
We can complain about the world’s woes all day long, but without any progress in the other direction we have no right to moan.
The destructive influence of foolish women is obvious in our secular world. We can think of others, besides the above three, whose lifestyles have wielded an enormous, negative impact on our entire culture.
But what is more alarming is the extent that this foolishness has entered our churches. We have blurred if not eliminated the distinctions between masculine and feminine character, behavior and roles. As author Nancy Leigh Demoss affirms:
“We have lost our moorings, our sense of what is pure and good, true and right. We have little comprehension of the meaning or importance of such old-fashioned words as wholesome, modest, discreet, and chaste.
The crux of the matter is this, we must return to the biblical teaching and thinking about our calling and roles as women. Our very families, homes, churches, governments and society stake upon this very issue.
John Adams illustrates:
“From all that I have read of history and government and human life and manners, I have drawn this conclusion: that the manners of women were the most infallible barometer to ascertain the degree of morality and virtue of a nation. The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Swiss, the Dutch, all lost their public spirit and their republican forms of government when they lost the modesty and domestic virtues of their womenâ€
Will we stand idly by? I think not
August 7th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are leaving a lasting impression/legacy, but not the ideal you and I would hope for. They are idolized by many who are America’s future.
You make many good points here and I hope that God is shifting the perspectives of today’s masses one willing heart at a time.
August 7th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Perhaps they are leaving a legacy, but you are right, it’s certainly not the one we want to tell our daughters.
Thanks for your comment
August 15th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I think the Lohan-Paris-Britney trifecta are not leaving a legacy so much as setting themselves up to be laughingstocks (which they already are). They probably won’t be forgotten, but neither will they be admired or seriously held up as role models. The unfortunate thing is that so many young girls DO look to them that way, and for some reason, their elders - teenagers. young adults, and the mothers of these little girls - have followed suit. How strange!
As far as the church…hee hee. Be careful. I wrote a rather lengthy piece that touched on this subject a long ways back and was accosted from all sides about being “judgemental”, “out of touch”, and “stupid” for being concerned after I saw a woman with a large, revealing, intentional hole in the seat of her designer jeans (with no panties beneath), a woman wearing a sheer blouse with NOTHING underneath, and the girl who stood on a platform running the video camera wearing a skirt so short I could tell what colour underwear she had on just sitting in my seat - all in one day, all at church. I was horrified, especially because our pastor had seen hole-in-the-buns lady (not that I wanted him to call her out then and there, of course!). This is to say nothing about the regular belly-baring tops, belly-and-bottom-baring jeans, and extreme cleavage seen on a weekly basis (one young lady in particular must have had the best bikini waxer in town, lol!).
Apparently, expecting sartorial respect at church is out of line and un-Christian. *sigh* I know He accepts us as we are, but surely He deserves a little more respect - as do the bodies He blessed us with and the eyes and minds He blessed others with.
Oh, dear… *steps off soapbox*
August 15th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
It is a sorry day when our churches are no longer a “refuge” but a distraction. Listen to this section of a letter from a young man regarding immodesty in the church.
(This letter was originally read in a message by C.J. Mahaney entitled, “The Soul of Modesty”)
“God has created his church to be a resting place for Christians, to be a place where people can encounter God with out all the distractions. It is disappointing when I walk into the church or an event with the church and have to deal with the same temptations that I face in the world. But I rejoice whenever I see a girl or woman who is attempting to serve the Lord and guys by dressing modestly. You have no idea how sweet and challenging it is when I see a woman who had decided not to flaunt her body like the culture shouts for her to do, but rather she has decided that serving the Lord and her brothers is more important.”