RESPONSES TO "

RESPONSES TO "BE CAREFUL HOW YOUR CHILDREN DRESS"

June 15, 1997 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - On June 13 we published an article "Be Careful How Your Children Dress," and the response was interesting. The following letter illustrates the positive letters we received:

LETTER FROM READER: "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! As a woman, I am so pleased to see someone who has the nerve it takes to speak about the truth of women's dress. This issue has been all but buried by even the most fundamental churches, and yet women in men's clothing stands on the same abominable level as witchcraft! Thank you for being an encouragement to our household of girls who are always ridiculed, even in their own church, for their stand for modesty. That's OK -- He's worth it!"
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Consider another response, this one from a man:

LETTER FROM READER: "Thank you for this well-written, timely article. I was very encouraged by the statement, 'The woman who refuses to dress modestly is responsible for the lustful thoughts and illicit passions she stirs up in men.' Generally, I hear radio pastors say that the problem is with the men, that they ought to ‘just look away.’ One tract indicts this as the ‘just don't look’ attitude, which are the very words I have heard Christian girls use, when I confront them about their immodesty. … this morning as I drove to work, I saw a man jogging with his three daughters. These girls each appeared to be less than 8 years old. Each wore a halter top (bare midriff) with shorts. It was an unusual for me to see girls this age, so immodest. Their conscience is seared for life. In this case, the blame is on the father. I have said, over and over, that the burden of the blame for so much immodesty on women is on the men, i.e., for the brothers who say nothing to their immodestly-dressed sisters, to the husbands who are silent about their wife's immodesty, and to the fathers, who remain silent, year after year, about their daughters in scanty clothes."
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We could not agree more with brother. There is a great responsibility in this matter for the husbands and fathers. In O Timothy magazine, Volume 13, Issue 2, 1996, we published an article on this topic. It was entitled "Are Men Lusting after Your Wife or Daughter?" It is available in the O Timothy Computer Library.

Some of the responses to the article "Be Careful How Your Children Dress" have not been so positive. Consider another letter which we received:

LETTER FROM READER: "While I agree that we all ought to dress modestly and correctly as the situation we are in requires, lustful thoughts (etc.) are never the responsibility of the one being lusted after, no matter how he or she dresses. Refer to James 1 (I forget the verse) which states that each of us is tempted when we are dragged away by our evil desires and enticed. Also on the sermon on the mount Jesus says that to look at a woman the wrong way is tantamount to adultery. In no case is the responsibility in any part on the woman's head (or vice versa, I suppose, if a woman is doing the lusting). Each of us is responsible for our own sin."
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To this I gave the following reply:

You have got to be kidding. If your position were correct, there would be no sin on the part of a stripper or a porno star; but the Bible says the whore "increaseth the transgressors among men" (Proverbs 23:2-28). While it is obvious that a man is responsible for his thoughts, it is equally obvious that the woman is responsible for her actions. The Bible very plainly states that we have a responsibility for how our actions affect others, even if those actions are technically legal.

"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" (Matthew 18:6,7).

"Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way" (Romans 14:13).

"We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me" (Romans 15:1-3).

"It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak" Romans 14:21

"Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend" (1 Corinthians 8:13).

"Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved" (1 Corinthians 10:32,33).

"Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed" (2 Corinthians 6:3).

"Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others" (Philippians 2:4).