O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria: ora pro nobis sancta Dei Genetrix.

This is the immediate response I have to our culture, such as it is. In today's "culture gone mad" files, I give you an experience the shock of which I am still recovering from. Without going into the graphic details, I just stepped off the elevator at the university where I work feeling a mixture of shock, shame, and sadness (to say nothing of outrage). What set's me off here is that a woman got on the elevator with her shirt unbuttoned nearly halfway down her torso, and wearing nothing underneath said shirt. My immediate response was to turn away from her: practicing custody of the eyes is necessary in certain awkward situations. She stepped back off of the elevator one floor later, before I had fully regained my tongue and my wits to suggest that she consider buttoning up.

My first thought about this is, how can this not be considered a form of sexual harassment on her part? I certainly felt a bit harassed by it. I can imagine how much any number of men in her classes might have been equally "harassed" by this disregard for modesty. I had to practice self-control of my eyes for all of 5 seconds; what of her male classmates who shared with her a class for an hour or two? I'm sure that their learning experience for the day would be more-or-less shot, especially for that particular class, and more so if there is a test that day. Perhaps one of her professors would offer her the correction which I failed to give--and I can only hope so for the sake of all involved--or perhaps one of her classmates will instead. Given another few seconds, I surely would have, though I hope it would have been both charitably and tactfully.

Now having taken a few moments to reflect more about the situation, how much different is it than what we experience every day in our culture? She could certainly claim, and truthfully, that "everything was covered." That, it seems, is what passes for the standard of "decency" (a sort-of euphemism for that unpopular virtue, modesty), as might be attested by any amount of time watching the cultural envelope-pushers amongst the Hollywood glitterati; her outfit was certain no more "revealing" than some of the less modest ones worn any given year to the red carpet events, the award ceremonies and banquets-of-honor thrown by the cultural elites to celebrate themselves. It is certainly more modest that the stuff that many of us--and (perhaps more frequently) our children--consume every day from such sources as MTV, televisions and billboard adds the world over, and even Sesame Street. To quote from Ace of Spades (himself not a social conservative; some content warning applies) about the effects of just one popular celebrity, Katy Perry, on modesty (and in turn, on chastity):

Ace of Spades wrote: What is our goal here? What's the current average age for girls losing their virginity? I'm gonna guess -- 15 and three months? Is the goal to push it down to 14 and 11 months? I think that is the goal, and I think Katy Perry can be very proud of herself for having that kind of an impact, pushing this age down by another four months.

Little if any of this is really that surprising, though. Indeed, in a culture which has embraced pornography--it becomes increasing difficult to find men and even women who haven't consumed and don't consume porn--this cavalier attitude towards modesty is hardly surprising. Indeed, Mr Mark Shea has noted that one measure of our decline as a society is that we aren't really shocked by other grievous sins against modesty and chastity, such as the most recent sex-scandal to embroil the Duke University Lacrosse team (among others).

We're still shocked by the latest example of an "envelope push," whether from Hollywood or from the local sexual liberberationist, but today's shock is tomorrow's fashion trend. What seems libertine now will in a few years be the cultural norm. I see one girl walking around ready to fall out of her shirt and am horrified. It may be the main style of clothing for university womyn (and then eventually all women) next year. I am certainly saddened on those few occasions that I must pass through the downtown area on a Friday or Saturday night, for the choice of dress there is anything but modest.

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men" (Matthew 5:13). Let's be honest for moment, now, and ask if this is merely secular culture? I would say no. Not only are there plenty of folks who are some sort of Christian--Catholic or otherwise--who are engaging in such behavior, but there are scarce attempts to really curb it from the pulpit or the pews. How many of us make the effort to keep the clothes we wear modest, and not just by one degree or so than the prevailing culture, but truly modest in that "don't even look, let alone touch" sort of way? To be quite honest, the way I see many people dress for Mass would scandalize a few decades ago, "decent" as it seems today (though, to be fair, not every parish has this problem; I see it most often during Life-Teen Masses and other Masses geared towards the high school and college crowds). The response of our clergy and other teachers to this has been tepid at best.

To be fair, there is some need to be "pastoral" in dealing with that low neckline or high hems. This is similarly true with the baggy jeans worn well below the hips, or that t-shirt which proclaims the saving power of the wearer's favorite celebrity. Yet, aside the occasional statement released by the bishops' conference, I hear nary a peep from the pulpit as regards modesty in dress and how it should be used to help reinforce chastity, to say nothing about respecting the dignity of the human person.

Tempting as it is to blame the lack of moral leadership from the clergy, this wouldn't be the whole story. Our priests, deacons, and other "formal" catechists only see us so often: perhaps once or twice a week. They cannot focus only on moral issues, because our Faith is not merely a matter of morality (though morality is an important part of the Faith). So I must turn to those whose job it is to pass the Faith on to the next generation, which include inculcating them with a proper desire to be virtuous, to be modest and chaste: the parents. Although a number of people "lose" their faith in the college years, most of these had lost their faith--and their morality--long before leaving the home, and were only able to manifest this more fully once away from Mom and Dad.

How many parents are diligently monitoring what their children are consuming on the television, the computer? Hopefully, all parents are, but simple observation suggests that this is not the case. Too often, the schools and then the television set become the baby-sitters of choice for many children, beginning at a very early age. And while some parents do well to monitor what their children are consuming from the television and to be involved with what their children are learning at schools, these are unfortunately in the minority.

The duty of parents extends beyond merely being the censors of entertainment and information consumed by their children. It is from the examples set in the homes by both parents that children learn most. Are these examples of faithfulness, both to God and His Church, and to the family (starting with each other)? Is the faith live--and joyfully so--in the lives of the family, starting with the parents? Is the marriage one which is lived out chastely: that is, lovingly and faithfully, fully open to the gift of new life? Do both (or at the very least one) of the parents look to spend quality time with their children "as a family"? If not, then it should be little surprise when the children leave their faith home when they leave for college--or to join the workforce--and are no longer living under the same roof as their parents.

So much is the culture we live in, and indeed the culpability of even many Catholic families for the situation. I am tempted to stop here, but my conscience compels me to go a step further.

Ezechiel wrote: "So thou, O son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and shalt tell it them from me. When I say to the wicked: O wicked man, thou shalt surely die: if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked man from his way: that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand. But if thou tell the wicked man, that he may be converted from his ways, and he be not converted from his way: he shall die in his iniquity: but thou hast delivered thy soul. Thou therefore, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have spoken, saying: Our iniquities, and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them: how then can we live?" (Ezechiel 33:7-10).

This is our culture, but it is ultimately we as Catholics who have the responsibility to work to change it. I do not yet have any children (I am still a newly wed), but that does not excuse me from my own part in working to renew the culture. Perhaps I failed in a small way to offer charitable correction--to be the faithful watchman--today, and indeed in a small way each time that I do not give a word of fraternal correction where it is needed. When I fail to do this, I act however unwittingly to aide or abet this culture of over-sexualization, of immodesty and unchastity: this culture of death.

We are all engaged in a culture war, whether we like it or not. Our enemy is ultimately not the other people in the culture, even those who are actively working against us. Instead, our enemy is the very devil in hell, and the prize of this war is our souls, and the souls of those we know. The only way to win that war, is to become saints. May all the saints in heaven pray for us, and may God help us all to become those saints. Mary, virgin mother most holy, pray for us, and help us to begin by seeking to live chastely and act modestly. Amen.

Tags: Culture Abolition-of-Ma N Culture-of-Deat H Modesty-and-Cha Stity

Bookmark: