One of my FB friends asked, “I wonder how many dads teach their kids how to correctly polish their shoes.” My immediate question: how many kids wear shoes that can be polished? My friend’s dad did! There was a reason to do so. My friend is a stage person, goes to church regularly and feels a tie and well-shined pair of shoes are good for business. Having said that, he would spit shine his shoes just on principle—it is the right thing to do.

The right thing to do. According to whom? America has lost a common measure of the “right thing.” We’re going to get to watch a former Olympian transition from a man into a woman during prime time—it is a scheduled “reality” show. Is he doing the right thing? Is watching him make the transition the right thing to do? Reality?

I like bare flesh as much as anyone with a half-a-tank of testosterone, but the current cover of Sports Illustrated is a measurable amount of too far. The woman is a beauty, for sure, but I sure don’t want to have to explain that bikini tan line to anyone. The cover appeared on a news program to the involuntary gasp of a reporter. The next day the network had photo-shopped a cover for part of the cover. (She was on Fox this morning with the original photo—no photoshop—and a video of the photo shoot running in the background. The program hosts didn’t appear to be uncomfortable.) Who decided that photo was the right thing?

When an acquaintance told me they (bad grammar hides gender) had read “50 Shades of Gray” and gave it a positive nod, I wondered a whole list of things. Most of which began with, “What the hell has happened to decency?” The movie will be released Valentine’s Day weekend—to be timely. On Valentine’s Day weekend? Do the ladies giving thumbs up for the movie know what sadomasochistic means? Are they familiar with what happens in the act of bondage? And that trips their trigger?

I’m not suggesting it should not be marketed—book or movie. I’m wondering how it gets middle of the road billing. When did pain and tying people up become mainstream? And why? Is this culture missing something in its diet?

I found a dusty word we don’t use much: modesty. I was not fantasizing. Promise. I thought about how the sense of propriety would change if that beautiful young lady was standing in our living room in the same bikini and the same pose instead of on TV. Awkward! Does having her removed by 6 million copies of the picture, or seeing her through a TV screen make the visual more acceptable?

Disclaimer: I am not turned on by the photo, nor am I repulsed. She is a pretty woman with a knockout body. But, do I have a right to see that much of it? The purpose of showing me is what?

(And a lady who gave birth to a fourteen pound baby last week and she didn’t know she was pregnant! Explain that to me—I don’t need graphs or pictures. How does that happen—didn’t the lady notice something was different? This is a whole different topic—but it asks, Is anyone paying attention?)

TV programs have moved from intriguing characters and interesting plots to on-screen abuse, cruelty and torture. I’m not over-stating. Anytime a cordless drill is used on someone, it may be judged cruel and torture. The classification of adventure drama now describes vivid murder, execution and gore splattered on the mirror and wall.

Obviously, these TV producers have found a large enough market to make it profitable. If the watchers are that fascinated with that level of violence, then they need to sign up to fight the non-play acting brutality going on in North Africa and the Middle East.

Jessie DuPlantis tells about a church that does not allow women to wear sleeveless garb to church. Jessie jokes, “If an armpit turns you on, you got a demon!”

No one has asked me to be the clothes cop. No one gave me permission to monitor your viewing habits. I sure don’t want the job. Someone needs to be paying attention. The purpose of this expenditure of words is to ask you who sets the decency standard for you? How is that gauge calibrated?

I like a paragraph from my book, The Depot. Virginia Holloway lives next door to the parsonage and sunbathes in her bikini on her front lawn. The pastor’s wife—Virginia’s friend—says,

“I’m astonished at her. I would say she should be arrested for indecent exposure, but I couldn’t find a jury in this town that would agree it is indecent.”

What, who decides, for you, what the right thing to do is?

© D. Dean Benton – http://www.bentonministriesinc.com/