MODESTY:

My musings are about to blow you out of the water. I have others too :) on blood transfusions, organ transplants, and Vaccinations messing with crossing animal/human DNA lines, as You well know ! HA ! Well, let me blast away! I'd like some feedback. OK? Kim reads through the bible systematically from left to right, and when he came to the parts in the Levitical law, and then remembered Noah, he started thinking.

We were discussing the transition of babies into children, then into pre-puberty... and the differences in necessity of modesty between family members at different ages. Obviously a baby needs care, while an 8 year old can care for themselves most of the time. While it is fine for a 2 or 3 year old to sometimes take a bath with another family member, it is not when the child is older. First, in Genesis, it talks about "knowing Adam's wife" (sexual contact). Then in Genesis 9:20-24 it talks about Noah, and it talks about Ham's "saw the nakedness of his father"... and the covering by Shem and Japheth. In Exodus 28:42-43, it talks about the garments that were to be worn by the priests when they performed their priestly duty. I forget the specific reference that it talked about when the priest ascended the stairs to the alter, that no one should be below him on the ground, so that by accident they would have their nakedness uncovered... In Lev.18:6-30 It talks about the "seeing of the nakedness" of immediate family and extended family, which God calls defilement, abominations, saying that they shall be cut off from their people.... etc. In Lev.20:10  It talks about adultery with someone other than the person's wife. They shall surely be put to death. Lev. 20:17 it talks about "seeing a sister or brother's nakedness" is a wicked thing, and the person shall be cut off from their people. The Bible says if a man looks at a woman, with lust, he has already committed adultery in his heart.

There is something about the looking with the eye that is evil - not just the act. Kim was thinking about the differences between Seeing (uncovering their nakedness) and the act of "Knowing" a person... The Bible seems very specific when it talks about keeping the lower half covered - from everyone: Male/Male, Male/Female, Female/Female. We were discussing the modern phenomena of gang showers in locker rooms, and physical exams that in a lot of cases are mandatory, and the morality issue of it. Kim thought that back in military history, that probably modesty had more importance, but that it was probably a financial issue rather than anything else, that the military and schools have gone to the no privacy method. There is great peer pressure, not to mention military and school and sports mandates for mandatory gang showers. We were thinking that this issue has contributed to homosexuality as well as loose morals in society today. This issue has probably been what has desensitized most youth to the extent that they don't realize that social acceptance of immodesty is un-Godly.

Because of "health care", and I use that word loosely, people feel very obligated to bare themselves for anyone in a white coat. In recent history, the doctor respected the woman's privacy, and there was draping that covered her in birth, and she was not "seen". The change came about for the doctor's convenience, if one were to check history, not for safety reasons. It is more convenient for a woman to be laying on her back ---- than for her to deliver in a more ergonomically productive manner, because the doctor is inconvenienced.

In a lot of these scriptural passages, it talks about the "land vomiting them out" as a punishment for the disregard for God's standards. I wonder how much of disease today is relevant to this disregard? We had a new Christian guy from New Zealand on the Rife list recently, who was making a lot of statements, quoting a lot of scripture (that wasn't relevant) calling a lot of the research we are doing "New Age", not understanding what we are doing, and why. He wasn't looking at the whole Creationist's view, even though I wrote to him about it. He was just supporting the medical stance and calling alternative medicine "New Age." I got to thinking of the stance that Bill Gothard takes in like manner regarding Standard Medical Procedures, versus what is currently misaddressed as "alternate medicine" which only 100 or so years ago, was THE standard, and the MD was the new kid on the block. They were New age! God calls immodesty Wicked. He calls for death, cutting off from his people, etc., where as today, most Christians don't question the validity of the necessity of disrobing for respectable health professionals.

My pastor has been preaching on dating. I guess I am thinking a lot about the coming of age, with regard to children, and their need to know Biblical truths regarding modesty -- not JUST Socially accepted medical protocol. Phil was talking about how easy it is to deceive women more than men. Personally, I think women especially have been sold a bill of goods, and most fathers and husbands haven't done word studies on it to know what's right and wrong scripturally on this issue.