Strippers protest church

[ashleynj]

The most sexually repressed people often end up being the most perverse/sexually deviant. Women should dress any way they want.

[Mike930]

Originally Posted by Shirina

I once challenged every poster on this forum to provide one verse, just one verse, in the Bible that was actually meant to be funny, a string of words deliberately designed to elicit laughter from the reader.

No one could do it.

Unfortunately, religion itself can easily rob a person of their sense of humor. It is overly somber, stuffy, sterile, and reverential ... and that, to me, also makes it joyless.

Note I said religion can do this to a person, not necessarily a belief in God. I've known quite a number of believers who could be quite funny. But the most devout, the ones whose heads are smothered by ceremony, ritual, and the fear of punishment and/or judgment, well, being around them would make an insurance seminar seem like an amusement park.

I think you're absolutely right, though - a good sense of humor would go a loooooooong way in helping present religion in a more accessible light. Too often, religion is presented as merely a straitjacket, a set of rules that sucks all the fun and life from being alive.

I sometimes think that some Christians actually feel guilty if they feel good ... if they laugh or experience pleasure. To them, it would seem, life is supposed to be filled with misery and suffering, perhaps they think they are unworthy of such delights or perhaps because there is no humor in the Bible, the concept is lost on them.

I'm glad to know not all Christians have gone down that dark and dreary road.

I read your post this morning and have been thinking about it all day, trying to find something funny in the Bible. I have nothing. I asked my wife (who knows more about the Bible than I do). She just looked at me and said there is nothing funny in the OT. I even googled it and all I got was a website that pointed out certain verses I just don't think are funny. There was a good joke:

There's proof there will be no women in heaven:
Rev 8:1
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Ok, so it's not such a good joke. You win. I can't find anything funny in the Bible. In my opinion, He created us with a sense of humor, so I'll just go with that. Someone like Robin Williams had a gift to impart laughter and I just think that's a God given gift. My proof? Nothing.

While I have a bad temper at times, I like to laugh. I also think your correct about people feeling guilty for having pleasure, but Jesus said He came to give life and life more abundantly. How can you have abundant life without having a sense of humor?

I see some Christians and think of Heath Ledger's line as the Joker from the Dark Knight (I also like movies. A lot). "Why so serious?"

While I'll always believe in God and Jesus, I'm getting tired of the church.

[TRANSPONDER]

Originally Posted by cupper3

[/b]

But the other half! Mama Mia!

Sorry, you in fundamentalist areas may not partake in this experiment.

Yes, but then, with so many to lust after, 99% are going to be safe anyway. You will simply focus on those who are open to offers - either of being admired as they gyrate around a pole wearing two postage stamps and a bootlace (which is where we came in) or are willing to pair off with whatever males accelerate their libido either permanently (though I suspect evolutionary instinct does not run to pairing for life as much as popular myth likes to believe) or just until she loses interest...which is usually when the mobile 'phone beeps.

[Shirina]

Originally Posted by mordant

I can see the difference, and suspect that he can, but that's not his point. Today's jeans are form-fitting, the t-shirts are translucent, and there may or may not be a bra (or much of one) under it. Frankly, today's "Sunday best" as worn to church would have been immodest by the standards of a few generations ago.

I have always said that the problem with the way women dress is that it leaves little or nothing to the imagination. If women REALLY want to be desired then they ought to dress modestly so that there is something remarkable about making love ... some degree of wonder and revelation to it. The way it is now, by the time one has one's first sexual experience it is just so much rutting. Nothing new to see here, let's get it over with. The only appeal that really remains is being able to say you did it, to have that rite of passage and the first hand experience of it. But I suspect that the reaction of many is, "is THAT what all the fuss is about?" Heck, that conclusion arrives soon enough anyway, no need to hasten it yet more.

At my age I'm so inured to it, that if I woke up one morning to find that all the women in town had decided to take their morning walks "in the nude", I would find it hilarious rather than arousing.

Allow me to put a female's spin on this issue. How DARE you imply that ... nah, just kidding.

I actually agree with you for the most part. Sex among the youth of today is commonplace. It's almost blasé, just something to do on a Saturday night. It could easily show up on a 'to do' list magnetized to the refrigerator.

1. feed the cat
2. pick up chinese take-out
3. do physics homework
4. have sex with someone
5. take out garbage
6. buy more pencils

I refused to be that way. Now, I'm definitely not a sainted virgin, but I wasn't one of those girls, of which there were MANY, who would put out to any guy wearing Greek letters or had a good build. The result is an entire generation of men who think nothing of womanizing and engaging in misogynistic behavior. For a time, after first arriving to the U.S., I felt awkward and out-of-place being the only non-white, non-Nordic person in the room (even if 75% of the other girls dyed their hair blonde).

After a short time, though, I realized that PYTs ("pretty young things") were a dime a dozen. College campuses are filled to bursting with petite blondes. I began to relish in my exotic appearance - at least by comparison. So did a lot of the guys.

BUT ... more to the point, I didn't run around all the time in skimpy little outfits - skirts so short that I'd have to constantly pull it down and leg muscles straining to keep my legs tightly crossed when I sat. No, no tops so low cut that I dare not bend over or cut-off shirts so high that reaching for anything resulted in an unintended peep show.

I think you lose value that way, and that was something I was taught from the git-go. We girls really DO become "pretty young things" when we constantly dress for sex. You become something worse than a prostitute. You become a prostitute stupid enough to work for free.

Women, though, usually dress to impress other women. The skimpy outfits are just the way women compete. My body is better than yours. I'm the one going home with the fraternity hunk tonight. Look at me, ain't I a hottie? The skimpy clothes are designed to make other women feel inferior, jealous, and insecure. That's not -always- the reason, but it is much of the time. Men of my generation, heh, they don't care if you're wearing a burlap sack given that their goal is to get you OUT of your clothes, not stand there and look at you wearing them. You'll never catch a guy saying, "Wow, that Mary, she looks cute in that outfit." LOL! No, it's always the butt and the boobs - even the prettiness of your face means little. I've overheard many guys talking about girls with an ugly face but good body, "Yeah, if I put a bag over her head, I'd do her."

Me, well, I was always the odd one. I had a lot of friends, sure, but I tended to bounce from clique to clique because almost invariably the guys wouldn't take you seriously unless you sexed them up - and the girls in the clique adored them for the way they womanized them. I ended up entrenching myself with the geeks for at least -most- of them had kind hearts and gentle souls, and they did not take women for granted. But I'd still go to parties and marvel at the absurdity of human behavior. I think I rolled my eyes at least as often as I blinked them. Uh huh, you could accuse me of being a bit smug in this regard; I suppose it's one of my human failings. However, it's a smugness I cherish because I really don't want to be a part of the human miasma of sex, competition for sex, and parading around like a bargain-basement prostitute just to gain acceptance and popularity.

As someone who has yet to hit 30, I'm not overly fond of my generation. A good friend of mine once said that I had been born in the wrong time in the wrong era. Perhaps. The Hindu in me thinks that my reincarnation happened without a complete memory wipe. That somehow older values from a past life have lingered - or perhaps my soul is growing older. Who knows? Not that I believe in reincarnation, mind you. But I have wondered how I ended up so ... different ... than my peers. Whatever the case, the girls who dress yet barely dress at all aren't doing us girls any favors, and they're all going to have a lousy time of it later in life when they try to get jobs in world still run by men. How will my generation of men ever learn to respect women when the women seem to have no respect for themselves?

The "above it all" attitude does win you a good deal of respect. People start treating you like the wisened graybeard of the group always coming to you for advice and opinions. But it can be a lonely place to be sometimes - but it's a loneliness I chose because I couldn't be anyone else but who I am.

And that's my take on what you said ... because I do think you've hit (yet again) that proverbial nail on its equally proverbial head.

[cupper3]

Originally Posted by AREQUIPA

Yes, but then, with so many to lust after, 99% are going to be safe anyway. You will simply focus on those who are open to offers - either of being admired as they gyrate around a pole wearing two postage stamps and a bootlace (which is where we came in) or are willing to pair off with whatever males accelerate their libido either permanently (though I suspect evolutionary instinct does not run to pairing for life as much as popular myth likes to believe) or just until she loses interest...which is usually when the mobile 'phone beeps.

It's probably been close to 25 years since the last time I was in a strip bar, but in our part of the world, they wear nothing at all. I don't think those laws have changed.