Recently, a local department store advertised back-to-school fashions aimed at young women. The feature photo is of a girl seductively eyeing the camera, her buttocks thrust out and breast pushed forward with obvious cleavage. Her left hand teasingly lifts her “must have for the season” top to reveal a bare midriff and the fingertips of her right hand casually rest just above the button of her hip hugger, skintight pants. You can almost hear her whisper from the page, “should I go on?” Just exactly what is being advertised here, to whom, and at what cost?
The attire of too many Aquinas students is similar to or worse than this ad. I visited my alma mater the first week of school and was appalled at the attire I saw. Young women in skintight shorts barely covering the buttocks! Do you know what men are thinking when they see you bend over in those shorts to pick something up? And cleavage! Bounding (and bouncing) past Bukowski Chapel went a young woman whose breasts were so revealing through her low-cut and open blouse, I turned away. Not for my own embarrassment but for hers. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” I whispered. What would your mama say if she could see you now?
In Romans, Paul commands us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Our bodies are made to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. Is your “temple” pleasing God and showing others that he dwells within you? Or does it please his Enemy instead? Jesus advises us in Matthew’s gospel that “everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Women who dress modestly glorify God not only because they represent a holy temple, but because they also keep men, who truly are the weaker sex, from falling into temptation and lust.
Ladies: you can improve this campus by how you dress and conduct yourselves. As an Aquinas College student, you represent the community. Present yourself as such; advertise Aquinas College by all means, but not as if the college is now offering pole-dancing classes.
