Tonight I entered new conversations with young conservative political minded men at a dinner hosted by Tony Abbott. The guest speaker was Melinda Tankard Reist (MTR) from Women’s Forum Australia. It was interesting stepping into this dialogue with non-Christians who hold a similar stance on morality just without the same foundation of faith as myself. These young men were confronted with the statistics that MTR presented.

It again reminded me the value of having Christians enaging in these sorts of dialogues. I have said previously that the arts is a place for an on-going conversation about the world around us and provides for an amazing forum for dialogue truth and wisdom within our society. And tonight I was reminded of how much policy and politics is an arena, a perhaps difficult but loud one, where we as Christians can appeal to our societies sensibilities according to common grace and wisdom in seeing divine order in creation, even if they don’t know the divine being behind it. It was very stimulating to chat in a meaningful way with non-Christians about the depravity we see in our culture and the harm it is doing us. And it is harming us and the future generations.

Going along tonight has yet again placed the issues of the objectification of women and teens in the media at the forefront of my thinking and the need to be able to dialogue with non-Christians about this. I want to more easily be able to speak about my faith intelligently, articulately and genuinely. The following is an article I wrote last year when I first heard MTR speak:

This week my friend accepted a job with Playboy International, as an interior design intern for their New York bars and nightclubs. Another one of my friends is growing in reputation as a burlesque dancer who is fusing the modern and traditional styles. Most of my other friends who work in more ‘normal’ jobs are really happy for these friends – they are pursuing their dreams, getting good money and having fun. What can be wrong about that? I like seeing my friends happy too, however I can’t quite reconcile why happiness is found is working for an industry that feeds the objectification of women and that normalises sex as a commodity.

When did we accept synonymity of sex with red, black and naughty? And why do we construe violent, abusive and pornified images, as the norm for sexy? Our ears are blasted by the advertising jingle for a popular male deodorant, which uses Bom-Chicka-Wah-Wah, the onomatopoeia guitar riff from porn movies of the 70s. This has even provided inspiration for the single released comprising of these lyrics: “what if in the morning there is guilt and regret? Better than another night watching TV with you pets”. We watch, laugh and usually pass-over the unhealthy concepts of relationships, image and sex promoted. But for how long shall we concede? What are our boundaries?

The pornification of culture has even crept into the children’s clothing market whereby ‘bust-booster’ bras are manufactured for tweens and zebra print “Heel-arious” high heels for 0-6month old girls. Additionally, the “Peek-a-boo” pole-dancing kit marketed for six-year-old girls promised, “to unleash the sex kitten inside”.

Am I just the fuddy-duddy, Jesus-loving, old-fashioned and conservative Christian friend? Do you think, as the apostle Paul does in Ephesians 4, that our society has lost all sensitivity? Then again, should we even be surprised that there are no objective moral norms, given our society holds no belief in an objective moral-norm-giver.