"Pastor, what about bikinis?"

Usually, during my teaching time on Sunday mornings, we encourage people to text in questions which arise from the teaching.  Some time is devoted near the end to publicly respond to those which Jessica (my helper in this) receives on the iPad and tosses my way.

She did not toss this one.  "Pastor, what about bikinis?"

Why would someone ask that question?  Are you serious?

I think it was serious.  It points to an obvious matter in American moral culture. The matter of modesty vs. immodesty.  It also points to so much more.

THE HISTORY and DEFINITION OF THE BIKINI

We're told that the bikini was first introduced by a French engineer (an engineer?  really?) named Louis Reard (a man who worked in his mother's lingerie shop and named his creation after a site where the atomic bomb was tested in 1946 - he thought a "bomb" would go off when he introduced it).  At first, not even French models would wear them, so Reard hired a stripper to debut it. It was also separately unveiled by fashion designer Jacques Helm in Paris.  Wikipedia notes that "many western  countries declared it illegal and the Vatican declared it sinful. Popularized by filmstars like Brigitte Bardot and Ursula Andress, it became common in most western countries by the mid-1960's."

The sexual revolution in the 1960's changed many things, including the widespread acceptance of the bikini.  Not surprisingly, Christian summer camps across the United States and Canada passed rules against bikinis.

The simplest definition of a bikini is that of a "two-piece" woman's swimsuit, revealing the mid-section (i.e., the navel) of her body.  But bikinis are more accurately identified not by how many pieces there are in a particular swimsuit, but by how much they reveal of a woman's body when worn.  

Bikinis reveal much.  By covering less and less, they invite more and more attention to those parts of a woman's body which men find sexually attractive, indeed stimulating.

Interestingly, a man's brief swimsuit (according to Wikipedia) "may also be referred to as a bikini."  The intent is to wear less.  The result is to reveal or accentuate more.

THE REJECTON OF MODESTY

Jessica Ray has done some interesting research on the female bikini.  She notes that a popular song's lyrics in the early 1960's went like this

    She was afraid to come out of the locker
    She was as nervous as she could be
    She was afraid to come out of the locker
    She was afraid that somebody would see
             One, two, three four,
             tell the people what she wore
    It was an itsy-bitsy, yellow-polka dot bikini
    that she wore for the first time...

Ray (www.orbiscatholicussendus.blogspot.come/2013/07/catholic-view-of-bikini.html) also notes that early on, some suggested that the acceptance of the bikini was a step which "empowered" women in their quest for equal treatment and rights.   But she cites research that demonstrates that when men see a woman in a bikini, they are much more likely to view her as an "object to be used" rather than a "person to be empowered."  Surprise, surprise.  For her part, Jessica Ray decided to use her MBA to create a fashion female swimsuit line that is classy and modest...and one piece.

Here's the truth.  Today, many women across generations foolishly reject modesty, both in swimwear and in personal daily wear.  More driven to be fashionable, or to gain attention through over-drawing attention to their physical sexuality, they end up sending the wrong signals about themselves.  Unfortunately, many Christian women across generations follow suit.

Clearly, throughout the revelation we have from our heavenly Father, the Spirit urges women to be beautiful, but to understand what beauty is, and how to put it on display.  Not surprisingly, it has little-to-nothing to do with plunging necklines or just-below-the-crotch skirts or an itsy-bitsy bikini.   Good sisters in Jesus, I invite your attention to 1 Timothy 2:9-10 and 1 Peter 3:3-4.

WHY THE QUESTION, "WHAT ABOUT BIKINIS?"

I suspect this question came from a male (though I'm not for sure.  It could have come from a concerned mom).  It came as I taught from Romans 14, about not "causing a brother (or sister) in Christ to stumble," that is, in love we do not "use our freedom in Christ to act or live in such a way that would ruin another's faith and walk with God." 

Pornography today is a major destroyer of a man's walk with God.   Any woman without a heightened sense of this problem, and how she dresses accordingly, has her head in the sand.  "Walk through your local university campus dorms," one pastor said recently at a conference, "Pornography is everywhere." 

The truth is that the modern bikini-type swimwear is too revealing to be modest.   A bikini encourages more than one look to a female's body parts that are sexually stimulating for the male eye and mind, and thus in general public, to wear one represents a less-than-spiritually-mature or wise choice for a female Jesus follower. 

Frankly, a wife should wear one...for her husband!  Beyond that...

...well, how would you justify it, my sisters (in Christ)?