Beauty Pageants and the Marriage Question

Most of you had to have heard by now that Carrie Prejean, Miss California, lost the Miss USA pageant in what seems to be large part her answer to a question from gossip blogger Perez Hilton's question on gay marriage.

Here's Carrie's answer to the question whether she believed in gay marriage:

"We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."

Carrie is being destroyed in California for taking this position. First, let's be honest about one thing. Hollywood's mantra is "Free speech is only free if you agree with me." Clearly, had she said "anyone should be able to marry anyone they want--love is love" she may still not have become Miss USA, but she certainly wouldn't be treated in such a vicious manner today. In fact, nobody would even know who she was.

The hypocrisy of the whole thing is glaring. Another quotation from the article:

"Every year, tens of thousands of dollars are donated for the pageant and its prizes," explained a source close to Moakler’s team. "Already she (Moakler) has had to deal with very upset companies, because they gave so much to Carrie, and think she betrayed them. People in California, more so than most states, are particularly passionate about overturning Prop 8 --especially those in the pageant/beauty world."

Here's the worst quotation of them all, from Keith Lewis, a business partner of Miss California pageant director Shanna Moakler

Keith Lewis released a statement to FOXnews.com Monday morning condemning Prejean and saying that "religious beliefs have no politics in the Miss California family."

THEN DON'T ASK THAT KIND OF QUESTION. The absolute arrogance of these people, to think that everyone thinks like them, is appalling to me. I know Prop 8 is a big deal in California. There is a very visible and vocal opposition to it. But as the article stated, the Prop DID PASS by a majority of California voters in November. You can argue its rightness, but to sit back and not anticipate that a pageant contestant might share a belief like this, is either total arrogance or ignorance. Maybe the beauty pageant should stop pretending it is some high-minded "scholarship" contest and stop asking these kinds of questions. Ask those silly "if you had one wish, what would you wish for" questions where all the girls get to say "world peace" and we're done with pretending that we care about their opinions.

But if one girl happens to have an opinion that isn't party line, BEWARE. You will be humiliated and destroyed.

Now, I'll give Lewis some credit. He backed off his initial comments and made a quite diplomatic statement:

"I am proud of Carrie Prejean’s beauty and placement at the 2009 MISS USA pageant," Lewis said in a statement issued later on Monday. "I support Carrie’s right to express her personal beliefs even if they do not coincide with my own. I believe the subject of gay marriage deserves a great deal more conversation in order to heal the divide it has created."

Now, Carrie HAD to know the environment she was getting into. I haven't really seen if she's playing the victim card, or if she's changing her position as a result of this. If she knew that she might receive this backlash and made her response as she did anyway, kudos to her for standing up for what she believed in.

Here's a separate, but related, issue to consider regarding these pageants.

It is wonderful that this girl stood up for her beliefs as it relates to marriage. Is there any hypocrisy on her end for appearing in this pageant, considering that a third of it is a bikini contest? Is this a fair criticism of her from a Christian view? Am I being prudish and "puritanical"? I know that I struggle with lust temptation and while I'd like to be able to say that I can observe a bikini-clad female and observe the form for the beauty of God's handiwork the way I'd look at a sunset, its just not the same thing. So is she causing me, a brother in Christ, to stumble? Or is the responsibility on me, as the person who has the issue with the sin, knowing that the pageant has a bikini component, to avoid looking at her?

I'm not so sure its clear cut. On the surface level, my immediate reaction is, don't participate in the glorified bikini contest, hold yourself to a higher standard. There's also a part of me that says, do you leave the pageants wholly to the nonbeliever as long as there's a bikini portion? Also, what's different in parading around in a bikini and parading around in an evening gown? They're both about looking at the physical qualities of the female, just different amounts of covering.

So thoughts on the response to marriage question and thoughts on the participation in the beauty pageant in general.