×

This has been an unusual week for me as a blogger. I wrote a blog post on Monday evening, “I Weep for Miley,” which was atypical in its tone and scheduling. Within a few hours, it went viral, leading to more than 80K shares and 400K views.

In the comments section and personal FaceBook messages, I received a lot of feedback and some criticism as well. I thought it might be helpful to address a few of the most recurring questions.

Did you really weep?

I was asked this multiple times, and the answer is yes. In fact, it was my weeping over this that prompted me to write in the first place.

After I got home on Monday night, Corina and I talked about the VMA’s and she watched part of the performance on YouTube. A little while later, I was watching our little girl play outside in a new summer dress she’d just gotten. And I just broke down about it all.

Because writing is one way I process my thoughts, I went to the kitchen table and started listing the reasons I was so affected by this. I usually don’t pay that much attention to “shocking” news stories. I’ve never seen an episode of Hannah Montana. To process why I felt so burdened over this, I wrote the blog post. Based on the response, I guess I put into words what a lot of people were feeling.

Why didn’t you write about Robin Thicke?

I don’t feel Christ-like compassion for Robin Thicke and other men who benefit from degrading and demeaning women. My visceral response is to be outraged that we live in a society where chivalry is dead and men can be involved in such displays of depravity without consequences. I’m praying the Lord would work on my heart and give me a proper proportion of righteous anger and His sense of compassion.

Why did you refer to Miley as sister and daughter rather than simply her status as a human being made in the image of God?

Some said I should have made it clear that lust is wrong because because Miley is a human being with innate dignity, not because she is in relation to anyone else. I agree with this criticism for the most part. Thinking of Miley as a daughter or sister, however, is what helps remind me of her humanness. It’s abstract for me to think of the theological truth of image-bearing without bringing other relationships into the picture. This has been one of the ways I fight the temptation to lust, look at pornography, or objectify women.

Why aren’t you weeping over more important things?

This was a recurring theme in the comments and in private messages I received. You’re only giving this girl more attention. There are children starving every day, etc. I don’t know how to respond to this critique, except to say I do believe there are other important issues to weep over.

The blog was merely a reflective post in which I unpacked the reasons the Miley debacle had so affected me. There are other issues that get to my heart (readers of this blog know that I am especially engaged in issues related to human rights for the unborn). Suffice it to say, I think Christians should probably cry more, not less, over the lostness of our world.

My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law. (Psalm 119:136)

You are a misogynist who thinks women need men to give them permission to perform in suggestive ways.

I’ll let blog readers decide if there’s any merit to this concern. Simply put, I do not believe it is a sign of progress for women’s rights for a woman to feel she must shock the world by exposing overt sexuality in order to make headlines and be accepted.

Conclusion

I’m always a little surprised when one of my blogs strikes a chord. This is why I love writing. You get to say what people are feeling but don’t know how to express. And then people spread the words that have given voice to their hearts.

Had I known the blog post would be read by so many people, I would have probably changed some things and tightened up aspects of the post. But over-thinking it might have lessened the emotional impact that led me to write it in the first place.

I pray the Holy Spirit would break our hearts over the lostness of our world, lead us to compassion toward people in need of Christ, and drive us to our knees in prayer.

LOAD MORE
Loading