Nancy Campbell, a Fundamentalist Christian, warned women today about the “sin” of showing cleavage in church. That’s right, with everything that is going on in the world, Campbell is worried about cleavage.
Isaiah 61:10 says: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath CLOTHED me with the GARMENTS of salvation, he hath COVERED me with the ROBE of righteousness.” When we accept the salvation God gives to us, He washes away our sins, covers us with the precious blood of Jesus, and clothes us with a robe of righteousness. It’s not our righteousness for we have none of our own, but it’s His righteousness.
This is something that happens to us spiritually. However, everything that happens in the inward man should be revealed in the outward man. Our physical body emanates what goes on in the “hidden man of the heart.” I believe that if we are truly covered with a robe of righteousness inwardly, we will also reveal this work of righteousness within us by covering our physical bodies.
A robe is not a scanty dress; it covers the body. It doesn’t have to cover head to foot, but at least a robe usually covers the top to below the knee. I grieve as I observe women who confess they are Christians and yet blatantly display cleavage, some a little, some as much as they can! It has become so normal in the Christians church that some young Christians think it is standard clothing! Why would women want to take that which is sacred to the bedroom out into the public market place? And why would husbands. who are the covering of their wives, allow them to leave their home with so much flesh showing? Why do they want the world to see what belongs to them alone (Proverbs 5:15-19).
First, Campbell rips Isaiah 61:10 out if its context and uses the verse to prove her anti-cleavage point. As Campbell aptly shows, the Bible can be used to prove anything.
Second, Campbell believes women should cover their bodies from their necks to below their knees. Why, if Evangelical women don’t do this, horn-dog preachers, deacons, and other church males will be tempted to lust. Think about what she is saying. Showing ANY cleavage is a sin. The slightest glimpse of a woman’s breasts in church will lead hapless, weak, pathetic men astray. As always, women are to blame when men can’t keep their minds out of the gutter.
I call on women to protest Campbell’s anti-cleavagery. 🙂 Proudly show your cleavage. Seriously, Campell’s and Lori Alexander’s obsession with women’s breasts is silly and absurd. Personally, I am a big fan of cleavage. That said, I am not worried that I will want to sexually have my way with women who show theirs. For fuck’s sake, grow up.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Connect with me on social media:
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.
These types really are going for Sharia law, aren’t they? As soon as I read the description of how women should dress I thought, “Maybe they will get to making Christian women (and the rest of us women) wear burkas. Cause otherwise it’s just too hard.
Anti- cleavagery ! I learned a new English word today, ha- ha !🤣🤣
I’ve always thought it’s very insulting for idiots like Nancy and Lori to portray men as weak-minded idiots who can’t control themselves.
I always point out great bazooms to my husband, he’s usually already noticed them before me, though. And so far, I have not had to tackle him to the ground to keep him from attacking. Maybe he’s just stronger than Christian men?
Yeah, I’m free to look, as is Polly. No worries about adultery. 😂
In my marriage we are both free to enjoy the scenery, but not to the point where we are so busy enjoying it we walk right off a dock and land in the lake. (It happened to someone we knew)
Was reminded of this post today. I had coffee with friends who volunteer at a local Charity (Thrift) Shop. They were pleased it had re-opened after a year’s lockdown.
Friend 1: Has that woman come back, the one who never missed coming in around 10am on Thursdays?
F2: Not sure who you mean. What does she look like?
FI: About 80, white hair, and put it this way, if she tripped and fell in the street, her face wouldn’t be the first thing to hit the ground.
Just amused me, a very discreet way of describing someone who is, shall we say, very well endowed in the chest department.
Very much this! Our marriage has, for decades, had a simple rule, which applies to both of us: You can admire, but that’s all you can do. Keep your mouth shut and your hands to yourself.
If it makes her feel any better, I never show cleavage and I no longer wear short skirts in public.
Somehow I don’t think that will matter to her…
And it won’t matter to men anyway. Recently i was staying in a hotel and using the laundry room. My clothing choice was a tank top and leggings, so I was covered neck to ankles. A man came in, started his laundry, left, then came back anout 5 minutes later to hit on me. I turned him down, I am worth far more that $15 and a case of bud light. I mean, seriously, bud light???
Maybe she should lecture men on their lack of self control before putting the blame on innocent women.
So, you can be bought for a good IPA? 😂 Some men. They never seem to have gotten out of middle school — the bra strap snapping, drooling days.
I am not answering that question…let’s just leave that a mystery.😇😉
There are some things a lady never, ever reveals—and I’m not talking about body parts.
Me, I don’t name my price. I just know when someone reaches it!😏
I thought jesus made it clear about lust. If your eye or hand offend you, deal with it, gouge it out or chop it off, not slut shame the recipient of your lascivious thoughts.
😂😂
I remember a man complaining to me about his lust towards his teen stepdaughter. He said he couldn’t help himself. I should have just cut off his hand (or dick). 😂
I thought the brain is actually our most significant sexual organ. Maybe you could help him to remove his brain. That will solve the issue.
Assumes facts not in evidence. The man in question appeared to be governed by his little head, not the big one that is supposed to contain the brain.
It isn’t about cleavage, or short skirts/shorts, or whatever the pearl clutchers are whining about this week. It’s fundamentally about a woman’s right to control her external presentation to the world. Mustn’t have those uppity women thinking they own their own bodies! I mean, look at her whining about how the body belongs to the husband, and why is he letting his wife go out that way? This is about who owns a woman, herself or some man.
I’ve been married for 41 years, I love my husband, and he’s never, ever dared suggest to me that I dress differently than I do. (Oh, wait, he did suggest I not wear white, but he’s right; I look sickly in a white top. My wedding gown was beige.) I remember one visit to my parents’ place. I was wearing an oversized buttondown shirt, a couple of buttons open, no bra showing. My mother and I were standing in a hallway talking, and she casually buttoned my buttons. Without missing a beat in the conversation, I unbuttoned them again. Cultural enforcers can go fly kites on the freeway.
Well, since I’m gay, I’m more concerned with Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt or Chris Pine in a tight speedo. Having said that, regarding women’s cleavage, didn’t God give each woman her cleavage? So why should a woman hide God’s gift?
I wish I did have cleavage. 😀
I have no or very little cleavage. Being 61 years old I am glad I do not have to mess with bras.
I’m 65 & ditto. 😀
63 and very little cleavage. Resisted the temptation to have breast augmentation—even when someone else offered to pay for it. I made this choice because: a.) Every large-breasted woman I know complains about their “endowment” and b.) I have seen too many trans girls (I use this term because most of them are/were young) who got the augmentation and either got really sick (usually because the procedure was done by an unlicensed “doctor”) or c.) They looked like exaggerated versions of women.
So if a husband is a wife’s covering, she should be fine walking around naked, am I right?
Just another way to shame women and try to control them. She is trying to set the rules about proper lengths of clothes. F#$% that.
I’m trying to understand the point of all this, are women supposed to hate themselves/their bodies? Why else are they being given a hard time by Nancy Campbell for having bodies?
Ah! That old standard of leaving up to the women to prevent men from lusting. Here’s an idea… what is normalized is no longer considered forbidden. Therefore, it’s “Titties out” as far as the person with titties wants them to be out. FFS. The idiocy of declaring breasts for the bedroom disgusts me.
It’s actually a good example of the evangelical mindset, you are saved by faith then you add on pet hates of the Pastor or 1st lady. In this case the 1st lady has a bee in her Sunday bonnet about women with cleavage. Just she have an equal bee in her bonnet about her church members all going out and ministering to the poor? I am guessing not.
Reminds me of a recent year book scandal a public high school had some church lady photoshop all the cleavage off the young women in the year book. (I’m presuming it was a lady as no man would do this)
Overall though our culture has a very weird outlook on boobies. Any part of the boobie can be presented except the nipple which looks exactly like the male nipple. I was watching a bit of the horror romp “Piranha 3” recently and as the young women flitted about topless in the swimming pool, I was thinking boobies are cute why does our culture conspire to cover them up?
Maybe your nipple mate 🙂
Comment Deleted
Yep, yet more time to troll this blog. Just wondering, have you decided to take my challenge to open your church to the homeless, or will you just continue your Christian country club meetings and trolling this site, and ignore those your god says you should help? Are you ever going to address this challenge or will you just keep hiding from it?
Inaction is the same as saying no. Do for the least of these…..
Ms. Campbell, I have no doubt that God (if there is a god) knows exactly what you look like naked. I doubt that he’d be all that upset about women showing cleavage in church. With religion in its present downturn, I suspect that he’d be happy that people, including those with a couple of buttons unbuttoned on a hot day, just showed up.
Unless they’re coming in topless, I fail to understand your problem. If women are walking around in public and not being arrested for indecent exposure, neither you nor their husbands have the right to tell them what to wear. They are adults, and can decide for themselves what is appropriate. If their choices incite the lust of the men present, those men need to grow up and learn to control themselves.
Back in 2019, my husband and I went to Tanzania for 12 days. We did go on safari, but also went to a few church services as my husband is an Anglican priest. There were many mothers of babies and toddlers in church with the kids on moms’ backs. When the babies got hungry or restless, the mom would untie her sling and nurse the child. She did not cover up and just breasted with a bare breast. There was nothing sexual at all about the bared breasts of the women. I though it was so lovely to see these women nursing their babies and toddlers and their babes were so content. There was also one little boy that wandered into the service with a bare bottom. Nobody thought anything of it.
Btw, I read my copy of Emma by Jane Austen during the service. My copy is small, has gilt edged pages, and a ribbon book mark. I took along on the trip since it was little.
THATOTHERJEAN and CAROLK describe this perfectly. All this nonsense about women’s cleavage is more cultural than religious. All some Christians want to do is make women unhappy with their bodies and put the responsibility of male feelings and actions on their shoulders.
Darthimon—So true. It makes me wonder whether women like Nancy Campbell and Lori Alexander are actually spilling out such bilge or are channeling it for their husbands, pastors or other men in their lives.
The fundie mindset (which, to be fair, is still part of the general culture, unfortunately) is to want women to be ready and willing for sex when the men want it, then to blame them for being fuckable. It would be as if I were to blame the baker of a cheesecake for diverting me from my diet because I simply could not resist when he or she topped that cheesecake with cherries.
Your food analogy is perfect! I’m going to steal that and use it often!
MJ…wait!! You’re telling me it’s not the baker’s fault? But, but but that cheesecake with cherries is IRRESISTABLE so the baker should take ALL THE BLAME. I mean, I gave up sugar and not once did I say, “It is someone else’s fault that I fell into this temptation to eat a Thin Mint Blizzard?” Dammit, it’s almost like I did the adult thing and said, “I ate it.” SHOCK.
Dammit, BJW, do you have to be so ADULT about stuff with SUGAR and CHOCOLATE?!
LOL Karen. I love sugar. But I ate too much for decades, and when I was recuperating from surgery 2 years ago (knee replacement UGH) I lost my urge to overeat? And ended up making healthier substitutions. But dammit, I was out today and even though I thought a Thin Mint Blizzard would taste lovely, I just didn’t crave it enough. Maybe next time!
When I become Queen, I will decree that men cover their…oh, never mind. ☺️
Barbara, you’re right. I think it’s interesting that we can show our legs (I’ve been told that mine are nice, btw) but not other parts.
Oh, by the way, when I was at the Angkor Wat, I couldn’t help but to notice that on some sciulptures
of the apsaras (dancers and singers for the gods, one body part—actually, a pair of them—was more worn away than the rest. Hmm…They must have some interesting rain and wind patterns in Siem Reap!
The typical mindset of the religious right – this is merely another way of blaming women for the violence directed at them, as well as suggesting men are base creatures who are unable to conduct themselves with restraint.
Forgive my ignorance but for well endowed women in a massive heat wave isn’t the idea of constricting and complete coverage a bit of a health risk?
It seems to me that it is keeping prominent sources of bodily heat trapped and confined which in 100 degree weather could be hazardous to ones health.
Enforced discomfort and health risks seem to be a hallmark of religion towards women.
But I admit to speaking from ignorance.
Nah, you’re speaking from reason. Reason is deadly for Fundagelicals of any religion.
Dear Bruce Genser and Friends,
It was the story of a scuba diver that changed my thinking about the ole, if-ya-got-it-flaunt-it (game). He said, where he and his fellow scubas went diving, there were sharks. But these guys (and gals, i guess) didn’t worry about the sharks. However, if one in the team got a little scratch, the group immediately got out of the water. If i remember correctly, i think the story was on Lori Anderson’s blog.
You are going to have to connect the dots for me, I don’t see it.
Why is “if-you-got-it-flaunt-it” a game but “if-you-got-it-hide-it” is not? How about we stop hyper-sexualizing everything. How about moralizers owning their sexuality and practicing self-control. After all, the Holy Spirit lives inside of them. Surely the Ghost should be able to keep them from lusting.
And it’s Gerencser.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
I don’t think it is proper to assume women are the prey of men, and the poor helpless man can’t help it if he gets so horny at the site of flesh that he just has to have that woman’s body. It’s pretty sad that you assume men are so base, crass, and helpless that they can’t control themselves.
Men have built this narrative so they do not have to take responsibility. News flash, your thoughts are your own creation, not the fault of the other person.
If I see you flaunting a nice diamond ring, is it then ok for me to be tempted to take it, the act on that temptation?? Of course not.
If women have to be responsible for the thoughts and actions of men, then there are only two,choices, lock up all men together, or keep all women isolated in their own little space.
Hey Sue, it’s pretty degrading don’t you think to refer to men as for all intents and purposes as mindless sharks and as women as the guilty ‘I told you so’ party, don’t you think? Sexual harassment is always wrong.
I am a man and come across women in various styles of clothes, some sexy, some revealing, some plain. I am able to function without slobbering over them like some mindless animal/shark predator.