Stake Youth Fireside

We had close to 500 people show up to our stake's youth fireside this past Sunday evening. In those types of settings, I always think to myself that I hope those attending will think it was worth their time. Five hundred multiplied by ninety minutes is a pretty big number. My part on the program was the "wrap-up" in the break-out session that included the young women and their parents in the stake. Ryan Smith was indeed masterful in his remarks to the congregation. The focus was on modesty. As he was speaking, my thoughts crystalized regarding what I should say. I had read this Christianity Today article during the week, so I quoted a bit from it as well as from Abraham 3:22-23. It all turned out well.

Here are the quotes from the article that I used. The author was lamenting the fact that few evangelical beauty pageant contestants had the guts to act on their convictions:

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2011/01/miss_america_and_the_bikini_qu.html

It’s hard to believe that just over a decade ago, two-piece pageant swimsuits were taboo for Miss America. In this year’s competition, all but one contestant wore a black bikini and high heels. (Apparently pageant officials give contestants few swimsuits to choose from.) The young woman who donned a one-piece swimsuit was not 17-year-old Teresa Scanlan, Miss America 2011, former Miss Nebraska, and a devout Christian. No, the brave one-piecer was 19-year-old Miss Idaho Kylie Kofoed, a Mormon and music major at Brigham Young University....

...Why would a young Mormon woman, but not an evangelical one, dare to buck the ubiquity of bikinis and bronze-tanned skin in favor of something more modest? Can Christian pageant contestants gain the worthy cultural and political influence that usually comes with a pageant crown without losing their souls?....

In 2007, Katie Millar, then a neuroscience major at Brigham Young, became a top 10 contestant in the Miss America pageant. Wearing a one-piece swimsuit and a sleeved evening dress with a high back and high neckline, Millar stood out. She admitted she had never worn makeup before entering the Miss Utah pageant. After the pageant, she told KUTV, “When I did make the top ten . . . the first thing that went through my mind was, ‘I get to wear my one piece swimsuit on national TV and hopefully a girl will see that she doesn’t have to show a lot of skin to get attention or do well in society today.’ ”....

....But most of all, I hope more evangelical women entering the tricky world of beauty pageants will dare to be conspicuous for Christ — even if that means forgoing those black bikinis or evening gowns with plunging necklines. Faced with the pressure to conform to Miss America’s standards of beauty, they might realize that trying to be a modern-day Esther means sacrificing too much self-worth and real beauty for a little bit of power.