Grace Community Christian Church

 

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Oops, I Did it Again (5/1/01)

She's the most searched for person on the internet. She's the "wannabe" face & figure for millions of teenage girls. And she raises some pretty good questions about what it means to follow Christ. Here's an article I came across recently that's pretty probing. Maybe you can use it to trigger some good discussion with the young people in your world...

The other day I saw the reigning teenage queen of the pop charts, Brittany Spears, on TV. She performed her big hit "Oops, I Did It Again," all the while stripping out of a dark pants suit into an outfit that pretty much showed it all.

Then, she did a tantalizing bump-and-grind routine while she sang that she's "not that innocent." Perhaps no one is stunned anymore by scantily clad young women appearing on TV, however, to me Miss Spears' performance is somewhat surprising when you consider the fact that she is a self-avowed born-again Baptist. Since she and her omnipresent naval burst on the scene, Brittany has made much of the fact that she prays, reads the Bible, and doesn't believe in sex before marriage.

Yet her actions and lyrics seem to send a conflicting message. For example, in her song "Soda Pop," she says, "We might start riding to the music tonight... A wicked time to the end...We'll flex tonight until they break down the door... And we'll go on and on until the break of dawn."

If Brittany Spears doesn't believe in sex before marriage, hey, is it too blunt to ask, "Why is she singing about it?"

On a broader level, Brittany Spears represents a lot of professing Christians: they claim to believe in Jesus yet they reject many tenets of Christian ethics. This is not a new problem for the church: Some of the early Gnostics advocated a libertine morality that included sexual immorality.

John confronted such a defective Christology and the corresponding ethical laxity of the Gnostics in his first epistle. Not mixing words about a libertine ethic, John said emphatically, "Sin is lawlessness." (1 John 3:4)

Unfortunately, some Christians have gone to the other extreme of Christian ethics and advocated a harsh legalism. As a boy, my pastor taught one sure sign of evil in a woman's heart was wearing pants to church. I'll never forget the night when a girl name Bridget came to revival in blue jeans! For a moment I thought the church would collapse. Thankfully, God withheld judgment and the service continued unabated.

Separation is an essential part of any well-rounded Christian ethic. Yet, we must be careful not to condemn issues as sin, which are actually matters of personal preference. On the other hand, Christian liberty can be twisted into an excuse for provocative behavior under a blush of religion.

Perhaps some will ask, "Look Branch, with all the problems of the world -- AIDS, homelessness, environmental exploitation -- haven't you got anything better to do that pick on Brittany Spears? Why do you constantly mention sin?" In response, I can only say, "Oops, I did it again?"

Alan Branch is pastor of Turner Memorial Baptist Church in Garner, North Carolina. He has a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics. You can write him at albranch@juno.com. Condensed with author's permission from article appearing in pastors.com. Copywrite 2001. All rights reserved.


Jim Dewar --