Hi. I’m new here, but I’ve been lurking for awhile, and this thread caught my interest, enough to get me to register and try to participate in the discussion.
In response to this:
I’m a man and I can attest to the fact that… yes, we are mere animals. Even moreso the men w/o God in their life. Men have different drives than women, we are turned on initially by sight. It doesn’t even matter what the face looks like - if there’s a provacative form - the face will be the last thing looked at as the male drools over the feminine form.
A Godly man will keep his passions in check with the help of the bridle of God’s Grace but the drives are still there. He will have the ability to know when temptation arrives and to avert his eyes before his passions and curiosity are aroused.
The un-Godly man has no bridle on his passions or his lustful stares except for the law.He is nothing more than beast when it comes to sexual impulse. He will seemingly ‘court’ a woman - wine and dine- for months on end if necessary with the hopes of getting the goods in the end. And it will be a ‘victory’ when it finally happens. But an unGodly man has already committed the acts in his heart many times before the physical act takes place. Nothing stops a man, who is not restrained by the bridle of Divine Grace, from being with a woman either in reality or at least in his head. This is what women must understand when Christ talks about a man who looks lustfully upon a woman has already committed the deed in his heart. If you dress immodestly and then walk through the grocery store, Wal-Mart - whatever - you have, at any given moment, multiple people undressing you (and worse) in their heads. A man without Grace will rarely look and be please by the look alone - no, the pleasure comes from imagining the deed.
Thus the importance that a woman does not present herself as an entree on the plate of the man’s mind and in charity she must do her part to remain modest for the sake of her brother’s fallen nature.
I must say, REALLY? You are in fact asserting that men are animals and have no control over their thoughts and, by extension of the fact that they are mere animals, actions?
If such were the case, how on earth could a man be held responsible for sinning, then? If it’s something they have no control over they surely can not be held accountable. And if such thoughts were indeed sins, then it must be the womans fault, because the male animal can not help himself.
You say that “the face will be the last thing looked at as the male drools over the feminine form.” If that’s the case, and given your assertion that men are animals, I guess women need to make sure that no part of their form can be seen? Because they will have then caused a man to sin? And how can I go out in mixed company, knowing that if I wear anything more fitted than a sack, all the men will be drooling (and worse!) over my shape and thus my mere presence is causing them all to sin?
And I guess I better start carrying mace to fight off any animal who decides that having me in his head isn’t enough? And that would be my fault too, since the poor animal has nothing to stop him from doing whatever he wants.
I think you are giving men too little credit. What happened to humans having dignity and being specially created in the image of God? Surely that would imply that all men, Christian or not, are above mere animals and thus able to control their thoughts? Whether they WANT to or not is a completely different question than having the lack of ability, which is what it appears you are asserting.
Maybe I’ve misunderstood, what you meant, and if I did, please explain what you were meaning. Yes, women need to dress modestly, (and I don’t think we’ll ever all agree on exactly what that entails), but claiming that men are animals robs them of the very thing that makes them human and places any fault for the man’s sin solely on the woman because if he was having those thoughts then she MUST have been dressed provocatively.
