The Salty Peanut Gallery

Well it looks like Carrie Prejean will retain her crown as Miss California after all. Yesterday in a press conference held at Trump Tower in New York City, Donald Trump announced the fate of the Christian beauty queen. As you may have heard Miss Prejean had been embroiled in controversy initially for her stand on traditional marriage and then later for the online release of certain topless photographs. Trump determined that Prejean would not be stripped of her title, which is somewhat of a relief seeing as how at this point there’s been quite enough stripping going on if you know what I mean.

Following Trumps announcement Prejean read a statement that included these explanations for the racy photos:

Explanation #1: The first photo was only intended for my portfolio.
“Many of you are aware of an internet photo that was posted last week of me when I was seventeen years old and first entered into the modeling industry. A girlfriend took some shots of me at home and to include them in my portfolio which were submitted to several different agents. As the photo was intended for application rather than publication and I did not anticipate anyone was in a position to release such an image, I answered truthfully on my pageant application and I had not been photographed in semi-nude or nude publications. I subsequently told pageant officials that there was only one photo session. In every photo shoot there’s usually more than one photo taken. Especially when you first begin modeling you’re asked to take a variety of shots all of which help you launch your modeling career.”

Explanation #2: Two of the photos were fakes.
Explanation #3: Someone’s just trying to smear me.
“The second and third photos were ‘Photoshopped’ meant to further harm me in my reputation and to discredit me in my beliefs.”

Explanation #4: It’s the sleazy photographer’s fault.
Explanation #5: The wind blew my blouse open.
“While I don’t know who released the photos from this morning I do know who released the photos that were just released as of a few hours ago. And I find it appalling that a professional photographer would violate my trust by releasing an unauthorized and inappropriate image taken in between posed shots on a windy day which I was unaware of.”

So essentially the answer my friend is blowing in the wind. You know, I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around this whole phenomenon of conservative Christians making a bathing suit model their new spokesperson for Christian family values as though she were some kind of paragon of virtue. To some degree I do understand the sense of moral outrage that many feel over the egregious double standard among the cultural elite when it comes to matters of faith. I’m sure much of the positive press Carrie Prejean has gotten from evangelical Christians has been driven by the media backlash she received in the wake of the Miss USA pageant. On the other hand it seems to me there is another issue at stake here that goes to the heart of American politics and the cultural war. The issue is compromise.

In the political realm compromise is supposed be a good thing. No one ever gets everything they want, so therefore, you must settle for whatever you can get. Right? For example, we can’t always get the politician we want who will vote against abortion one hundred percent of the time, so we settle for the guy who will only vote for abortion maybe one or two percent of the time. It ain’t perfect, but we console ourselves in the knowledge that lives have been saved. But here’s the question. Is compromise really the path toward winning the war for the soul of our nation? In the end have we really won anything at all? Are we better off for it? And where exactly do we draw the line?

Okay, so what if Miss California parades herself in front of thousands of people wearing little more than a smile. So what if she exposes herself before the camera. At least she’s on our side!

Ever fumble for a convincing explanation for the questionable teachings of your favorite hip and trendy religious speaker/author? Ever get frustrated trying to support his shaky positions to people who insist on making sound biblical arguments? Ever find yourself defending the indefensible? Well, no more. Greg Gilbert of the 9Marks Blog has come up with nine things you can say in defense of a guy you think is pretty cool even when you don’t have a biblical leg to stand on:

1. You can’t say anything about this guy unless you’ve read everything he’s written and spent a good deal of time in his church.

9. You’re just jealous.