This kind of post always arouses the worst ire of those who think I am being ridiculous or legalistic, but when a Jewish mom from NYC asks the question in the Wall Street Journal, maybe we ought to take a few minutes to ponder the question of “Why do we let our daughters dress like that?”.

I especially love her last line:

But it’s easy for parents to slip into denial. We wouldn’t dream of dropping our daughters off at college and saying: “Study hard and floss every night, honey—and for heaven’s sake, get laid!” But that’s essentially what we’re saying by allowing them to dress the way they do while they’re still living under our own roofs.

I have never understood moms who encourage their daughters to show off as much of their bodies as possible, or dads who abandon their calling as protectors of their daughters purity. I have also never understood parents who do not teach their sons respect for the dignity and purity of women. We need to reject the debasement of others inherent in an  evolutionary worldview and return to an understanding of each person as a unique creation made in the image of God with inherent dignity and worth.

I know this is not an easy task. Parenting teens can be a daily struggle (we have three right now), and we find ourselves constantly battling the destructive messages of the culture about manhood and womanhood, masculinity and femininity. The importance of the gospel, with its proper diagnosis of our problem (sin), the solution (God’s grace), and the new identity we have in Christ, is the only deliverance from the destructive lies of our fallen world.