Let me just come out and state the obvious: Beyoncé is a talented superstar, but she is also a trashy performer and contributes to the crudity and vulgarity that permeates today’s cultural scene.  In spite of an appearance at President Obama’s second inaugural, which lamentably gave her a respectable aura and a “sort-of-official” stamp of approval, her performance at the Super Bowl is far more typical of her “appeal.”  A quick perusal of pictures that have gone viral from her Super Bowl performance show the anger, crudity, and vulgarity of her performance.

I realize we live in different times, but think back to Lena Horn and Ella Fitzgerald to provide evidence of how far today’s performers have fallen from the class that used to be an essential characteristic of singing stars.  Beyoncé missed a wonderful opportunity at the Super Bowl to elevate popular culture, that she is capable of showing some of the class, and bring some family-friendly entertainment to the Super Bowl, instead of continuing the downward spiral that is so destructive in popular culture.

Beyoncé has always mixed glamour with her trashy look and her music, which has led to confusion about who exactly she is.  On the one hand, she claims to be a Christian, and on the other she is intentionally vulgar in her language and dress.  She is praised for her traditional values about sex, relationships, and family; she is a hard worker and is multi-talented.  Her defenders claim that she is sexy in a classy, tasteful way.  I would argue that they haven’t looked at the pictures very closely.

Obviously, sexy is here to stay, but there is healthy sexuality — that which is naturally exuded — and unhealthy sexuality that is exploitative, flaunting, and deliberately and vulgarly provocative.  Case in point: Beyoncé is on the cover of a recent GQ magazine in a provocative pose, wearing the skimpiest of bikini panties and a cut-off t-shirt that exposes as much as it covers.

Beyoncé is beautiful, talented, and blessed with tremendous influence, but like so many others, she is using the excuse of “artistry” as she takes herself and her fans down instead of lifting them up.  In her Fall-Winter ad campaign for the House of Deréon, the pop star goes for the “biker chick” look with lots of tattoos, partial nudity, and crude poses.  In addition, she joined her mother to launch a kid’s fashion line that spreads the “hooker style” clothing down to toddlers (some reports claim the line was quietly discontinued in December 2012).  In some of her videos, Beyoncé uses gutter language and some critics claim that she is too willing to “go with the flow” to seem “with it” and “cool.”

Her sister, Solange Knowles, who is the designer behind many of the styles that made Destiny’s Child singers (Beyoncé’s original singing group and the back-up singers at her Super Bowl performance) so fashionable, is said to be worried about Beyoncé’s descent into the world of “tacky,” “flashy,” and “lowbrow.”  So, it is not prudish (to anticipate all the criticism bound to come from this article) to hold higher standards for today’s divas; they owe the public at least a facade of decency.

In a year when the advertisements at the Super Bowl descended into what has become an annual cesspool of tastelessness and crudity, the “good” ads won with viewers. According to USA Today’s Ad Meter, viewers voted the “good” ads as the best Super Bowl XLVII commercials.

From highest to lowest scores of ads in the top 10:

7.76 –– Anheuser-Busch Horse and trainer reunited

7.75 –– Tide Miracle Stain

7:43 –– Dodge RAM Farmers/Paul Harvey

7:27 –– Doritos Fashionista Dad

7:20 –– Jeep Families Waiting

In the “Bottom Five” were the two Black Crown party commercials, and at the bottom of the list was the ad that “might have earned the most buzz for the night” –– Go Daddy’s commercial featuring Bar Refaeli kissing (making out with) a tech worker.

It appears that the “party” and “making out” scene is not something that most Americans want to see when their family gathers around the TV set to watch the Super Bowl. One has to wonder if the creative “geniuses” at the corporations understand Americans or the Super Bowl at all.

Christmas presents have been opened (thanks for the socks, Grandma!), New Year’s resolutions have been made (and quickly broken), and now we’re all back to work, slaving away to earn the few pennies we keep after taxes.  But as I look back on the whirlwind of activity during the Christmas season, I see an encouraging trend.

As we drew closer to Christmas, the malls increasingly looked like a war zone.  I half expected the National Guard to be on patrol.  People were pushing and shoving, packing tightly into stores in search of that extra gift, that one to show someone in their life they’re special.

In light of a recent post I made about the “Penny Culture,” a term coined (ba-dump-bump!) by Joel and Luke Smallbone, of for King and Country, the crowds were kind of refreshing.  All of a sudden, life wasn’t about us; it was about other people in our lives … special people who also gave us gifts because they thought we were special, too.

I mean, do we ever stop to think about it?  During the rest of the year, we bow to the cultural mentality of Hollywood and other humanistic powerhouses and treat each other — and, most importantly, ourselves — as if we were only worth a penny.  But during Christmas, we try and find that special gift that will tell our love ones, “You’re worth the world to me.”  No wonder the secular Penny Culture hates Christmas.

And then a story my coworker told me got me to thinking.  He was out recently for his four-year-old son’s oral surgery.  Here’s the way he tells it:

The doctor gave my son the oral meds and sent us back out into the waiting room.  He began to get drowsy after awhile, but he kept fighting the urge to sleep.  He’d been to the dentist office a little over a month ago, and this was the follow up to complete everything that needed to be done to his teeth.  He’d be losing some of them this time, and he was so scared.

The time came, and we went back to the dentist chair, where they strapped him down so he wouldn’t flail around and accidentally cause himself harm during the procedure.  He immediately flew into a wild fit of what I thought was anger — threatening to do harm to everyone in the room (Yikes!) — while I held him down and talked to him very calmly.

Then came the point at which I realized that he wasn’t angry, but terrified.  With tears streaming down his beet-red face, he looked up at me and yelled, “I don’t want to die!!!”

Oh, how that broke my heart.  We stopped.  I held him close, promised him that he wouldn’t die, and explained that what was about to happen would actually stop the pain he had in his mouth.  He finally calmed down after that.  But to think that he thought I’d let someone kill him left me with a heavy heart.

Lots of people advocate against Christmas, and millions more feel empty at Christmas time.  We see depression and anger as a result.  But could it be that we’ve misjudged?  Could such anger and depression perhaps be due to fear and the fact that so many have bought the lie that they’re hardly worth a penny?  The belief that no one could truly care about them, because they’re not worth loving?

When you’ve bought that lie — when you own it, and it owns you — how hard is it to hear and believe the truth that you’re worth so much more?  How hard is it to hear that you’re not worth only a penny?  How hard is it to believe that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,” wrapped Him in old cloths, laid Him in a feeding trough for animals, and set His feet on the path to a sacrificial death to take our place on a sinner’s cross?

It’s very hard.  Very hard indeed.  If a four-year-old can believe that his own father would allow him to die in a dentist’s chair, how big a stretch is it to say that people would believe that God is indifferent to their plight and would allow them to die without lifting a finger to save them?

It’s said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.  And what that means is it becomes accepted as truth.  And that makes the real truth more difficult to accept.

We didn’t just wake up and find ourselves in a Penny Culture.  It happened gradually over time.  We did this to ourselves.  Our apathy and unwillingness to counter the lie — our desire, perhaps, to stay in our little comfort zones — has allowed the enemy of our souls to change the culture by replacing the truth with a lie.

So if we want to move to action and be “co-laborers,” as the Apostle Paul says, then we should not be discouraged when our efforts are rejected.  Just as our decline into a Penny Culture was gradual, we should expect that it’ll take some time and continuous effort to turn back the tide.  But take heart; in the end, the war has already been won, because it’s been fought by a God who sees you as you are: Priceless.

Are your New Year’s resolutions broken already?  Forget them.  Set goals instead, and let’s put this goal at the top: To be the arms of God.  Let’s wrap His love around those who need it this year — those who don’t know their true worth — and do so continuously.

For now, I’ll leave you with the opening lines of for King and Country’s latest single, Baby Boy, which could very well become an anthem:

If you told me all about your sorrows,
I’d tell you about a cure.
If you told me you can’t fight the battle,
There’s a Baby Boy who won the war.
The war was won by a Baby Boy …
Alleluia …

for KING & COUNTRY – Baby Boy

Christian Shelby, a volunteer with Concerned Women for America, contributed to this post. The first in the series on a Penny Culture is located here.

So here’s a little story about the time I blushed, well, fifty shades of red.  You can’t miss the smash hit, Fifty Shades of Grey.  You see women reading it on every bus, subway, and in every hair salon.  So what’s a girl to do?  Read the book to see what all the hype is about, right?  Sure, I thought.  So I flipped through a couple of pages to check it out.

Yeah.  Instant regret.

Two pages in, I had to put the book down and ask God for forgiveness!  Talk about “mommy porn.”  I thought books like this were only found in some women’s homes on a hidden book shelf next to covers of Fabio, a horse, and some buxom beauty. Put a glossy new cover on it, and it’s a best seller?

American women are in dire straits. Our country’s national debt is sky rocketing; women account for 92% of the jobs lost under this administration, and our children’s and parents’ health care is in dire jeopardy of being run by Washington bureaucrats obsessed with taking away our right to “shop” for this commodity.  It’s no wonder women need an escape, but while Fifty Shades of Grey may seem like a simple “escape” from the real world, it’s more like jumping from the frying pan into a nuclear reactor.

And what’s it going to get us?  Nothing.  It’s erotica, sexually themed fantasy, quasi-intellectual word candy that’ll rot our brains … and maybe our souls.

Christian women, we need to wake up!  This country needs us. It needs our passion, our intensity, our desire to defend ourselves and our families.  It needs the $22.50 we spent on “Fifty Shades of Grey” to be invested in a cause or campaign in which we believe (click here for a good place to start).

But women everywhere are politically and spiritually asleep, lulled into a cultural obsession with Christian Grey, an abusive therapist who seduces a college senior.  And some men are even buying it on the advice of women as a lesson book for what women like.  I recently heard a male bus driver say he wants to get this book on audio!  (I’ll bet you do, ya perv!)

Is this what we’ve come to: Women — Christian women — flocking to bookstores in droves to buy morally reprehensible tripe?

Why are we falling headlong into this grey area, where Hollywood tells us that all we should care about is stepping outside of reality and filling our heads with hormone-driven daydreams of men to whom we are not married?

Do you remember being afraid of the dark as a child?  (Ninety degree turn, I know.  But stay with me.)  Do you remember the day you stopped being afraid?  It was probably when you learned that darkness is simply the absence of light.  Have you thought about that?  While we can study light, we can’t study darkness.  Why not?  Well, how do you measure how dark a room is?  You measure the amount of light present.

Now let that sink in for a moment. What in your life is dark? What is light? We can only measure darkness in our lives by looking at how much light is in it.

And somewhere, in this struggle between light and dark, we have the annoying issue of “grey,” that fuzzy middle ground in which we find such a false refuge from condemnation, but which in reality God hates so very much.  And we need to ask ourselves, “What is grey for me? Facebook? The music I listen to? The movies? What about the books I read? What about Christian Grey?”

Sisters and fellow Christians, if we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that Fifty Shades of Grey is merely a pornographic pleasure for our minds, and, as we know, the Bible commands us to guard our hearts, for everything we do will flow from it (Proverbs 4:23).  By investing our energy in smut, we are tearing down these walls of protection around our hearts.

The Lord has given us a clear, black-and-white example of true love.  The images that are depicted in Fifty Shades of Grey are full of lust and give a false perspective on how men and women should present themselves.

While Christians are still to be a part of the world, we must not conform to its patterns. Anne Frank once said, “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” Ironically, sometimes we have to be that candle. Let us choose to defy and define darkness in our lives. It just may shine light on a grey area in your life and maybe in the life of another.

Let us resolve to keep our eyes, our money, and our time away from morally questionable pursuits, and, instead, let us focus on the God of true love, who is fifty shades of great.  Let those of us who are single resolve to wait for a man who knows our value is not in how much you can service him, but how much we can serve the Lord.  Let us wait for a man who knows that true love is black and white, not shades of grey.

Today’s guest blogger is actually two women. This piece was authored by Alison Howard, Concerned Women for America’s (CWA) Executive Assistant to the CEO, and Amy Clemenson, an intern with CWA’s Ronald Reagan Memorial Internship Program.

I’ve heard a lot of offensive names slung at women lately.  It’s impossible to even glance at a newspaper without reading the names Sandra Fluke, Rush Limbaugh, and now, thanks to Concerned Women for America’s efforts, Bill Maher and his proclivity for everything profane. But these aren’t the only names stirring controversy.  ABC’s newest sitcom, “GCB,” which stands for Good Christian B—ches, has many critics asking the question, “What’s in a name?”

“GCB” parodies Christian women living in America’s Bible Belt.  I find the show to be a lackluster, big-haired version of “Desperate Housewives.”  But others have taken a more drastic approach to rejecting the show.  New York City Councilman Peter Vallone has called for an all-out boycott stating, “The title of the show alone is yet another outrageous attack on the Christian faith.  Charlie Sheen will be back on Two and a Half Men before we see a similar title targeting another religion.”  Kraft Cream Cheese has also jumped on the boycott bandwagon by barring its advertisements from running during “GCB’s” airtime.

While the show’s name is certainly offensive, the problems with “GCB” and other portrayals of Christians run much deeper.  In an opinion piece I wrote for FoxNews.com, I explained that the main problem is that the writers, producers, and actors rarely take the time to get to know Christians before portraying us and, therefore, usually parody us based on lousy preconceived notions.  And so, instead of poking good-natured fun at Christian eccentricities (and let’s face it, there is plenty of material), Hollywood usually misses clever and instead comes across as condescending and mean.

There is one positive aspect about poor depictions of Christians in Hollywood; it encourages believers to get involved in the media industry and set the record straight.  Filmmaker Wilbur Bakke, who cleverly named his new documentary “Beware of Christians,” told Fox News that he was tired of seeing films painting an unrealistic picture of Christianity.  Bakke stated, “We wanted to let our beliefs and faiths come behind and support a strong story line, story is the most important when communicating these ideas. That’s what people want.”

Recently we have seen an outbreak of Christian culture in the theaters.  Movies like Fireproof, Courageous, and a soon-to-be Hollywood blockbuster, October Baby, reveal the very essence of who we are as Christians — broken people dependent on God’s grace and mercy despite our weaknesses.  So we can take heart in knowing that shows like “GBC” don’t hurt Christians; they can actually help us by highlighting society’s innate attraction to our uniqueness and evoking us to utilize the grace and talent God gives to make funnier sitcoms and successful films.

Editor’s Note: This article was first printed on The Baltimore Sun, August 06, 2009.  It’s underlining message is as appropriate today as it was then.  Today, marking the 39th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade desicion and as we prepare for the upcoming elction, we thought it important for you to read throught Penny’s pice once again.

The battles on Capitol Hill over Sonia Sotomayor and health care have convinced me that pro-life Americans should take a cue from a popular chick flick. A hit movie newly out on DVD recently proclaims a shocking truth to women who make excuses for the bad behavior of men they date. That fact is: If he lies, cheats and treats you disrespectfully, “he’s just not that into you.”

The movie evokes cringes as one recognizes realistic scenes of bright women and men making humiliating mistakes and errors in judgment. In 2008, many pro-life Americans made a horrific error in judgment. Exit polling from the presidential election sponsored by Beliefnet.com showed that 20 percent of those voting for Barack Obama defined themselves as “pro-life.” According to Christianity Today, 25 percent of self-identified evangelical or born-again Christians voted for President Obama.

Why? Most of these same folks turned out in both 2000 and 2004 for George W. Bush. The reasons for this change of heart are complicated, as in any breakup. They may have been reacting to the war or overspending by Republicans or any number of scandals. Maybe the spark was gone. Or maybe they were seduced!

It’s OK, admit it. He’s cute, he’s smart, he’s likable and he’s charismatic. He promised change and attention to issues men and women of faith care about, such as poverty. One Christian conservative professor even wrote a book proclaiming that truly living like Jesus includes a vote for Mr. Obama. (Good to know.)

However, pro-lifers have been wronged. This lover who showed so much original ardor lied to you – and it started on the honeymoon. On the president’s third day in office – one day after the 36th March for Life – he issued an executive order reversing U.S. policy that prohibited the use of U.S. funds to promote or pay for abortions abroad.

In March, he restored funding to the United Nations Population Fund that had been frozen due to its support of organizations that promote and even coerce poor women in other countries to have abortions. He opened the door for the federal funding of research that requires the destruction of human embryos and canceled the Bush “conscience clause” regulation that protected health care workers from being penalized for refusing to participate in providing abortions.

The president has meticulously chosen advisers and top administration officials who have outstanding pro-choice credentials, including Kathleen Sebelius, who is in charge of the nation’s health care system as secretary of Health and Human Services. Make no mistake; in Washington, people are policy.

Then, of course, there is his appointee to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, who said in her Senate confirmation hearing that Roe v. Wade is settled law and that there is a constitutional right to privacy. Americans United for Life’s research of her record warns that she is far more radical then even former Justice David Souter.

There are many other “indiscretions,” but let’s cut to the Mac daddy of all slights: heath care reform.

The Obama administration is pushing relentlessly and recklessly for government-run health care that would force almost all health care plans to include unlimited numbers of abortions for any reason and would make Americans complicit in these abortions due to the pooling of premiums. The legislation on the table amounts to the largest expansion of abortion in U.S. history.

How could he, you say? My fellow pro-lifers, grab a tissue and listen up. The truth is, he’s not scared to get into a relationship, he hasn’t lost your number, and he is not simply busy. Noooo. He is in bed with someone else. That’s right! President Obama loves the abortion lobby. He takes their money and their calls, but more importantly, he does their bidding.

A crucified Christ: Too much violence, or too much to consider?

Our family has the Good Friday tradition of watching Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, the well-documented, spectacular account of Christ’s crucifixion.  Although intense and tear-provoking, we want to be reminded, at least once per year, of the incredible price paid for our sins — the whips, the jeering, the nails, the blood — all required for our atonement.

So, once again this year, my husband and I sat down with our two teenagers, 16 and 13.  No popcorn, no movie-candy, just four believers willing to be exposed to the traumatic death of our precious Christ, the One whose death saved us from eternal suffering in hell and separation from God.

But it always astounds me the number of comments I get from fellow believers with regard to our tradition.  Comments like “Oh … I can’t watch that movie.  It’s too gory,” or “oh … I watched that movie once; that was good enough for me,” or “you let your kids watch it?  It’s way too violent!”

“Really,” I say to all those comments, “too violent?”

• Our children watch the deadly intense wizardry violence of the most recent Harry Potter movies;
• Our teenagers indulge in the blood-sucking fantasy of the Twilight series;
• They are allowed to engage in all sorts of pre-meditated, simulated violence and murder on Xbox and Playstation;

Yet we’re afraid to help them face the reality of the crucifixion; the single most important event in all of history?

And forget our teenagers for a moment, what about the countless adults I know who “can’t” watch it, saying it’s too hard to watch?

• You can’t watch Christ’s suffering, but you can watch Showtime’s Spartacus or HBO’s The Sopranos or Russell Crow’s Gladiator — all graphically violent, yet vividly accurate according to the documented accounts of that day?
• You can’t endure Mary’s sorrowful heart as she watches her Son fulfill God’s plan, but you can waste countless hours indulging in the triviality of the Real Housewives?

Oh my, believers, let’s “step up to the plate” and be honest with ourselves.  The real-life display of the Roman crucifixion — a brutal torture willingly accepted by our precious Lord — is something we should be re-living because it keeps fresh in our minds the cost of our sin.  Someone had to die for our petty selfishness, our infidelity, our deceit, and our hypocrisy, and Christ “stepped up to the plate” on our behalf. 

I KNOW that watching someone get ripped to shreds at the Roman whipping post is painfully intense, but Isaiah 53 foretold that Christ would indeed be beaten in that way; and in fact, He was beaten beyond recognition.  I KNOW that dragging a splintered cross up the Via Dolorosa while soldiers punched Him and crowds spit on Him and fans deserted Him is not part of our typical movie night, but Christ dragged that cross all the way up to Calvary’s hill … for us.  I KNOW that actually watching five-inch spikes being pounded into His hands and feet is disturbing, but imagine how He felt — and yet He allowed it so we wouldn’t have to die in sin and shame.

The cruelty of the soldiers, the deceit of the Sanhedrin, and the corrupt nature in which His trial was conducted is merely a demonstration of mankind’s depravity, the reason Christ was compelled to hang on the cross in the first place.  Shouldn’t we be willing to observe these atrocities in order that our minds may be properly prepared to meet Him face to face each day?  Don’t be afraid, believer; be strong.  Allow the reality of the crucifixion to weigh heavily on your heart so that you’ll be changed from the inside out, knowing that “by His stripes you are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

CWA friend and member Julie Tate is a wife, mother, speaker, and Bible study author/teacher. Find out more about her ministry at www.julietateministries.com.

There's a whole lot of ugly behind that smile.

Joy Behar, liberal co-host of ABC’s The View, used yesterday’s show to air her disagreements with Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle over an immigration ad.  Joy took it too far, however, as she said on-air of Sharron Angle: “She’s going to h-ll, this b–ch!”

Wow.

Instead of addressing the core substance of Mrs. Angle’s argument in her ad, Joy Behar resorted to a typical, tried-and-true liberal defense — she called Mrs. Angle names.  Talk about a real mean girl.  Joy’s potty mouthed diatribe is proof once again that Hollywood is politics for ignorant people.

I am the mother of a thirteen-year-old daughter.  What I know, and other moms will agree, is that thirteen-year-olds are children.  One minute you get small glimpses into the young women they will someday become, but the vast majority of the time they are still wonderfully innocent and childlike. 

The news that the Swiss have sided with narcissistic Hollywood’s pressure to release child rapist Roman Polanski and refuse to extradite him to the United States to face criminal charges for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977 makes me beyond angry.  Who are these people?

Many of the Hollywood A-listers rallied behind the film director as an accomplished artist who shouldn’t have to face these charges.

Talk show host and outspoken actress Whoopi Goldberg said what Polanski did wasn’t “rape-rape.”

You be the judge.  Roman Polanski lured the 13-year-old into a hot tub, but she decided to get out. He told her to go lay down on the bed and kissed her, but she refused.  He then raped her, but once he figured out she wasn’t using birth control, he sodomized her.

What part of that isn’t rape? 

Why do so many in Hollywood think that they are exempt from the rule of law?  Forget Lindsey Lohan!  Look how many came to Polanski’s defense, including film mogul Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese, and Costa Gavras and signed a petition that expressed “stupefaction” at Polanski’s arrest. 

The attitude over at the Huffington Post was: “Move on, everyone.  Nothing to see here.  Keep on directing, Roman.  Love ya!”

Let’s be clear here.  These people are so entitled that they have even stooped to defend a child rapist!  We at Concerned Women for America find this heinous and unacceptable, both that anyone would come to Polanski’s defense and that that the Swiss would refuse to allow him to stand trial in the United States for his crime. 

When will Hollywood wake up to the fact that real America is becoming fed up with their outrageous behavior?  It’s sad when it’s Lindsey Lohan’s train wreck of a life, but it’s outright dangerous when their poison spills over to harm other people’s children.