Meet Patrick Johnston. Dr. Johnston is the founder of an anti-abortion group called Personhood Ohio.
His church, New Beginnings Ministries had been protesting in front of two “Gentlemens Clubs”. Both Fox Hole North in Walhonding, OH and Fox Hole South in Zanesville, OH are owned by Thomas George who was denied two injunctions against the protests. Mr. George decided what was good for the goose was good for the gander, so the ladies from the two clubs began protesting in front of the church - and (as the law in Ohio allows) baring their breasts.
This pissed Dr. Johnston off to no end, so on his Facebook page, he wrote:
“I am sick that women can legally bare their breasts to children and to married men against their will in Ohio. Help us ban public nudity in Ohio!”
“Please call or Email your state senator and state rep. (Musk. & Cosh. counties, Ohio) to urge them to ban public nudity (women exposing their breasts to married men and children against their will). That’s how nude women protested our church on Sunday in response to our church’s evangelistic outreach in front of their strip local strip club. The gay pride parade in Columbus is 500,000 strong - why? Because the women go topless. San Francisco and Chicago isn’t that sick! I sent Emails to my state reps and state sen. today today, urging them to meet with us asap about banning public nudity.”
I’m not sure what boobs have with Gay Pride, but I can guarantee that most gay men aren’t that interested in boobs.
I also notice he called the church’s protest an “outreach” but the dancers staged a “protest”. Perhaps the dancers are reaching out to have the men and women of New Beginnings visit the “inside” of their places of employment!
Yesterday, I wrote about the power of the uncovered female breast. Today, I offer an example of why our society could benefit from losing our Puritan fear of an integral part of the female anatomy. Patrick Johnston may fancy himself a Christian, but his theology is less about the Gospel of Jesus Christ than about keeping women and their bodies firmly under control of men. He knows that when women think for themselves they can quite often embarrass men by exposing them for the tyrants they too often are. Like any tyrant, Johnston hates being exposed and having his authority questioned.
The traditional argument is that women’s sexuality, if not properly controlled and contained, will as a matter of course lead men astray. Men are not equipped to resist the charms and temptations presented by female sexuality, and so it’s logical that women’s bodies be tightly regulated and controlled As a male, and someone who’s on occasion been guilty of thinking with the wrong head, I can understand the theory behind this belief. It’s also ridiculously off base, in that it removes the responsibility for men controlling their own behavior and places it squarely upon women.
After all, I’m only a man is a cheap and cowardly way to account for one’s failings. If you’re having zipper problems, blaming women is a poor substitute for having no self-control. Then again, it’s easier to blame someone else for your moral shortcomings than to accept personal responsibility, eh?
Part of the reason that “gentlemen’s clubs” are popular is that we’ve socialized men to view the female body as something licentious and sinful. In the same way that stolen melons taste the sweetest, the sight of a naked female at a strip club is something that we know we shouldn’t lust after, yet doing so feels so…risky and dangerous. Perhaps if we taught our children that the female body is a thing of beauty- and by no means dangerous or sinful- we might be able to rid ourselves of hypocritical religious leaders like Patrick Johnston.
For tyrants like Johnston, it’s about power and control. They depend on convincing their followers that the way to freedom is the proscription of many of those freedoms, and they normally start by controlling female sexuality. When they succeed in controlling women’s bodies and defining them as existing solely for the edification and sexual pleasure of men, other forms of social control soon follow. Before you know it, free will and independent thinking are exchanged for unthinking and unquestioned obedience. Ultimately it’s not even about the Gospel of Jesus Christ or leading a Christ-like life; it’s about Johnston feeding his delusions of grandeur and lust for power and adulation.
“Nude women” aren’t the source of society’s ills, nor are they responsible or homosexuality or any other sexual behaviors Johnston so desperately wants to proscribe. They represent aspects of life that once controlled make it easier for a tyrant to assume control over the behavior and thought processes of his followers. It has nothing to do with Christianity; it has EVERYTHING to do with social control through teaching that our bodies and our sexuality are things to be ashamed of and kept tightly under control.
It’s certainly easy to ridicule Johnston, but what makes people like him so dangerous is that there are large numbers of people willing to subjugate themselves to a strong personality who will tell them how to act and what to think. When people stop thinking for themselves, we get tyrants like Johnston and propaganda like Fox News Channel, neither of which can stand up to reason and independent thought.
Here’s something to ponder: if “nude women” are the biggest problem you face in your life, I’d submit that your life is pretty damned good. You just don’t know it.
