Jessica Simpson: This body's made for baring???

Knowing that Jessica Simpson has at times made a rather big deal about being a Christian, and that her manager-father was a Baptist youth pastor at one time, I have watched with growing amazement as her career becomes increasingly about showing off her body as much as possible.

One expected that with Britney, Christina, et al. Even with those and many other female singers, it's sad to see a fairly wholesome girl take the skankiness route. But there was this thing about Jessica being a Christian, so I hoped she wouldn't go there. Well, as her latest video shows, she has gone that route, in a major way.

Now, the ever-clueless blond is upset with Christians judging her. This from an msnbc article:

"...Simpson, a pastor’s daughter, says that sort of attitude is why she didn’t pursue a career as a Christian singer. 'It didn’t really surprise me because I grew up with a lot of that backlash,' Simpson said, according to World Entertainment News Network. 'That’s why I didn’t end up going into the Christian music industry. I think that if they're really good Christians the judgment wouldn't be there.'”

Sometimes I don't trust myself to be nonjudgmental about such matters, but in this case, I think it's a no-brainer. I saw part of Simpson's "These Boots are Made for Walkin'" video over the weekend. I think I'm pretty fair in saying that it features Jessica showing off as much of her body as possible, doing blatanly sexual and stripper-style moves.

I have a pretty good idea that Jessica has millions of pre-teen girl fans who are closely monitoring and wanting to mimic her every move. The message is clear: baring your body and being sexually enticing are the way to go.

Kristen of Walking Circumspectly has some good comments on this: "In true, Biblical Christianity, the body and spirit are not separate (in the sense of our actions having nothing to do with our life in Christ). On the contrary, what we do says everything about where we are with the Lord. When we sin, we have an advocate with the Father--praise God! But we have to, we are commanded to call a spade a spade. We may NOT wink at sin, pretend not to know what it is when we see it, in the name of tolerance. It's patently unbiblical."

I'd love to see Jessica use her immense popularity to send a message that a girl can be successful and not be sleazy. Think of what a great platform she's been given to present a positive and wholesome image of young womanhood. But obviously that's not going to happen. Jessica and her former-pastor dad have totally bought into the truism that sex sells, and they're making a bundle off of it.

No, Jess, I'm not judging you here. There's just one fact you can't ignore. People who call themselves Christians should try to live by the Word of God.

That said, let me close with this quote from Mei Flower, who also happens to be a Christian and has made some pretty humorous observations about the video: "On the whole, I don't know what Christians are griping about. I realize they think we apparently lost a role model, but unless your daughter wants to be the kind of person who throws laundry in the foyer, thinks buffalo wings are made of buffalo, and tans herself into a mummy, was Jessica Simpson really that great a role model to begin with?"