Two Women, One Trend: A reflection of our culture today

By: Paul Murano – March 2013

This past month saw two stories in the news that speak volumes beyond their headlines. Not surprisingly they were about sex and death respectively, and they focused on two women, one young and one elderly. Their names were Melissa King and Lorraine Bayless. One gave up her title as Miss Teen Delaware after being outed for making a pornography video, while the other was left to die because no one wanted to give her CPR. These two stories tie together as cause and effect as an illustration of the values of our age, although virtually no one will see this due to the difficulty of seeing the forest through the trees. These two stories manifest clearly the age of hypocrisy in which we live and its inevitable consequence: disdain for human life. In short, symbolically Melissa King ends up in Lorraine Bayless.

We live in a world of contradiction when it comes to social standards that would make former logic teachers roll over in their graves. Why was it that Miss Teen Delaware had to give up her title? Wasn’t she caught doing something that is both legal and popular, in which a very large percentage of people indulge in via the internet and cable tv?

What is it that pressures her to give up her title, a title that represents the girl next door, if chances are the girl, and guy, next door indulge in porn themselves? Is the moral standard now that it’s okay to indulge in porn as long as one doesn’t present themselves in front of a camera? What if she performed the same activities with someone off camera, would she still be the wholesome girl next door, worthy of her Miss Delaware title?

What exactly is a “wholesome” girl today? If it is just the public aspect of this that makes it unacceptable, what if a third party taped her without her knowing it and put the sexually explicit acts on the internet for the world to see? Would she then also have to give up her crown? The truth is there is no rational consistency about moral standards today because sex has been taken out of its proper context of marriage.

As any liar knows, once Pandora’s Box is opened one must continue to cover one’s lies with other lies. Societies are no different. Girls are now pressured to have sex with their boyfriends because they’re told they’re supposed to, while pretending to be virginal because they’re told they’re supposed to. Sandra Fluke is called a “slut” even while it is well known that many if not most single women today use contraception to uphold their lifestyles. We stop short of referring to most western women by such a description because it would be too much for us to handle. And if we are so confused as to what ‘wholesome’ means how can we possibly have a grasp on the meaning of its opposite? The contradictory mental gymnastics that are practiced today in order to uphold the selfish lie imbedded in our culture are utterly confusing to anyone who’s not in a state of denial.

Confusion and deadening of the conscience has its social consequences. If we don’t revere and respect the people-making process (sexual union) how can we expect to revere and respect the product of it – human beings?

The most obvious example of this is the common practice of prenatal homicide (abortion), about which I have written on numerous occasions; but the connection most people aren’t making yet is between this confusion and Lorraine Bayless, a woman who was left to die because legal technicalities kept competent people from attempting to save her life. The 911 operator pleaded with a staffer who claimed to be a nurse to give Mrs. Bayless CPR, but she refused.

She also refused to get anyone else to do it. Mrs. Bayliss died before the EMT’s got to her. To top it off her daughter said it was alright that no one tried to save her elderly mother.

This story ran on news outlets because it is not yet too politically incorrect to express shock at the killing of the elderly. O’Reilly called it barbaric, and other media outlets expressed their dismay; but in a few years you won’t be seeing this kind of alarm. There will be a concerted effect to tweak the language to persuade the masses that allowing older people to die when they could easily be saved is a “compassionate” thing. As baby-boomers become elderly and their 1.4 children along with all the illegal immigrants we allow in to take up the slack are unable to shoulder the expense, this will become more and more clear.

Two women, one message: Abusing love abuses life, for life and love are one. In other words acceptance of illicit sex always leads to a culture of death, for no society can respect and revere human beings while disrespecting the act that brings them into existence. Civilization is measured by how much the most vulnerable members of society are cared for. As O’Reilly alluded to, we need to soberly assess whether we deserve to call ourselves civilized anymore.