Weinstein Ruckus Exposes Deeper Problems

I recently reconnected with an old friend who lives near San Diego, in the sprawling megalopolis of Southern California.

I will never forget driving back to Anaheim after having dinner with her and her husband years ago. All five northbound lanes of I-5 were packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic at 9 o’clock—on a Sunday night.

Southern California has been in the news lately for a much bigger deal than traffic jams, though: the demise of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein for his alleged sexual escapades with dozens of movie stars and other women over the years.

Not only did it lead to his firing, the ensuring brouhaha has left the future of the company in doubt.

A Shower of Questionable Proportions

Ironically, my friend’s email—which followed a note I had mailed her a few months earlier—hit my mailbox the week after the news about Weinstein first surfaced in the New York Times.

She mentioned reading some of my blogs and posed the question: had I ever done any work with or about millennials? (Ironically, I’m editing a book right now about dating apps, which are more popular with twentysomethings than I realized).

She went on to explain her question: the small but mature congregation she was part of had recently merged with a larger one geared to the younger generations. That week, she had accompanied her husband on a work-related, overnight visit to a millennial-oriented event at a hotel in San Diego.

“This place and the event were geared predominantly to millennials and I’m still in shock over what we saw,” she said. “For starters, we were stunned when right in the living area of our room was a large, all-glass, walk-in shower!”

When she asked the room-service attendant about it, he explained that it was a little controversial—and that there were definitely “ups and downs” to the set-up.

She added: “But apparently the millennials love it. And with the money we saw this group spend while we were there, the ‘functional decor’ will stay.”

Connecting the Dots

So how do I connect the dots between Harvey Weinstein’s problems and my friend’s experience with such casual morality? Quite easily. The disappearance of moral boundaries and guidelines has been developing for decades.

It found its fuel in purveyors of increasingly raunchy magazines that gave birth to pornography that can be accessed in most hotel rooms and online every day.

Not surprisingly, one of the primary tools behind this smut is the objectification of women. Yet when Christians raised their voice to object to anything that trafficked in such objectification, we were called names like prudes, Puritans, and narrow-minded.

Considering the headlines erupting daily out of Hollywood, maybe those qualities aren’t so bad after all.

Safe Society

Earlier this year, a media firestorm erupted over a 15-year-old remark by Vice President Mike Pence about never eating alone with a woman other than his wife and not attending events where alcohol is served without her by his side.

Author and teacher Dr. Michael Brown commented about the left’s bizarre and almost hysterical reaction missing the point: that it is Pence’s high esteem for women that fuels his moral choices.

Commenting on the current ruckus involving Weinstein, Brown wrote, “Mothers and fathers of America, who would you rather have your daughters work for: Weinstein or Pence?”

A good question, indeed. It seems to me that we need to resurrect the moral boundaries that not only make our society a safer place but protect females. Considering the Weinstein flap, I think women can play a key role in resurrecting positive values.