The Last Word on Cheerleaders

A new Arena Football League team has come to Los Angeles, and to spark interest and ticket sales the Avengers have plastered the LA area with shocking billboards. Several of these billboards are too obscene to print here but I did notice this gem: ""On Sunday, April 9TH, SIX BEAUTIFUL WOMEN WILL SHOW YOU THEIR PANTIES"" (source: Sports Illustrated, 4-13-00).

I find that message to be coarse and vulgar. I also find it refreshingly honest about the role cheerleaders play in American sports. With great regularity I have tried to encourage young women (and their parents) to recognize that cheerleaders, many majorettes, and drill team dancers are immodestly appareled. I have done so in a (mostly vain) effort to show that participating in such activities is a violation of 1 Timothy 2:9: ""women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation.""

For most men such an effort seems needless. Men know exactly why sports teams have shapely young women prissing around in very short skirts: because it appeals to the lust of the eye and worldly people like to lust. Regrettably, this point seems absolutely lost on many women. I have talked at length with women of a variety of ages who simply did not understand the effects of a short skirt on men. Many women seem determined to believe that cheerleading or drill team dancing is not immodest, and does not cause lust. Every attempt at rational reasoning seems to fall upon deaf ears. Why do cheerleading outfits have to be so short, if all the girls do is lead cheers? Why do drill team outfits often feature color contrasting skirts and underwear, so that no one can miss when the young women flash the audience? Why do majorettes often wear what is little more than a skimpy skin-tight bathing suit? Why do drill teams and cheerleaders bend over or do gyrations and dance numbers that cause their skirts to flap up or rise up? In short (no pun intended), why do these young ladies wear so little?

Yet instead of accepting what everyone knows to be true some seem determined to defend the wearing of skimpy attire as being righteous. I have been told ""People can lust after you no matter what you wear."" Certainly that is so, but does that absolve one of all responsibility to dress properly? ""A person can't control what other people think."" Again, another evident truth. However, the Bible places a responsibility upon Christians to do what they can to prevent others from sinning (see 1 Cor. 8-10). There is just no way to rationalize around it: leading cheers is not wrong, but what these girls are required to wear is. A woman who is interested in godliness will simply not wear such outfits. Titus 2:5 speaks of women's need to be ""discreet, and chaste"" while 1 Peter 3:4 talks of the importance of inner character and spirituality being seen even in how one dresses. The word of God speaks with consistent voice: godly women do not display their bodies in the way cheerleaders, majorettes, and drill team dancers do.

If there be any lingering doubts about this matter doesn't the billboard cited above emphatically remove them? Finally someone has decided to be honest about the purpose for cheerleading: lust. The Avengers are telling the truth that so many others seem to want to hide or ignore: come leer and lust at our cheerleaders' bodies. They are making a no-holds-barred absolutely honest and straightforward appeal to carnal and fleshly lusts. It may be upsetting to see it spelled out boldly but at least no one can deny what cheerleading is about.

So, if you're thinking about trying out for cheerleading or drill team just go ahead and announce your decision the way the Avengers would: ""I believe a Christian woman ought to show the world her panties."" Perhaps your daughter is wrestling with this decision, feeling peer pressure to be a cheerleader but wondering if a Christian really should do such. Go ahead and tell her: ""It's fine, dear, for you to show your underwear to the world and be an object of leering lust - we support your decision to cause others to sin."" Kind of hard to say, isn't it? Perhaps the Avengers' billboard will end this ridiculous debate. Truly, the last word on cheerleading and other such activities was spoken long ago by the Lord: ""If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world"" (1 John 2:15-16).