IS THE BEAUTY OF A WOMAN GOOD OR EVIL?

Could someone please explain something to me? What does it take to get a letter to the editor? Last week Shyaka Kanuma ran an editorial, “Congratulations, Miss Kigali.” His editorial raised issues of beauty, history, religion, and culture.

In another opinion piece Erwin Winkler raised the issues of celebrities’ scandalous behavior with “Spare us the traumatic experience of Paris Hilton.” I loved it and could not stop laughing with the picture of a pig impersonating Paris Hilton in a swimming pool. As with most well written pieces it gave a fresh face to an old discussion. I could not help but remember that approximately 3,000 years ago a wise king wrote a similar proverb with the words, “Like a gold ring in a pearl’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.” The issue of misused beauty is not new to the discussions of humanity.

So the issue of beauty was thoroughly raised, but no one dared offer a comment. Before moving to Rwanda, I did a radio show for Monitor FM (now KFM) in Uganda, and the subject of beauty always generated letters to the editor or calls to radio stations.

Why the silence? Are men in Kigali unaware that women are quite pleasing to the eye? Do they think that women are just a functional biological fact necessary for the continued reproduction of our race? Is there pleasure to be found in the graces of a captivating woman?

Or are women in Kigali unaware of their ability to control their future by a simple smile or glance? Do they not know the capacities of the right dress, blouse, shoes, or jewelry? Could they possible not know the gentle arts of flirtation and tease?

What about our city’s pastors? The best ones I know will secretly tell you their most thrilling pastoral moments are the celebrations of the life and mating cycles of humanity. They guard their parishioner’s mating rituals the way ORPTN guards the gorillas. They secretly pray that the married couples in their assembly find all the erotic love they need within their own marriage. Their most troubled pastoral moments usually arise as the repercussions of erotic love outside of the covenant of marriage. They know that we were designed to mate for life and find pleasure in the joys of earth. Good pastors create environments for young men and women to first meet one another, but then delay the mating cycle until it is a covenant approved by their community. Yet when that covenant is finalized they eagerly await new births and treasure each child and the hope for the future that child brings. Thus good pastors can not help but both appreciate and fear the beauty of a woman.

Unfortunately, it has been my experience that many pastors have neither the depth of thought nor common sense to ponder the beauty of a woman. Is her beauty both a gift and skill to be nurtured, or is it a trap of seduction and destruction? Give a shallow pastor a micro-phone to discuss beauty and he will usually wade into the fray and consider a woman of graceful charm a prostitute. Give a crooked pastor an opportunity and he will fill his parish with young women with which he will use pseudo-spiritual language to seduce.

Let me fearfully wade into the fray. My position is that the beauty of a woman is by nature good. The shallow mulokole will hear my position and assume I am writing of inner beauty, but I take the outlandish position that the beauty of a woman is about all of our humanity – body, mind, emotions, and spirit.

Our Christian theology made a fatal mistake thousands of years ago when it made a compromise with the Greek thought systems. (Philosophic compromises almost always get us into trouble, but I will save that discussion for another time.) Prior to this compromise Christian thought sprang from Jewish thought. In Jewish thought creation was seen by nature as good. In its earliest words as God pondered creation, He stated seven times “It was good (Genesis 1:3, 9, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). Then as cultural systems arose life was celebrated with feast after feast. Marriage was seen a gift from on high. In fact, the wonder of a woman’s created beauty brought the wise king I earlier quoted to write a poetic book about the pleasures of our sexuality (Song of Songs). Truly, from the earliest days of both Jewish and Christian thought the beauty of a woman was by nature good. Some might even conclude it was a treasure to be guarded.

Then as Christianity sprung from its simple Jewish roots and met the known world it faced the pseudo-sophistication of Greek thought. The Greeks had mastered many things, but they missed the simple beauty of a woman. They were unable to ponder the beauties of the earth and started a philosophic dichotomy. In simplest terms, the spiritual was good, and the physical was bad. All of life was divided into these categories of either spiritual or physical. Thus to find pleasure in the earth was bad or minimally self-indulgent by young Christian theology.

This dichotomy has led to almost all the failures of Christianity for thousands of years. We can sing praises in church at the top of our lungs on Sunday, but be an office cheat on Monday. In other situations we can ignore our human responsibility to steward the earth. Sacred and secular are continually separated. Without a holistic view of our world we are always stunted in our abilities to both celebrate and grief, debate and discover; and create and nurture.

With our strange pseudo-Christian thought system the beauty of a woman became either a shame to deny, or a tool to exploit. It is time to reclaim our position on the intrinsic beauty of a woman. Truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it can take many forms. The color of her skin, hair, and eyes makes no difference. A woman is by nature beautiful. The shape of her body, lips, or face makes no difference. A woman is by nature beautiful. From the earliest days of life her beauty should be nurtured and guarded. Hopefully, her early days are filled with men who by cannot help but smile each time they see her. Her father, uncles, and grandfathers are fascinated by her treasure. Her brothers may tease her, but they also cannot deny the beauty of their sister. In fact, they are the greatest guardians of her beauty. All of life’s mysteries spring from within her beauty. When we must use poetic words to describe what we can only ponder we must use the descriptive words of female beauty.

So what’s the point of this column? For those of you possessing female beauty guard your treasure. In fact celebrate and nurture it. Allow it to grow and thrive. Acknowledge that beauty goes to the depths of our humanity and through out your life strive to increase the beauty not only of your form, but of your thoughts, words, and actions. Age with grace, and never cease to bring a smile to the faces of men when you enter a room.

For those of us left to ponder the mysteries of female beauty guard the treasure entrusted to you. Whether the treasure is a sister, wife, daughter, or friend she is a treasure. Smile when she enters the room. Laugh with her wit. Celebrate the discoveries of her life. Allow her to age with grace. Even as time may dim the glimmers of youthful beauty never forget as a woman she is by nature beautiful. In fact, in simplest terms she is by nature good.

Come run with me.