Today I thought about the subject some more. If everyone has to take responsibility for their own actions, why do men still blame immodestly dressed women? And whose subjective definition of modesty should we adopt anyways?
Modern men are far from the only ones to blame women. Wasn't the adulterer who was brought to Jesus brought alone? Since she was caught in the act, where was the man? Jesus asked those who considered themselves guiltless of sin to execute the woman. They all went home.
In another place, Jesus had this to say about the subject:
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away (Matt 5:28-29 NIV).
Throw your eye away; you are the problem, not the woman.
Now, I understand that in the first-century Israel women were covered from head to toe, but this only magnifies the fact that the responsibility belongs to those who are doing the viewing, not the one who is being viewed; men had a problem with lust even when women were covered. Covering a woman doesn't do anything to fix the problem, changing the man's heart does.
A man whose heart is pure respects a woman as his equal, and is therefore not going to see her as an object to be exploited; he will see her as a person whose body is hers, not his to be used. Such a man can walk into a room full of undressed women without having a problem controlling his flesh, for such a man is in control of himself.
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