Prayers: Burlesk

BURLESK

Lord God Creator of All People,
Male and Female,

When I was a teen-ager the Kansas City Star ran daily ads for burlesque shows, which promised, raunchy excitement, "Live! On Our Stage! Bring the Ladies, They'll Scream!"

The vulgarity and the titillation might seem oddly naive in our licentious 21st century when teenagers wear all day on the beach "bikinis," nearly as tantalizing as the briefest flashes of "g-strings" and "pasties" thought rudely audacious in times past.

Sally Rand, world-famous for her peek-a-boo act with huge ostrich fans, was an exotic favorite, but would be thought a demure oddity today.

The "skin" shows with traveling carnivals were perhaps even bolder, except when local sheriffs ran them out of town.

I recall one huckster proclaiming that his "girls" did "more bumps than a tractor bouncing over a plowed field."

Our strait-laced German Pastor, Monsignor Joseph Selting, railed to his conservative and sedate flock, against those who "caroused" around our little town on Saturday nights, although I doubt that few, if any,
of our pious parishioners did.

The world has changed, God, as You well know.

One wonders if public morality will continue to sink lower in the 21st century, with young girls being cautioned ever less strongly about "saving themselves" for their future husbands.

I hope, dear God of All Creation, that we somehow rediscover some sense of modesty, morality, chastity, respect for virginity, and a more mature and respectful relationship between the sexes.

All this I pray fervently in Your Holy Name,

Amen

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