What does twerking say about the modern generation, and what do we say in return? - 5 Sep 2013

Ever since the VMA awards, and 'that' performance by Miley Cyrus, the internet has been discussing the state of the modern culture and the invention of the new dance technique known as twerking. 

For those that haven't heard, wikipedia describes twerking as 'a type of dance where a person shakes her hips up-and-down in a bouncing motion, causing the dancer to shake, wobble and jiggle.' The cry has gone out against Miley with words like 'disgusting', 'horrific' and 'disgraceful' from christians and non-christians alike, all the world seems to be talking about twerking - so the question is; what should Christians be saying?

I would expect that most people would agree that God was saddened by the whole debacle. It is easy to feel an anger rising up against Miley or maybe, more fairly, against her duet partner Robin Thicke and his utterly offensive song 'blurred lines', a song that has been considered the biggest hit of the summer which, with lyrics like "OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you, But you're an animal, baby, it's in your nature", basically talks about how it is acceptable to blur the lines between consensual and non-consensual sex. 

'We will not be silent' rings out in the heart of christians as the media tries to degrade women into objects and dehumanise men into animals; we write blogs in opposition, we tweet about our disgust and we gossip together about how 'in the last days' the darkness is getting darker. 

But then we look at Jesus…

We see our Saviour Jesus and we hear His words "judge no-one", "love your neighbour" and "love believes the best". We see him kneeling in the dirt as the pompous religious leaders of the day look to execute the women caught in the very act of adultery. And we see him praying and standing as part of a broken and corrupt generation offering mercy instead of judgement, hope instead of despair. 

When faced with the celebrity scandal of a summer overshadowed by 'blurred lines' and twerking it is good that we will not be silent, but how many times do we pick up stones and aim them at musicians, actors and actresses? How many times does our passion become prayer? Who is praying for the Miley Cyrus' and Robin Thicke's of the world, who is believing that Hollywood is redeemable and that prayer has the power to overcome every darkness?

What if every Christian around the world watched the VMA's and believed that Jesus had a plan to see his Kingdom glorified in every sphere of society?

Twerking does say something about the modern generation and we must say something in return: "Father, let your Kingdom come…."

If you want to read anything more around this issue, check out this post from the Rhythm guys at TearFund

Images are used by permission in accordance with commons copyright license terms:
Image is a derivative of the image 'Concierto de Miley Cyrus en Caracas' by Daniel Atun.