<so heres my premise. if your inline with the God and what the Christ wants for us, the Spirit... then you will not be affected by the world.>
<<I disagree, as this premise seems to suggest that, in Christ, one cannot be tempted. >>

i did not say you wont be tempted... but when your clothed in the spirit, you wont give in to temptation. you wont feel the temptation, the burn. you'll just observe the thought, and let it go.

To begin with, this is all my opinion and not meant as a condemnation of anyone. This is just me sharing what goes on inside my head, so if there's something of value there to anyone feel free to pick it up, and if not then don't worry about it. Plus, no one is going to hurt my feelings if they disagree with me.

I think the idea here is that the stronger one is in Christ then the less one will feel tempted by the little things.

But with that said, the discussion about dress codes is skirting around the fringes of a more important topic. From my vantage point, the bigger question appears to be this: if there is something we are routinely tempted by, what is the *best* response? I would tend to agree that it is better to examine yourself and figure out why it is that you are tempted by whatever it is and then deal with that personal issue. If I have a tendency to drink to excess, then I should search myself and find the reason behind it. Maybe I'm a sensitive person who lives in an unsensitive environment and drink to dull the pain from the world around me. If that's the case, it would be better to get help to find better coping mechanisms than it would be to just remove myself from all contact with alcohol. Otherwise, I haven't dealt with the underlying problem that causes me to drink to excess, and my underyling problem will just find other way to manifest itself, like drugs, excessive smoking, overeating, watching too much television, et cetera.

As far as seeing lots of skin on females goes, I *know* I have some serious lust issues. No two ways about it. I've been desensitized to it somewhat from my past experiences, but still... The question becomes who is responsibile for preventing me from lusting after pretty women? Are other people resonsible for covering themselves up to avoid tempting me? Are other people responsible for preventing me from sinning? Am I responsible for preventing other people from sinning? I think the responsibility for preventing me from sinning falls pretty squarely on my own shoulders. Thus, I think the onus lies upon me to deal with whatever it is that is causing me to sin. With help from a higher power, of course :) I believe that it is wrong for me to expect someone else to accomodate me. Assuming one believes in a literal Hell, if one is condemned there is it reasonable to blame someone else?

By expecting other people to accomodate our weaknesses we avoid dealing with our own issues. Again, that doesn't solve the problem, it only masks it. It's putting a bandaid over something that needs stitches and a tetanus shot. As daFlew pointed out, accomodating someone else's weakness could also be considered enabling, in that you are allowing the other person to continue with the sickness in their hearts. It's ignoring the greater problem by trying to conceal the symptoms. It's hiding the truth from the light in order to present the appearance that all is well.

In the Garden, rather than just fessing up to what they had done, Adam and Eve tried to conceal it, and cover up their nakedness. Disobedience aside, I think their real sin was that of laziness. They could have said, "Hey, God, this serpent here has been telling us some stuff about that fruit You told us not to eat. Mind explaining to us why You didn't want us to eat it?" They didn't, though. Why? God was apparently in the habit of coming down and walking through the Garden every evening, so it's not like it would be a major inconvenience for anyone. So why didn't they? I think it was because it was easier to just do what they wanted and not go through the trouble of trying to find out why they shouldn't do something and get both sides of the story and (gasp!) think for themselves.

I guess the best analogy I can come up with is that while we can shuffle our feet and remove every stumbling block from our paths in order t oavoid falling down, the better (and ultimately less draining of energy) response is to learn to pick up our feet more so we can step over the stumbling blocks without having to move them anywhere.