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“And though it be their sin and vanity that is the cause [of lust], it is nevertheless your sin to be the unnecessary occasion…You must not lay a stumbling-block in their way, nor blow up the fire of their lust…You must walk among sinful persons as you would do with a candle among straw or gunpowder; or else you may see the flame which you did not foresee, when it is too late to quench it.” ~ Richard Baxter
Did you notice the quote at the top of this article? I’ve spotted Richard Baxter quotes on quite a few websites promoting modesty, including in an online “book” by Mary Mohler, Albert Mohler’s wife. Baxter has been labeled a Puritan. It’s interesting how people with an agenda give a dead Puritan a whole lot of relevance – almost as much relevance as scripture.
After posting about the Christian Modesty Police dude a couple days ago, readers noticed that 36-yr old Adam Gregorin’s IsThisModest? website was taken down. Now the site says, “under construction.” It is my opinion that his blog and Twitter account were taken down because of photo copyright violations because I noticed photos by professional photographers being used for his “modesty reviews.”
Gregorin also uses the Twitter name: MinTheGap. The IsThisModest Twitter account was taken down and this is what pops up when clicking on IsThisModest name:
I discovered that the Christian Modesty Police (Gregorin) sent out tweets from both accounts. I took some screen shots sent from the MintheGap Twitter name so you can see how he solicited people to his Is This Modest website and how he looked at young ladies’ body parts how young ladies dress to see if they were wearing modest clothing or not. You’ll notice my editorial commentary at the bottom of the screen shots.
Is this the normal kind of tweet you would expect to see from a 36-year old father of 5? I think not.
I interrupt this message to bring you another Richard Baxter break because so many modesty websites think it’s oh so important to heed the words of a man whose been dead approximately 322 years and has the “Puritan” name associated with him. If you’ve never met Richard Baxter, here’s a picture of him along with another quote on modesty:
You little know what you have done, when you have first broke the bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy to the devil, so that he can, almost at his pleasure ever after, represent the same sinful pleasure to you anew; he hath now access to your fancy to stir up lustful thoughts and desires, so that when you should think of your calling, of your God, or of your soul, your thoughts will be worse than swinish, upon the filth that is not fit to be named. If the devil here get in a foot, he will not easily be got out.
Though selfishness hath defiled the whole man, yet sensual pleasure is the chief part of its interest, and, therefore, by the senses it commonly works; and these are the doors and windows by which iniquity entereth into the soul. Richard Baxter 1615-1691
I wanted to find more from blogger “IsThisModest”, and was able to find a quote about dress codes from the Is This Modest website:
THERE’S ALWAYS BEEN A DRESS CODE
After Adam and Eve had sinned, they found that they were naked, and were ashamed. They decided to make clothing for themselves to cover their nakedness. When God appeared, He determined that there clothing was not good enough, and made clothing out of animal skin for them.
When God gave instructions to Moses on constructing the Temple, His instructions not only came with details about the dimensions of the building, it came with instructions on how the priest and how the high priest should dress!
Multiple times in Scripture we see God talk about clothing– that He takes care to provide clothing and clothes the fields, that renting clothing is something done to register blasphemy, that seeing someone unclothed is a sin, etc.
So God has always had a dress code. (Source)
Snooping around cached sites, I also found an exchange between Gregorin and a blog reader who asked the same questions we have been wondering – well, at least I’ve been wondering. I’m glad to read his response, even if it is a comment back from May of 2012.
Jennifer says:Just discovered this site and have been blessed by many articles on it. However, I am STUNNED that it is being written by a man! Why isn’t a woman writing this? I would be much more comfortable reading this if it were written by a woman who perhaps has gotten good insight from her husband. Most of us have our own husbands we can get instruction from. Also, it doesn’t seem healthy for a Christian man to be analyzing modesty for a second job!!! Couldn’t that lead to some problems? Take care.
MInTheGap says:
This sight was created in response to an exercise I was doing with a woman who couldn’t believe that something that she thought was “cute” I considered immodest. I posted a fewposts on the topic on my main blog, MInTheGap.com, and found that women were interested in a male’s opinion on the topic. Shortly thereafter I found that there was a lot of interest in the male perspective when the Modesty Survey from the Rebulution guys came out.
That being said, this site is not only written by me, we have many female authors and I’m currently the only male author– though I am the site owner, editor, and have written a majority of the articles here.
I’m sorry that you feel uncomfortable reading this, but I wonder why you consider modesty only a topic for women to discuss? Paul wrote about the topic, Peter covered it, and Moses wrote about it. A simple web search will find that the number one video shared on this topic was a man talking about his struggle with temptation as a plea to the women around him to cover up.
I definitely agree that you can and should consult your husbands when talking about modesty.
Why do you think this site is a “second job”?
I thank you for your concern. Obviously, it could lead to some problems, or it could get my wife and other women a lot of free clothing to review, allow me to giveaway modest skirts, books, etc. to promote the cause, and hopefully be a blessing to readers.
Thanks for stopping by, I’m glad you’ve been blessed by the site, and I hope you are continually blessed. (Source)
Well . . . . . what do you think of Gregorin’s response? Does he give good reasons for having this kind of blog where he, a man, a 36-yr old father, reviews how young ladies dress? You tell me.
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Spiritual Sounding Board 
I’d like to know what his wife thinks about this. Do you know if she ever chimed in on his blog or FB or tweets? If my husband were engaging in this kind of behavior, I would be disturbed, to say the least. Just the thought of my husband acting like this – which he doesn’t – makes me sick to my stomach.
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That’s a good question, Marge. I could not find anything about his wife. Because I was looking through cached sites, I could only see one web page at a time, so it was a challenge to search.
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Thanks for continuing to highlight such ridiculousness! This particular issue of modesty is a bit of a hot button for me, so much so that I admit I merely skimmed this post so as not to get overly riled up.
As a woman who used to be a part of SG where “modesty” was explicitly preached about and talked about, all I can say is that hindsight is 20/20. What I once thought of as wise is now so clearly offensive and inappropriate to overemphasize. This whole obsession of men controlling women’s behavior, right down to their appearance, to safeguard their own lusts is so ridiculous. It reminds me of that comment some politician recently made about rape. Whether or not a woman has respect for her body, whether she feels her self worth and knows she is valued by God, whatever choices she has made, it is not the place of men to try to make her APPEAR more pure or think that their own purity will come by regulating how the opposite sex dresses.
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RP: JA is standing and waving the white hanky. Woohoo – preach it, Sistah! YES! I’m glad you didn’t skip by this message. Guys need to read what this kind of teaching does to women inside. As with so much of this kind of stuff, the end goal is commendable, but the way they go about it is completely wrong and can be far more harmful than beneficial. Thank you for commenting!
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It sounds like what you’re characterizing as the “modesty men” of Christendom is about the same as we hear from the fundamentalist Islam.
Is there such a term as “shehad” to describe the war against women in hyper-patriarchal cultures?
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Well, if there isn’t such a term, there should be, brad. Do I have your permission to adopt “shehad” as a word for use here on the blog? Wow – I can’t believe how appropriate it is – and it’s both sad and funny at the same time.
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Notice where he says this: I’m sorry that you feel uncomfortable reading this, but I wonder why you consider modesty only a topic for women to discuss? Paul wrote about the topic, Peter covered it, and Moses wrote about it. A simple web search will find that the number one video shared on this topic was a man talking about his struggle with temptation as a plea to the women around him to cover up.
I don’t remember Peter, Moses, or Paul discussing translucent tops, cleavage, etc, like Gregorin is. I don’t think of it as the same kind of modesty at all.
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How is it possible men don’t read this “his struggle with temptation as a plea to the women around him to cover up” foolishness and not get OFFENDED that someone would suggest they are such complete imbeciles and powerless morons that they cannot exercise sufficient self control on their own?
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I’d like to know what his wife thinks about this. Do you know if she ever chimed in on his blog or FB or tweets? If my husband were engaging in this kind of behavior, I would be disturbed, to say the least.
Maybe she’s Sweetly and Winsomely Submissive(TM)?
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This whole obsession of men controlling women’s behavior, right down to their appearance, to safeguard their own lusts is so ridiculous.
The exact same rationale used to justify the Burqa, the Locked Harem, and Honor Killings.
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More like “Porn for the Pious”?
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Ewww
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Good point, Buff. It kind of reminds me of someone else who called me a Woman of Mass Destruction. It’s our fault if our Brothers stumble because of what we are wearing. What amazing power some women have over men, huh?
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A little more info on how his sites were taken down, and the hypocrisy of the site that helped do it. (Not this one, though!)
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The Jezebel site is a new one for me. Yes, they could have done better. I read tweets of people discussing photograph copyright issues and it was my hunch that’s what caused the sites to be taken down. I haven’t checked to see if they are up and running again. I wonder if he learned his lesson – he probably did about copyright, but the other lesson – of acting like a voyeur. Ick – it still grosses me out.
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If, just if, the guy was a bit of a secret pervert with a severe lust problem, it strikes me that running a site like that would be a great way to indulge his lust while hiding it behind some kind of prurient veneer. Purely hypothetically, of course…
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Well, of course, Rob.
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