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ESPN The Magazine Stoops to Soft-Core Porn
The Christian Diarist ^ | July 11, 2012 | JP

Posted on 07/11/2012 8:37:55 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Since its debut back in 1998, ESPN the Magazine has tried to find a hook to rival the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Well, the editors at “the Mag,” as they refer to their publication, may very well have found it with their annual “Body Issue,” which just arrived at newsstands.

It boasts multiple covers, the most shocking of which features New England Patriots tight-end Rob Gronkowski, in all his naked splendor, striking a full-frontal pose, save for a strategically-placed dot covering his package.

And Gronkowski is not the only athlete that put out for ESPN’s Body Issue. Another 26 jocks and jockettes got unclothed for the cameras, much to the titillation, no doubt, of the magazine’s more voyeuristic readers.

Of course, the editors at the Mag deny they are trying to out-sex SI, whose annual swimsuit issue is borderline soft-core pornography. ESPN claims that its Body Issue is “a celebration of the athletic form.”

Indeed, some of the nudes might be considered “artistic” in some quarters. But ESPN’s image of Gronkowski will never be mistaken for Michelangelo’s “David.” Nor will the Mag’s photo of Ronda Rousy, the mixed martial artist, be confused with the “Venus de Milo.”

ESPN’s Body Issue is not about art. It’s not about stopping, as the Mag disingenuously suggests, “to admire the vast potential of the human form.”

It’s about luring readers to the Mag to see athletes “taking it off,” as ESPN teases.

That’s why the Mag promises us nude pictorials of “the bodies we want.” That’s why it invites its readers to “imagine how it would feel to inhabit those bodies.”

There is little doubt those double entendres are intentional.

What particularly disappoints is that ESPN the Magazine has persuaded professed Christian athletes to appear unclothed in its Body Issue.

Like Carmelita Jeter, who appears in this year’s issue, who praised God effusively after winning the 100-meter dash at the recent U.S. Olympic Trials, but who somehow sees nothing ungodly about posing for nudey photos.

She follows the example set last year by Lolo Jones, the U.S. Olympic hurdler, who says she is honoring God by staying a virgin until marriage, but who stripped down in the Mag for the whole world to see.

Like every other athlete whot has appeared in the Body Issue the past four years, Jeter and Jones rationalize that there is nothing wrong with nudity. That it’s natural. That it’s a beautiful thing.

Well, the young women are right, for the most part, when it comes to private nudity. But they are wrong, for the most part, about public nudity, such as their soft-core pictorials in ESPN’s Body Issue.

Indeed, the nude athletic bodies on public dispaly in the Mag tempt readers to look upon them lustfully. And causing others to stumble into sin is itself a sin.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Religion; Society; Sports
KEYWORDS: athletes; bodyissue; christian; gaygaygay; goodstuff; nudity
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Interesting that many of the athletes appearing in the ESPN's Body Issue admitted to feeling uncomfortable posing nude.

I believe it's because, in their spirits, they know it's wrong to publicly expose themselves, particularly to the millions of under-age kids who look up to them.

1 posted on 07/11/2012 8:38:13 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Most of the athletes were at least doing a relevant action shot. Gronkowski’s photos were just about getting naked.


2 posted on 07/11/2012 8:45:36 AM PDT by Flightdeck (If you hear me yell "Eject, Eject, Eject!" the last two will be echos...)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Bawney Fwank has ordered twelve subscriptions.


3 posted on 07/11/2012 8:45:46 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Spot on article. I’ve loathed ESPN since I stopped drinking the NFL Known Felons League’s Koolaid. They’re always first to cry racism, many times before Jesse and Al Sharpie have their busses warmed up and loaded with their rent-a-mobs. I sure wish Fox Sports Channel would have survived. They were honest about their racial bias and sometimes frankly embarrassed.


4 posted on 07/11/2012 8:51:10 AM PDT by STD ([You must help] people in theÂ…feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

The Daily Caller is guilty of the same, I noticed. Use to post there but complained against the soft porn posings and dropped them. Irritated me no end the lack of respect for conservatives on a red meat news site.


5 posted on 07/11/2012 8:54:59 AM PDT by RitaOK (NO ROMNEY, NO COMPROMISE. NO WAY. NO HOW. NOT NOW. NOT EVER.)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

I can’t really weigh in until I see the offending pictures. I am sure I am not alone.


6 posted on 07/11/2012 8:55:05 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Guns Walked -- People Died -- Holder Lied -- Obama Golfed (thanks, Secret Agent Man))
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Uh oh! Looks like Michelangelo was into "soft core porn" as well! And those first Olympics -when athletes competed in the nude - that was hard-core!
7 posted on 07/11/2012 8:58:58 AM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Hmmmmm.....seems gay to me.


8 posted on 07/11/2012 9:06:14 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST


It's been done.
9 posted on 07/11/2012 9:16:59 AM PDT by Johnny B.
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To: Johnny B.
Indeed, the nude athletic bodies on public dispaly in the Mag tempt readers to look upon them lustfully.

Amen and hellz yeah!!

10 posted on 07/11/2012 9:28:07 AM PDT by TheBigB (Hippie liberal chick: "What do I do about birth control?" Me: "Just use your personality.")
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

I buy ESPN for the articles . . .


11 posted on 07/11/2012 9:36:02 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

so, don’t buy it


12 posted on 07/11/2012 9:55:24 AM PDT by consultant
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

I think the point was that they DIDN’T expose themselves. You don’t see anymore of any of the athletes then you would see at the beach. Porn depicts(soft) or displays(hard) sexual activity, it’s not just pictures of scantily clad people.


13 posted on 07/11/2012 10:09:51 AM PDT by Blackyce (President Jacques Chirac: "As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure.")
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
I find it absolutely hillarious that you would write such a fine article denigrating ESPN for having pictures of naked men, then do it yourself.

Quote from your article, "Indeed, the nude athletic bodies on public dispaly in the Mag tempt readers to look upon them lustfully. And causing others to stumble into sin is itself a sin."

You should not criticize others for things that you also do, especially when you believe it is wrong.

14 posted on 07/11/2012 10:15:50 AM PDT by B4Ranch (There's Two Choices... Stand Up and Be Counted ... Or Line Up and Be Numbered .)
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To: B4Ranch

a little fruity there.

Walt Disney must be rolling in the grave. (no he is not frozen)


15 posted on 07/11/2012 10:19:52 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: B4Ranch

We have no “pictures of naked men.” Nor naked women, for that matter. We posted a photo of ESPN the Magazine’s cover. That’s journalism.


16 posted on 07/11/2012 10:26:05 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

ESPN the magazine has always been gay porno. America’s sports cult is an embarasment.


17 posted on 07/11/2012 10:34:10 AM PDT by junta ("Peace is a racket", testimony from crime boss Barrack Hussein Obama.)
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To: Blackyce

Neither Playboy or Playgirl depict actual “sexual activity.” Are they not pornography?


18 posted on 07/11/2012 10:34:57 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Link to all the pics, men and women.. NSFW Though most are tastefully done in a artistic sense.

http://espn.go.com/espn/photos/gallery/_/id/7030506/bodies-want-2011#/3/

19 posted on 07/11/2012 10:39:04 AM PDT by trailhkr1 (That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence - Christopher Hitchen)
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To: Flightdeck

I think Gronk has a screw loose.


20 posted on 07/11/2012 10:56:26 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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