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Miss California May Lose Crown |
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Prayer-Soldier writes "Carrie Prejean may lose her Miss California title over the gay marriage issue. ABC News reported 11 May 09 that the co-Directors of Miss California USA held a press conference in which they stated that Donald Trump would review whether Prejean would be allowed to retain the title of Miss California. The ongoing controversy that could lead to the loss of her title was sparked by a question on gay marriage asked by Perez Hilton during the Miss USA Pageant.
When Prejean answered that she believed marriage was between a man and a woman, it prompted a video blog outburst from Hilton that thrust Prejean into the middle of a controversy that continues to swirl. The vulgarities directed at Prejean by Hilton were seen by many as unwarranted. The ensuing controversy drew the attention of groups committed to the preservation of traditional marriage and the exclusion of same sex marriage.
The controversy escalated as Prejean agreed to appear in commercials sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). On 30 Apr 09, the National Organization for Marriage announced a “No Offense” Religious Liberty add campaign that will include the exchange between Prejean and Hilton. The announcement of the campaign continued to fuel the controversy.
As Prejean defended her beliefs, reports began to reverberate throughout the media to disparage Prejean's past. Reports of breast implants and semi-nude photos began to appear. Controversial exchanges between pundits began to appear on cable news programs such as MSNBC and Fox News.
According to the ABC report, Prejean may be in violation of her Miss California contract because she has granted interviews and made appearances without permission of the Miss California organization. Additionally, Prejean has apparently failed to make Miss California appearances while making herself available to speak in defense of traditional marriage.
On 11 May 09, Focus on the Family aired the first part of a two part interview with Prejean. Dr. James Dobson said the interview was not about pageants or swim suite competitions but the “behind the scenes story to the answer that Carrie gave to the question posed by one of the judges, Perez Hilton, who is a self described gay activist.” Dobson continued, “He obviously tried to trap her with his question, knowing that if she gave the wrong answer, her chances of winning the Miss USA title would be gone.”
In the podcast posted on the Focus on the Family web site, Dobson related that he had also learned that Fox News contacted the top 15 organizations related to women's issues and none would support Prejean or make a statement in her defense.
On the 11 May 09 edition of the O'Rielly Factor, Bill O'Reilly asked where women's groups have been on this issue given Prejean has been villified and “called all kinds of vile names.” O'Reilly said, “I expected women's groups to say, 'Hey we don't agree, but you can't be doing this kind of stuff,' but I didn't hear a thing from them, why not?”
In response, Meghan Daum, an opinion columnist for the “Los Angeles Times,” said, “Well, I think most thinking people, unless their representing overnight, pseudo, celebrity anti-defamation league have bigger fish to fry.” After some pressure from O'Reilly, Daum admitted that the attacks against Prejean were vile, but opined that Prejean is a grown up and doesn't need the defense of women's groups.
In the introduction of the Focus on the Family Podcast, Dobson spoke of the efforts to discredit Prejean, to include the revelations of photographs taken of Prejean when she was 17. Dobson, while stating that Focus on the Family promotes modesty, commented that many of us have regretted things we have done when we were teenagers. As he set the stage for the interview, Dobson related the viciousness of the attacks against Prejean in the media.
During the interview, Prejean stated that as soon as she was asked the question, she knew she was either going to “please man or please God.” Dobson observed that it seemed Prejean's first reaction was to hedge, but then something took over. Prejean acknowledged, “It really was a switch.” Prejean stated, “I started off by saying, I want to win this pageant so bad, I've worked so hard, I wanted to sound politically correct, but still stay true to my values, but I just knew at that moment that God was just telling me, 'Carrie, how bad do you want this? Are you willing to compromise your beliefs for a one year crown of Miss USA?' And I just knew right there, and as you can hear on the video, I said, you know what, that's when the switch went off and I said a marriage should between a man and a woman.”
Prejean later commented that she wanted to encourage others that when they are faced with an issue and you know in your heart what you should say, “don't ever compromise that just for pleasing them.” Prejean related, “Your goal should be to please God, not please man.” In Prejean's recount of the situation, she related that she felt Satan was tempting her, but that God was in her head and in her heart telling her that she needed to stand up for Him.
It is unlikely that the controversy will subside soon. According to the ABC report, Trump will hold a press conference on 12 May 09 to render his decision as to whether Miss California will retain her crown. It is likely that whatever the decision, one side of the other will be critical of the outcome and the storm in the media will continue.
Given the revelations of Prejean's past, conservatives may take some pause in embracing Prejean as a role model, however, in the same vain as Dobson, others are pointing out that we all have made moral mistakes. In a 5 May 09 press release, Maggie Gallagher, President, The National Organization for Marriage, stated, “Of course Carrie is not perfect. On a personal note, as a former unwed mother, I want to say to Americans: you don’t have to be a perfect person to have the right to stand up for marriage.”"
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Posted on Monday, May 11 @ 23:33:08 MDT by drbonebrake
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