Miss World: “I’m against abortion.” “Sex is for marriage.”

Megan Young, 2013's beauty queen of the world
On the 28th of September in Bali, Indonesia, Megan Young was crowned Miss World 2013. But short before she received her title, the 23-year old Filipino beauty put her chances of winning on the line by bringing up two controversial issues. In an interview she said: “I’m against abortion. I’m pro-life and if it means killing someone who’s already there, then I’m against that, of course. My beliefs are, no abortion.” About sex before marriage, Megan Young says “Sex is for marriage, that is my belief.”

Many are praising Megan Young for her courage to openly defend life and marriage. Others wonder why she took part in a beauty contest in the first place, claiming such an event would promote immorality. Taking part in a beauty contest would not give credibility to her words, they say. However, the same has been said of Jesus. Taking part in our 'immoral' world would not have helped Jesus' credibility either, so to speak. But bringing God's message to earth gave countless people the chance to hear and think about His beautiful message of life and love.

Queen of Heaven
Full of Grace
It is not strange, that beauty is used to share God's message. Beauty in itself is an indication to Heaven. The purpose of beauty in God's creation is to inspire people to God. It invites us to praise God for His creation. Megan Young, obviously aware about her attracting beauty, used her beauty to draw the world's attention to this message of life and love. Megan, being crowned by a panel of judges as beauty queen of the world, has a great example in the woman who is crowned by God as Queen of Heaven. Mary always points our attention to her Son. We can see it in the many images of this Gracious Lady, where she holds up and caresses our sweet Jesus.

But let us return to what this story was all about: publicly defending life and the value of marriage, even if the 'public opinion' is against you. Megan Young showed to consider her ideals more important than winning. Let us pray the Holy Spirit that all would learn from her about the beauty of life: from its beginning, in marriage, and to its very end.