When I saw the headline, I had to click and see. A beauty pageant entitled, "Miss Beautiful Morals?" Could this be real?

Pageant founder Khadra al-Mubarak said: "The idea of the pageant is to measure the contestants' commitment to Islamic morals... It's an alternative to the calls for decadence in the other beauty contests that only take into account a woman's body and looks."

The last part of her statement--about most pageants "calling for decadence"--struck me. If you've kept up with the news lately, you have probably seen coverage of the dramas and scandals of some recent pageants. The first headliner was Stephanie Naumoska, the Australian Miss Universe finalist who denied that she was anorexic, while admitting to a Body Mass Index somewhere between 17.0-15.5--the last number being borderline "starvation zone."

The next lucky pageanter to make headlines was Carrie Prejean (aka "Miss California") who immediately found herself adopted as the poster child for Christian pro-marriage groups. Unfortunately, Miss Cali is still in the news--over racy photos that may cost her crown. With these kind of uplifting headlines, I could not help but intrigued at the idea of a pageant about morals.

The Associated Press reported on this new Saudi Arabian venture into pageantry:

"Pageant hopefuls will also spend a day at a country house with their mothers, where they will be observed by female judges and graded on how they interact with their mothers, al-Mubarak said. Since the pageant is not televised and no men are involved, contestants can take off the veils and black figure-hiding abayas they always wear in public."

Hmm. Judging women for their morals rather than their beauty? A compelling idea, really--except I can't be excited about this either. While I do believe that voting on the quality of a woman's body is shallow and a little sickening, voting on a woman's morals may also prove disheartening.

The problem this Saudi Arabian brand of pageantry will be forced to grapple with is the same that has assaulted Western beauty contests: human depravity. Whether a girl covers her face with makeup or with a veil, underneath there still remains the blemish of sin-and no spotlight can hide that for long. Human nature's propensity to make mistakes can never be erased by strict moral laws. Islamic legalism can no more conceal sin than Stephanie Naumoska's string bikini could conceal her bone-thinness, or Carrie Prejean's pro-marriage campaigning could atone for her semi-nude photos.

And in a way, this may be exactly what God has been trying to get through to each of us. We can never atone. We can never hide. It is only when we fall helplessly to our knees before the throne of grace, and in our eyes sin becomes "exceedingly sinful" that we can find hope; when Christ's sacrifice of "the Just for the unjust" becomes our anthem. Only then can God begin making something beautiful within us--by His grace.