Mary Whitehouse, the "clean-up TV" campaigner of the latter part of the 20th century, divided opinion. Some backed her desire to see Christian values upheld through television productions. Many mocked her, accusing her of taking a Canute-like stand against inevitable change.

As I thought about her recently I wondered how many people today might think in fact she was right to alert us, in her own way, to the challenges modern society faced from the influence of the media.

What brought her to mind was recalling a story I heard her tell of how her granddaughter came into her bedroom one morning and asked, "Granny, how old are you?" "I'm seventy-five," was Mary's reply. The little girl thought about this for a while and then said, "Well, you look all right on the outside. But what must you be like on the inside?"

We may smile at a child's innocence, but the question is a pertinent one whatever our age. We live in a society where image appears to be everything. We are encouraged to adopt the latest fashions and have treatment to firm up, reshape and tone every part of our bodies. Advertisers promote must-have lifestyles which usually centre around what we wear or eat. Others encourage us to be seen in the right places with the right accessories.

Jesus would have understood the granddaughter's question. He constantly challenged the religious leaders of his day. They, he said, were entirely concerned with appearance and paid too little intention to what they were like on the inside. They were interested in wealth, power, status and prestige. Jesus said that God was more interested in the state of our spirit than the trendiness of our wardrobe.

To paraphrase Martin Luther King, we should be dreaming of a world where people are judged not by the labels on their clothes but by the content of their character.