Featured Proper Sunday Dress

This whole post is distracting and unbiblical.

 

You should be flogged with wet noodles for putting such an image in our heads.

 

P311031: I can totally understand where you're coming from because I used to think the way you did, but had a "season of repentance".
I've been in churches, here and in my old country, where womenfolk and menfolk and youngfolk dress the way you describe, and I noticed one thing common among the young and some of the women: sad eyes, smiling lips below unsmiling eyes.
When we were living up in Buffalo, we had this family come in dressed exactly the way you described and the ladies prim and proper, eyes cast down, tight smiles, never speaking unless spoken to, short, formal, polite answers, and the man doing all the talking, and I thought, what's the difference between these and a Muslim family ?
They call themselves Christians and the other call themselves Muslims, is all.
I'm not referring to theologies or creeds here, mind you.
I'm talking about the effect of too much strictness in upbringing.

Some psychologist once said: show me a child who puts everything in its proper places and I can most likely show you a lonely child.

I think she's right.

 

When I was in junior high we were members of an average size church. One of the men in leadership had married the lady leading children's church. In sharing their story we learned how he came to Christ. Several years earlier he had started coming to this church. He walked in overalls and no shirt and stinking of beer. He was met with grace and it was used by God to bring him to salvation.

 

I hope that grace remained consistent through the years. In 1973 I walked into a Bible Baptist church in a dusty, little city south of Manila, Philippines with a pack of cigarettes in my left pocket and the smell of coconut wine in my breath, an atheist's smirk on my face and the darting eyes of a street wise hood.
Somebody called the Holy Spirit worked in my heart that day, and the next week I came back with my entire family, and a month later we were still coming to church and starting to feel welcome.
But the welcome seemed to wear off and the hints were dropped about my tobacco habit vs Christian "standards" and after some time the soft ostracizing began and it set off the old man in me and he said, "nuts !", and went away from church for a long, long while.

 

A Westboro contributer I see :laugh:

 

Ever visit a church & feel like your on the set of the Stepford Wives?

 

LOL Sure. I've also shown up in boots to a very lively service at a black church. I was the only white man there. It was a lively sermon, and some great worship.

 

As leadership changes so does the general tone of a group.

 

Surely you jest. I have worn suit and ties to church as well as jeans and a flannel shirt - I wasn't more holy in the suit than I was in the jeans and flannel shirt. What did Jesus say to the pharisees who spent so much time polishing the outside of the cup while neglecting the filthy inside?

 

Only Boots Jason & you a white man in an African American Church..... wow....that musta been a sight.:laugh:

 

They were friendly folks too.

 

Oh TC....by the tenor of her last few posts, I would say she is as serious as a heart attack!

 

Yes & I actually enjoy their services.....at least Ive never fallen asleep in them. Cant say that about some of these "Same old Same old" Baptist Services.:sleep::laugh:

 

Yeah, too bad the theological differences are an issue.

 

You must love short stories, cuz' you done read my mind.

 

In all the churches i attended as a child growing up people dressed up or as the saying goes they put on their Sunday best. In some churches in my area they still do but as the times has changed you see less men with a suit on and tie or a lady with a dress on. I know clothes don't have anything to do with being spiritual unless there is a lack of clothing but i do think it shows the world that when you go to the house of God to worship God you have enough respect for His presence to clothe your body in the best you have whether it be a suit, or the best over-alls you have. As far as ladies wearing pants, sorry but i'm old fashion about this, i think they shouldn't wear clothing that might entice men to lust.

 

If guarding against lust is the goal then dresses are out.

 

I respect that you've identified what triggers your, ummm...triggers. I'll infer that from your comments. If I'm wrong, please forgive me.

And in that light, there in bold. There's an assumption about what entices men (one, any or all) to lust. Pants wearing women? They don't hold any specific power over my "Oh hey! Lookatdatanlust!" control panel (or considering the subject, lack of control). Other forms of dress do.

For every man there's most definitely a different way to define the qualities that entice. I know a dude that can't look any women in the eyes beyond a quick glance without facing a struggle. I really don't see any church requiring welding goggles to help him control his lusts. His specific weakness shouldn't be the defining characteristic that presides over the "dress code" of his church.

It's like booze, others shouldn't be defined by my personal weaknesses and struggles with it. And that's all I'm saying about booze. I know where this tangent leads. I hope the analogy is apt enough as is.

I'm blessed in that everything about my wife does it for me. God's given me so much in her, what else could I possibly want? That's my persistent prayer, hope and desire.

While I'll always agree that dressing with modesty (and dare I add, humility) in mind should be paramount, it's ultimately the responsibility of the man to look at women as people made in God's image, rather than objects of desire. Our failings aren't theirs.

 

In your first sentence you remind me of people that are bent on telling someone what they really think, to wait on their reaction just to come back and say, oh i was just kidding. You can also apply the word assumption that you used toward what i said about pants to your first sentence also. I'm a old hand at word games, so now that we have that out of the way i will attempt to explain my position. The fashions that clothes are designed today for ladies is to draw attention. When a female wears pants it draws attention to her form, why would a woman want to draw attention to her form or figure ? Everything that we do in church, everything that we say in church should draw attention to Christ, not ourselves. We are there to worship the Lord. If a lady wears pants in church in the winter months to keep warm, i think she should also wear a dress over the pants. The scripture i would use is 1 Cor 14:40 Let ALL things be done decently and in order.