Your Fleece Pullover Is an Abomination in the Sight of God
In church this morning, I was appalled at what some people were wearing. I’m a goddamned pagan, and I go to church only when Catherine asks me to, but I have enough respect for what’s going on there that I go to the trouble of changing out of my couch-potato clothes into a nice button-up shirt and dress pants.
It’s not actually about showing respect for God, religion, or the church as much as it is about showing respect for everything in general. But since church should be a place where people of every type feel equally welcome, including rich and poor, it is a great context in which to think about what it means to dress well and the minimum it is reasonable to expect from everyone. Even if you can only afford to buy all your clothing at Costco, you can still choose clothing that closely fits your body, and you can even find something that’s nicer than what you wear around the house.
In photos of church services from before the 1970s, you won’t see anyone in camping clothes, even at churches in working class neighborhoods, so this change in attitudes must be due to the influence of the Sixties. I looked around church today, and for the most part, the only people who were dressed well were people age 60 and older, that is, people born before 1950. Children of the Sixties rejected the fashion values of the elite and didn’t pass on those values to their children, who are now the slobs in church today.
I can think of two reasons why someone under 60 is a slob in public. One reason is being human: doing what everyone around them is doing without really thinking about it. We’re social animals. Most people don’t want to stray too far from the herd. They read books that are popular, they watch TV shows that are popular, and they dress in ways that are popular. And now it’s popular to dress like a slob. If these slobs had been born before 1950, they would have dressed up for church just because that’s what most people around them would have done. But now it’s the proletariat fashion values most people are mindlessly accepting. That’s just what most humans do.
The second reason someone dresses like a slob in public is because of ideology. Some people do question historically traditional fashion values and deliberately dress in public like they dress at home. I’ll explore their objections in future posts, but for now, I just want to point out that the second group is the real problem, not the first group, who will just go along with whatever is most popular. So those of us who want to rebel against the dominant fashion values should focus on people who justify slobbery.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:05 am
I’ve been to a church where the 35 and under crowd would show up in shorts, tank tops and flip flops during the summer. There’s a place for that type attire, church is not it. If I were to show up at church dressed like that, my mother would climb out of her crypt, hunt me down and switch my behind until I couldn’t sit in the pew.
It’s not just about reverence for God and His place of worship. It’s about having pride in and respect for yourself. How can we expect others to have respect for us when we can’t be bothered to shake off the laziness once a week and show some respect for ourselves.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:12 am
“…I go to church only when Catherine asks me to.”
Well, at least you’re honest.
In addition to respect for God and His house, and one’s self, I would add that it’s about respect for the other members of the body of Christ. Your neighbor. I see the decline in dressing appropriately at church and other places like work as a reflection of the general decline of respect for other people. It’s a reflection of what is going on in our society and culture in general. And it makes me very sad.
January 12th, 2010 at 10:46 am
@Rhonda and @Catherine: You all touch on an idea I didn’t have time to explore, which is that the way we dress can be a part of our spiritual path. I don’t want to steal Catherine’s thunder, because she has some great ideas on this and wants to start blogging about it herself, but I just have to say, becoming more aware of fashion has become one way I honor everything and feel closer to everything. I think people become interested in fashion for two main reasons: to call attention to themselves or to show respect for themselves and others. It’s too bad that some people react to the first group by dressing like slobs. Dressing well can be an informal form of worship, an acknowledgment that God (if I may use that word) is in everyone and everything all around us.