I was listening to a couple of old people at church talking about how we dress differently today for church. A phrase occurred to me. "I'm puttin' on my Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes." What was that?
No one really questioned the specifics. Nor did they question the suitability. It did not require expensive clothes or even attractive clothes. They understood it to mean "the best available clothing." The farmer who put on his cleanest pair of overalls considered himself to be wearing his "Sunday best." It was not dressing to impress, but dressing to respect. They intended to show respect for God, for the gathered saints, and to express their own dignity even in poverty ... their "made in God's image" worth.
Without intending to raise the debate again, you can see that times have changed. Use the phrase in today's churches ... even older churches ... and it would likely have no meaning to probably the majority because they don't understand the concept of dressing up for church. Even people who do dress up for church have chalked it up to "looking good" and "dressing to impress," not as a sign of respect for God and His people. It just struck me hearing those older people talk. They were even ridiculing the idea of dressing up for church.
5 comments:
I can see that this would be a highly personal matter, based on one’s own experiences--going way back, perhaps. Personally, I have no firsthand knowledge from my upbringing of “‘Sunday go-to-meeting’ clothes,” as (1) my family did not attend a “Sunday meeting” together as part of our religious practice, and (2) we wore our school clothes to church (so nothing special about Sunday outfits). To my mind, the idea of “Sunday best” for church attendance is a Protestant tradition that is still foreign to me in many ways. Of course, we have discussed at this blog how some see “how to dress for church” as a “respect for God’s holiness” matter, but to this day, that connection has not been established convincingly to my mind.
On a more general observational note, I would suggest that the relaxation in church dress standards from years past reflects more casual dress in general in our culture at this time--for work, play, school, home, travel, church, etc. More “formal” clothing (suits, dress shirts, ties, hats, overcoats, dresses, jewelry, high heels) was essentially the standard wardrobe for men and women--even for everyday activities--until recent times, so dressing that way for church was a natural outcome. The trend has been away from formality in the general areas of life for many decades now--therefore dressing more casually and comfortably for church as well is considered natural (and not disrespectful). The positives and negatives of this trend is debatable, of course. In fact, I continue to feel that almost everything that can be said on this topic would be highly subjective--including whether the choices one makes for church apparel have any spiritual connotations at all or are simple manmade conventions.
My immediate family were not church-goers (I became a believer while in the Army through the Navigators) but in all the old movies I watched as a teen and onwards, and all the books I read, alway show people dressing their best for church, even if their best was overalls. As Lorna notes, our culture used to be more formal in all their dress and I don't understand how clothing designers sell jeans with wholes already in them!
I still dress up for church because I feel it's important, and in the church I attend there are still older gentlemen wearing jackets and ties. In cold weather I wear a nice wool sweater over a turtleneck with my slacks and as weather gets warmer I may wear a heavy shirt with a tie and jacket, then doff the jacket for a waistcoat over shirt/tie and when it's in the mid-60s I doff the waistcoat and just have shirt/tie and when it's warm it's a short sleeve shirt/tie! But then, I never even in "civilian life" dress like a bum while in public (while working in the yard, YES).
Are we better off as a society with our lax dress and plunging necklines (even in church)? There's something to be said about someone by the way they dress, even today. We make judgments about people based on how they're dressed, and that's not wrong or evil, just fact. I'm not sure which came first, but there seems to be some correlation between the civility of our culture and how we dress.
I would be the first to agree that too many people are dressing inappropriately these days--for every occasion. I do believe the standards of propriety have really been stretched in recent decades--and not just by young people, who are notorious for pushing the boundaries on everything related to hair color/style, clothing/jewelry choices, language/behavior, etc. (I am certain that social media has encouraged much of it.) Considering how lax the standards in general have become for appearing in public (just search YouTube for “people of Walmart”), it is not surprising that many church outfits are less-than-decorous. Unfortunately, “you can’t legislate good taste” or lecture good sense into people. Alas, the older one gets, the more often one needs to suppress the eye-rolls!
I suppose the correlation could be termed lack of respect for oneself and others. Sinners gonna sin.
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