{"id":108487,"date":"2013-07-24T10:29:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T14:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=108487"},"modified":"2013-07-24T10:38:14","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T14:38:14","slug":"uncovering-part-of-the-church-modesty-debates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/07\/uncovering-part-of-the-church-modesty-debates\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncovering part of those church modesty debates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As I have mentioned many times here at GetReligion, Deacon Greg Kandra\u2019s blog \u201cThe Deacon\u2019s Bench\u201d<\/a> is must reading for anyone who is is seeking a rather light-hearted, but very newsy, look at what\u2019s happening in Catholicism and in religious life in general. What we have here is a second-career Catholic clergyman, a permanent deacon, who in his previous career was a 26-year veteran with CBS News who won two Emmys, two Peabody Awards, etc., etc.<\/p>\n

This guy knows church life and he also has a gift for spotting the strange twist that can turn an important subject in religious life into a valid news story.<\/p>\n

This brings us to the illustration with this post, which is connected to the, uh, top of this 2011 column<\/a> that I wrote for Scripps Howard:<\/p>\n

Deacon Greg Kandra was well aware that modern Americans were getting more casual and that these laidback attitudes were filtering into Catholic pews.<\/p>\n

Still, was that woman who was approaching the altar to receive Holy Communion really wearing a Hooters shirt?<\/p>\n

Yes, she was.<\/p>\n

When did Catholics, he thought to himself, start coming to Mass dressed for a Britney Spears concert? Had he missed a memo or something?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, this is precisely the kind of pew-level subject that I have noticed \u2014 in 25 years of writing a weekly religion-news column \u2014 gets a rise out of ordinary readers and, needless to say, clergy. Thus, I was interested when veteran religion-beat pro Michelle Boorstein addressed this topic the other day in a news feature for The Washington Post<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, the anecdotal lede centered on life in Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, where the Sunday bulletin notes: \u201cDignity & Decorum: Please try not to wear beach shorts, tank tops, and flip-flops to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the story, to its credit, is after bigger game:<\/p>\n

Summer in our sweltering region forces a theological question: How does God feel about exposed shoulders in a house of worship? Or toes? Or some glimpse of thigh? \u2026 <\/p>\n

In general, casual has pummeled formal everywhere in America, from airplanes to offices. But places of worship \u2014 where debates on modesty are not confined to the summer months \u2014 may be the final frontier for questions about what constitutes overly risque. And those questions have recently sprung to new life.<\/p>\n

A popular campaign aimed at young evangelical women called \u201cModest is Hottest\u201d has triggered backlash by devout younger women who see the slogan as sexist. When the Bible calls for \u201cmodesty,\u201d they argue, it refers to displays of things like wealth and is describing the depth of one\u2019s spirit, not their neckline. Teaching women that their value rises if they have more clothes on is objectifying, a torrent of essays have argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cA woman\u2019s breasts and buttocks and thighs all proclaim the glory of the Lord,\u201d said Sharon Hodde Miller, a doctoral student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School whose critique of \u201cmodest is hottest\u201d in the online evangelical magazine Christianity Today<\/em> was one of the best-read of recent years. \u201cModesty is an orientation of the heart, first and foremost. It begins with putting God first. To look at an outfit and say if it\u2019s modest or immodest, I\u2019m not sure you can do that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, there is even a political angle to this, with readers being assured that the modesty folks are yearning for the good old days and a more conservative culture. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So take that<\/em>, all of you scribes \u2014 female and male \u2014 who worry that skimpy clothing in public life tends to lead to the objectifying of women\u2019s bodies. And what if warnings about modesty drive away potential church members in an age of declining statistics in religious institutions?<\/p>\n

Particularly today as institutional religion bleeds members, many churches \u2014 even some theologically conservative ones \u2014 advertise that dress is \u201ccome as you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want clothes to ever be a barrier. That\u2019s one reason we don\u2019t talk about it,\u201d said the Rev. Don Davidson of First Baptist Church of Alexandria.<\/p>\n

Some even argue that informal clothing signals not a new lack of respect for institutional religion but a new genuineness and
\nfamiliarity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are all kinds of angles considered in this story, but the key voices that are missing (and this is big) belong to the actual writers, most of them women, who have been making a theological and cultural case for modest clothing. It appears that there are judgmental people prowling the pews, but \u2014 at the level of publications and debates \u2014 none of these women have any ideas in their heads.<\/p>\n

In other words, there are debates going on out there. Good. That\u2019s a news story.<\/p>\n

But are there articulate people on both sides? What is the content of this debate? I mean, other than this interesting quote near the end:<\/p>\n

Discussions about possible sins of immodesty inevitably lead to discussions about another sin: judging.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus is most strong when he speaks about judging people,\u201d said Johnnie Moore, youth pastor at the evangelical Liberty University, noting students have come to his services in pajamas. That said, he feels religious and secular Americans are joining forces over concern about an oversexualized youth culture. \u201cGenerally speaking, you shouldn\u2019t come to church as you would to a club,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just saying. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I have mentioned many times here at GetReligion, Deacon Greg Kandra\u2019s blog \u201cThe Deacon\u2019s Bench\u201d is must reading for anyone who is is seeking a rather light-hearted, but very newsy, look at what\u2019s happening in Catholicism and in religious life in general. What we have here is a second-career Catholic clergyman, a permanent deacon, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,14,27,18,12,49,48],"tags":[2020,2019,2018,1382],"class_list":["post-108487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholicism","category-creeping-fundamentalism","category-evangelicals","category-people","category-religion","category-sex","category-worship","tag-clothing","tag-fashion","tag-hooters","tag-modesty"],"yoast_head":"\nUncovering part of those church modesty debates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As I have mentioned many times here at GetReligion, Deacon Greg Kandra's blog "The Deacon's Bench" is must reading for anyone who is is seeking a rather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/07\/uncovering-part-of-the-church-modesty-debates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uncovering part of those church modesty debates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I have mentioned many times here at GetReligion, Deacon Greg Kandra's blog "The Deacon's Bench" is must reading for anyone who is is seeking a rather\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/07\/uncovering-part-of-the-church-modesty-debates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetReligion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-24T14:29:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-24T14:38:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/files\/2013\/07\/HootersShirt.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/07\/uncovering-part-of-the-church-modesty-debates\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/07\/uncovering-part-of-the-church-modesty-debates\/\",\"name\":\"Uncovering part of those church modesty debates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-24T14:29:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-24T14:38:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"As I have mentioned many times here at GetReligion, Deacon Greg Kandra's blog \\\"The Deacon's Bench\\\" is must reading for anyone who is is seeking a rather\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/07\/uncovering-part-of-the-church-modesty-debates\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/07\/uncovering-part-of-the-church-modesty-debates\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/07\/uncovering-part-of-the-church-modesty-debates\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Uncovering part of those church modesty debates\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\",\"name\":\"GetReligion\",\"description\":\""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - 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