No Longer Quivering
Found this only because another Good Christian Patriarch ™ Doug Wilson was slinging mud at a upcoming conference for gay Christians. Tim Bayly’s pals of Warhorn Media and Out of Our Minds has been verklempting in four part harmony over the the conference and the very idea that someone Christian might identify as gay. But Tim himsel is busy yet again with the idea of morality, sexual identity and sin being wrapped up and openly displayed in what we wear, how we coif our hair and other outward signs.
Knitter please! If only it was that simple.
Tim says he is responding to a “shoutfest” of the day before with no links to where it was that his ideas on gayness and clothing received pushback.
Here’s what he said:
Oh my, my, that’s some interesting pearl-clutching going on over someone elses clothing choices and appearance, which appears, yet again, to be exactly none of Tim Bayly’s business. It is only inside of Christian Evangelical near-cults, like Quiverfull, where the type of socks you wear or the looseness of your skirt determines where you might go in eternity. Outside of the fearful cult walls most of us know that what anyone else wears that does not violation local laws is really their own business.
What Tim and others engaged in the hectoring over proper dress fail to realize is that what is appropriate for you might not be for me. Example: I live in a tropical clime, you will never see me wearing more clothing than flip-flops, a swimsuit with a beach dress over it. That’s it. It’s routinely in the 90s daily and I am in and out of the swimming pool and ocean three or four times daily. This is how people dress here Even at church we have people that show up with less than that on, right down to swimsuits. One of the ladies involved with worship team wears a bikini top and cut offs. It’s okay, no one is sinning, everyone is simply trying to stay cool in a hot climate. It’s our business.
I missed the part in the New Testament where Jesus was all catty about footwear and clothing. All of those rules about clothing in the Bible are more about not being prideful and showing off in your clothing during church! Which is likely not a good idea in the first place because there will always be someone with less money that will envy all those crazy hair styles, flashy clothing and sparkling baubles involved with being overdressed. Inciting jealousy in others is not so great.
Sometimes humor, sarcasm and ‘derision’ holds a mirror up to ridiculous notions, showing the world that they really are no different than that naked monarch in the old story ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ It can be a good thing. At least it makes you consider how ridiculous something might be.
I suspect that the reason that some Quiverfull Evangelicals are so obsessed with controlling what others wear has more to do with their own mental hangups over bodies than any amount of theology.
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