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Influence of Dress andFashion in the Church

Church Dress And Fashion Sense. In the end churching is about God not fashion.

Irrespective of the number of scandals troubling orthodox churches, there will always be men in priestly robes to remind us of the sacredness of the altar of God in the church. Those jeans-wearing pastors may want to appear cool, yet they maintain their right to leadership in their anointing. In many Pentecostal churches, they may not wear priestly robes like the Catholics, they generally expect a pastor to wear a suit, and at the worst a sports coat on the altar. Culture or nationality has little to do with these expectations. If the leaders maintain these standards, then there must be an expectation of their followers. The origins of these attitudes and expectations originated directly from the instructions of God

Dress and Fashion in the Church

I wish young people will at least capture wisdom from this discussion, that is, the challenge comes when God gives instructions.

People who pay attention to obeying the instructions benefit immensely from God as He rewards one’s recognition. However, when man deviates from obeying His instructions either because one did not capture the essence of the instruction or abject ignorance, there is always a price to pay. Therefore, we call God “jealous”. What makes God jealous is when His fruits begin to honor pagan gods as ungrateful children.

The purpose of having prophets is to have men confirm what God has already shared with us. The Word of God establishes man, and by the respect of His prophets do we prosper. God gave Moses very succinct instructions for the attire of the Aaron and his children, the high priest, and his assistants. Why will God care to go into very deep details as to practically every stitch of Aaron’s garment if He did not care. If all that matters were the heart of the man, why will God go to such an extent and prepare the people who will tailor the dress even before the Moses heard about it.

In addition, God designed the temple, and levels of access and dressing at each level. In other words, God has standards and boundaries, irrespective of culture or fashion. Therefore, if you are worried at all, fashion is not the issue of how much skin to show in church. The only reason for that to be a worry any time is that going to church has moved from worshipping God to making appearances before embarking other potentially more rewarding agenda, such as our date later in the day.

Rules of Fashion from Biblical Times to The Being-Cool Age

In all ages where the history is traceable, clothes have been worn to cover the nakedness of man. Clearly, the design and fabrics continue to vary, and we continue to see receive instructions from God concerning the boundaries. God has not changed; His principles have not changed irrespective of human manipulations or capitulation to Satanic deception. What provokes His jealousy are the unholy copies that pagan gods, servants of the Devil employ to deceive people and lure them from learning the truth. Today, it is about how much skin to show in church and how to cleverly reveal more of the skin as you leave church for your date.

This lady had come from work to Bible Study with her children. She works in customer care department of her company. She was certainly impressive and dressy enough for a global corporate environment. Her dress was a little bit above the knees when seen from behind. She wore tights neatly matching her skin tone and long boots fitting for the cold winter climate. It is conscious that she was not comfortable as she had children trying to cover her by walking behind around the church. All one could see were her knee joints above the boots and below the dress. Even then, the dressing speaks is appropriate for her office environment but certainly too distracting for a Pentecostal church Bible study. Essentially, she would pass for any other well-dressed lady in the mall but in the church, it appears too loud and distracting. So, is the problem psychological, scriptural, theological, or spiritual?

Let’s start with Old Testaments time to understand the genesis of the debate about God views on dressing standards. Is there an evolutionary dimension linked with social advancement consequent upon new knowledge from science for example?

Old Testament Culture

In biblical times, both men and women wore a long piece of cloth or leather in the form of tunic that has holes made for the head and the arms to pass through. They wore a loose robe or mantle over the tunic, and the robe was fastened with a sash or a belt. Both men and women wore sandals on their feet. The men wore a turban and some women in some cultures wore a veil. You would think that the attire was so simple as to be interchangeable between men and women. And that will be very mistaken because there were design differences that distinguished female dresses from men’s clothes.

New Testament Culture

New Testament Jewish dressing has some similarities with ancient biblical dressing in terms of pattern. Jewish men and women wore a tunic, but the woman’s tunic is usually longer than a man’s tunic. They all wore three types of garments particularly outside the home. They wore an undergarment of wool or linen and later cotton under the tunic. They tied the tunic with a sash, a rope or belt of leather and wore a mantle over the shoulder. The tunic had a voluminous sleeve design to it. The mantle served as a topcoat or blanket as may be needed. There were blue tassels to comply with Jewish law, and everyone had a pair of sandals made from wood or camel skin.

Women wore a veil that fell all the way to the floor over their heads and covered their faces in public. They generally leave their faces open at home. However, there were many religious sects in the time of Jesus and beyond and these beliefs influenced design variations from the general Jewish pattern. Therefore, there could be slight variations among the various faiths including the Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots, Sadducees, John the Baptist, and Jesus of Nazareth.

In public, Jewish men always wore a turban. This turban was of thick material passed several times around the head. Jewish men could remove the turban in the presence of a superior, hence, they remove their veils in the house of God. However, many pagan religions expect men to cover their heads while praying. Paul was probably reinforcing the issue of separation of pagan practices from Christian culture in 1 Corinthians chapters seven and eleven when he addressed the issue of head covering among men and women. There are suggestions that Jewish women did not wear veils because only reputable Greek and Roman women did about this time. The Corinthians belonged to the Roman pedigree. Paul wanted to prove that man is the reflection of God, and that the woman is the reflection of the husband, and respect of God need fall along these lines eliminating influences from pagan practices.

Modern Trends and Cross-Cultural issues

Even though there is no clear indication anywhere confirming that Jesus abrogated the Old Testament and its laws, it is clear from the words of Jesus and the teachings of Paul that Jesus was firm in explaining the principles that should govern our social interactions. A closer examination of the scriptures reveals that freedom from strict observance of the Laws of Moses is less important to God than the principles of love. Not encouraging one’s neighbor to sin is an expression of love taught by Jesus and His disciples (Romans 8:1-2; I Corinthians 9:20-21; Galatians 5:13-14; James 2:8).

Certainly, our dress style influences our social interaction, and the church environment demands modesty, humility, decency in respect of God’s will (I Timothy 2:9-10; I Peter 3:2-5). Even if one is bound for a date right after church service, modern fashion has enough taste to allow for brotherly love to prevail in the church and one can up the game a little bit more in the car after the church service. Therefore, even though, Paul promoted egalitarianism in the gentile church, he was equally emphatic that abuses of such freedom were offensive to God probably because such elevated their old pagan culture (Galatians 3:26-29). “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (II Corinthians 7:1, NIV).

The issue of headgear in church is one topic that commonly ignite debates about proper church dressing. Paul in answer to the Corinthians Church said, “Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head. A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man” (I Corinthians 11:4-7, NIV).

Therefore, deviating from the principles of God’s law is tending towards abuse of our neighbor and paganism, and we must avoid such tendencies. Paul declares that men wearing headgear while praying or women praying without veils is characterized by paganism. This is the biblical standard. It may relate to Jewish custom at the time but so is everything scriptural that we relate to today.

Did Jesus Christ or Paul Overthrow The Laws of Moses?

In many churches where the clergy do not wear clerical robes, the preachers to dump formal attire for casual clothes. The idea is to appeal to modern fashion such that young people will not feel alienated if they venture into church. While it will be absurd to appear in church in tunic and coat topped with a turban or veil. It is true that in Biblical times, the people were laborers and farmers with simple needs and hence, their fashion sense. Yet, coming to the pulpit in faded and tattered jeans and T-shirt is pushing the missionary perspective rather far.

There is a reason that God gave specific instructions for the threading of the garment of Aaron’s and the priests (Exodus 28). God has not changed. There is no type of dress that cannot be manipulated for selfish purposes. The overarching principles must include obedience to God’s principles, humility, honor, and reflection of Christ. If our minds were focused on God, and less on our personal appearances and comforts, the Lord God will convert those who desire salvation. We may want to appear to belong but still want to prove that we are separate, different and they can join us. That is a lot of more hard work to convince them that there is something else inside of us driving the difference. You can wear a suit and still be motivational. You can still cover your head and still be beautiful.

Respect for God: Humility or Fashion?

The social environment at the time of Christ was different from that of the Old Testament. During the ministry of Jesus there was sharp hostility between the Jews and Samaritans (Luke 9:51-54; John 4:9). The Samaritans were a mixture of ancient Hebrews and foreigners (II Kings 15:29), and a people with whom paganism was rampart (II Kings 17:29). Paul’s challenge was to keep the gentiles in line with the principles of Godly worship away from the challenges of paganism inherited from their previous lifestyle.

To be certain, there are dress styles for meeting a king or attending an interview, even for royalty. Therefore, in addition to hints that God cares about our dressing, otherwise he will not have gone into those meticulous details about how to appear in His temple. Cultural evolution continues to inculcate the value of respect for the circumstances in fashioning our dress styles. The psychology of dressing to church should be like that of dressing to the office or to a conservative business meeting. God has His standards and expectations.