And sometimes, what is immodest is just that. . .immodest.
The trouble is that many, if not most, people in today’s culture–male and female, rich and poor, black and white, and everything in between. . .have become so conditioned to accept the ‘anything goes’ attitude (and to excuse it with, “Immodesty is in the eye of the beholder” and “I wouldn’t wear that myself but who am I to ‘judge’ another”, and “Well, God doesn’t judge us by our clothes” and “At least they’re there.”)
Standards? We don’t need no freaking standards! If it’s out there, we can wear it. . .whenever we want, wherever we want. . .and God help anybody who suggests that what choose to wear is immodest or inappropriate. How rude! Why should submit to anybody’s guidelines? Why can’t judge for myself? Don’t I have better things to do like working for justice than to fret over what some poor teenager who is probably far more “Christian” than I am (since I am such a nasty Puritan, bigot, repressive and control freak, obviously) is wearing?
What gives anybody the right to ‘judge another?’ As Christians, aren’t we supposed to just smile and rejoice when the wedding guests come to the banquet? I mean, nobody is going to throw anybody out for wearing something that isn’t appropriate to the wedding banquet, right?
OOOPS. Uh, yes, actually, they are, aren’t they? How pesky of Scripture to have Jesus tell us Himself that the man who did not have a wedding garment was going to be thrown into the darkness. How unChristian of Jesus!!! Imagine! Surely he wasn’t talking about things today, though. Oh no, surely not. Surely He, who gave us His Church and the Authority to “bind and loose” and to insist upon certain standards like being in a state of grace to receive communion. . .didn’t mean to include in that norms for appropriate dress?
What do you mean, that until the last century, the majority of the people were dressed appropriately anyway? That it is only in the last century that there has been a huge ‘divergence’ in dress, and a widespread adaptation of immodest wear as appropriate? (Yes, there were always those who dressed immodestly in history. . but they never wore those clothes out into public and expected them to be accepted as ‘proper attire’. Now, of course, not only is immodest wear accepted as ‘fine’, it’s the people who wear, or who advocate, modest appropriate wear who are stigmatized and derided.)
The tryanny of the ‘majority’, the weakness of not standing up for one’s faith because, “well, gee, who am I to judge?”
Well, gee, actually , if you are a Catholic advocating modest and appropriate dress, in church especially but at all times and places too, are NOT JUDGING. It is the Church which has long promulgated the teaching of appropriate and respectful ‘outward’ attire (and inward as well). So it is not people ‘judging’ others: It is Christ’s Church-and thus Christ Himself–who have given us, authoritatively, the judgment of what is and what is not modest and appropriate–and it is we, when we wear immodest clothes and FAIL TO TELL OTHERS when they do so too–who are failing our Church and our God.
Failing them by thinking (falsely) that it doesn’t matter, or other things are ‘more important’ than adhering to standards. Failing them by letting ‘the world’ make the judgment of what is ‘acceptable’ even when it flies in the face of 2000 years of tradition and practice for Christians. . . and then trying to put the CHRISTIAN in the wrong as ‘judgmental.’
It’s diabolical and it is tragic how many Christians succumb to the false idea that we are ‘judging’ another when we note that their attire is inappropriate. . .as if ‘immodesty is ONLY in the eye of the beholder.’
It is not. These falsehoods only promulgate a deeper and more thorough immodesty and a further weakening of Christian teaching.
