Clothing Matters: What We Wear to Church
Why what we put on may be more important than we think.
[ posted 1/11/2012 10:44AM ]
- The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. We share many attributes with other creatures, but the inclination to clothe ourselves is not one of them. Those who know the account of Adam and Eve will understand why this is so. There is a moral and even spiritual dimension to human clothing.
- Our clothes serve a variety of practical, social, and cultural functions. Protection and modesty spring first to mind, but our clothes do far more. We sometimes dress to conceal or deceive. More often our clothes serve to reveal. We use clothing for decoration, for sexual attraction, for self-expression and self-assertion. By our attire we display our gender, our religion, our occupation, our social position, or causes with which we identify (e.g., sports jerseys). Our apparel may express our group membership or our role in society (e.g., company or police uniforms). Many dress to impress, while others choose the reverse: they express their rejection by intentionally flouting accepted clothing norms.
- Our clothing is one of our most elemental forms of communication. Long before our voice is heard, our clothes are transmitting multiple messages. From our attire, others immediately read not only such things as our sex, age, national identity, socio-economic status, and social position, but also our mood, our attitudes, our personality, our interests, and our values.
- We constantly make judgments about one another on the basis of clothing. Common wisdom has it that you can't judge a book by its cover. But this is only partly true; we regularly read one another's covering. What's more, we're better at it than we think. Research suggests that if you stand someone before an audience of strangers and ask them to draw inferences merely on the basis of what they see, the audience's inferences will tend toward consensus, and those inferences will tend to be more or less accurate. Why should this be? We spend our lives making judgments based on appearance and then testing those judgments in our subsequent relationships. In this way, we become rather adept at the process. Judgments based on appearance are scarcely infallible, of course, and we are wise to hold them tentatively. But it's almost impossible to avoid making them in the first place.
- Because our clothing is one of the fundamental ways we communicate with others, what we wear is never a purely personal matter. Our attire exerts a social influence on those around us. One famous study, for example, discovered that unwitting subjects were significantly more willing to jaywalk when following individuals wearing "high status" clothing than when following individuals wearing "low status" clothing. What we wear can shape patterns of communication around us, depending on what messages people are picking up. Consider, for example, the varied cues we send by the way we dress: "I want people to notice me." "I'm very confident." "I want to hide." "I care only about comfort." "I want to look seductive." "I repudiate you and your expectations."
- How we dress not only affects others; it also affects us. This dynamic is often circular: how we feel influences the clothes we put on, and the clothes we put on in turn shape how we feel. Changes of clothes can generate a change of mood; the soldier feels different in his uniform than he does in street clothes. In some settings our choice of attire can make or break us. If we like the way we look for a job interview, for instance, it will tend to strengthen our confidence. We feel better about our chances, as reflected in improved posture, more fluent speech, more dynamic gestures. On the other hand, inappropriate dress can sap our confidence. We have all experienced the uncomfortable effects of feeling under-dressed in a particular social setting.
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Kathryn Brannan
Maybe someone else already made this comment--I did not have a chance to read all of them. I just want to say thank you for the courage to write this article. I agree with with the title and with the reasons given. I guess I do question that the author says he is content with either traditional or contemporary worship styles if done well. I don't think you can separate the contemporary worship style from the relaxed, informal dress. As the author stated, clothing sets a mood, it puts us in a certain mood. Music does this on an even greater level! So if the music is relaxed and informal, the mood it sets fits the relaxed, informal clothing that those worshipers are usually wearing. To me, they go hand in hand and make logical sense to fit together--which is why I have many questions and concerns about contemporary music/worship styles.
jUNE ANGSTADT
The attire in our church varies from those who respect God and God's house to those who look as if they just returned from the beach. Men wear wife beaters, shorts, flip flops, jeans etc. and others wear long khakis and a sport shirt. There's a marked difference in how one thinks about each man coming to worship God. Females of all ages go from appropriate, modest clothing, to micro minis, short shorts, jeans, and what may well be called an indecent, low cut tops. It would even be shocking to see in a department store. The priest says NOTHING.... Modesty used to be a virtue - it's now an option. I was taught situational ethics prevailed - now ethics seem to be a thing of the past. With so many turning away from God, I think this is sad - along with the attitude that one will go to church but on 'his' terms...... A boy, in line to receive the Eucharist, surely doesn't have Jesus on his mind once he sees a half naked woman in the next line.
Sabrina Messenger
This is decidedly a first world problem, but one that is valid. IMO. I deplore how America has become a nation of slobs...but yet remain big spenders. $300 for a pair of ripped jeans? Crazy. Anyway, one of the biggest criticisms that I've heard from non-Christians or anti-Christians is about Christians and the alleged "hypocrisy" we have re: attire. If I had $100 for every time I heard a person say they refuse to go to church because "the people care more about what I'm wearing"...but yet that same person thinks nothing about dropping $500 on a pair of shoes, or several thousand dollars for a handbag or an outfit to wear to go out to a nightclub or on a date to impress another person, or to impress someone to get a job...but that's ok? Now who's being a hypocrite? Call me old fashioned, but it seems to me that making the effort to wear one's "Sunday best" to church (whether purchased from Saks or Salvation Army) is a way to show respect for God...and will always be "in style."