Last Updated on August 17, 2011
A few posts back, I discussed the growing phenomenon called Casual Sundays, which I suggested shows a lack of respect in God’s house.
A fellow journal writer, whose own journal is on my list of regularly-visited sites, weighed in with an E-mail. I’ll share a single paragraph from it:
At 18, I was one of those people in jeans and a t-shirt. The only person in 10 years who didn’t quit going to my church after graduating from high school. When a visiting Pastor made me go home to change one day, I came back in shorts and a different t-shirt – and barefoot. After all, we were on holy ground. I didn’t own any nice clothes, let alone anything that wasn’t a third generation hand-me-down. I was the last of 8 kids whose mother stayed home to raise us. We weren’t raised in the church and I joined at the urging of my high school friends.
He goes on to say that when he was refused admittance by this Pastor, 100 or so of the Parishoners got up and walked out.
Good for them! In light of this response, let me amend my earlier comments to make sure I was being clear before: those who haven’t the means to wear the “Sunday best” but who come to church anyway are showing much more respect to God than those who have those $50 ties sitting there in the closet but who prefer — for convenience’s sake — to wear a polo shirt so that they’ll be one step closer to being ready for lunch at the steakhouse or 18 holes at the country club.
I don’t believe that church should have a dress code posted at the door, and that those devoted to God should be sent away…but at the same time, I still say that “Casual Sundays” shouldn’t be an excuse to “dress down” in church if you otherwise have the means not to.
Thanks for the response, fellow journal writer, and thanks to any others of you who wish to chime in on this one.
By the way, that church in which my reader was almost thrown out a second time now has a barefoot service inside once a year, to remind everyone that they are on Holy Ground! How’s that for getting straight to the point!!
