Some Thoughts on Feminine Modesty, May 9, 2005

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do them…(Deuteronomy 28:13)We Christians are missing something of great importance. As this passage demonstrates, God promises to make His people leaders. This implies that in all enterprises and in all areas of social interaction He will make Christians to have the ascendancy, but only if we hear and obey those things He commands. He specifically promises this to those who are objectively obedient, and not to wishful thinkers.As we survey the landscape today, we are drawn to the rather painful conclusion that, for the most part, contemporary Christians are not the head. Indeed, it appears that the tail is wagging the dog. We seem to think that whatever the current pop culture dishes out is what we should eat. One of the places this is most unfortunately obvious is in the area of style. This is quite apparent as it relates to womens' fashions. Whatever is currently popular invariably ends up in the church, frequently with little or no concern as to whether feminine modesty is preserved or not.This is not a new point of discussion. Happily, there are some pastors who dare to tread on this ground and boldly rebuke this sort of thing from the pulpit. More often it is ignored, perhaps with the hope that father, husband, mother, or wife will figure it out and deal with the problem. When the issue is raised, either publicly or privately, one of the typical responses is to throw up the hands and complain that this is all the stores carry any more.We can’t help but wonder how we became so helpless that we can’t seem to set our minds to solving this on our own. Have we really become so slavishly consumerist that we believe there is no alternative to buying and wearing this junk? Is our respect for God’s requirements so low that it is simply not worth our time to maybe do a little work on our own? This implies an even more serious problem than the corruption of godly standards of modesty.Let’s be clear here. We are not merely objecting to park or seashore attire. The problem consistently manifests itself in the worship services of our churches every Sunday. Many younger and, more sadly, some older women wear styles that either draw attention to their bodies, or reveal far too much, leaving little to the imagination. It is beyond us to know for certain why this is done, but it is obvious that little or no thought is given as to how this affects the brothers of the congregation.Let us venture here to speak plainly on behalf of the godly men of the church. The current shrink wrapped, short shirt, low ride fashions are anything but modest. This stuff covers little more than spray paint would. And to speak even more plainly, because we want to be obedient to our Lord, we are not interested in knowing the brand or size of your underwear, nor the intimate details of your anatomy. It is none of our business! Equally appalling is the all too frequent display of the female equivalent of plumber’s crack when you stand up, sit down, or bend over. So quit parading it in front of us as if you want to make it our business. There really is no acceptable excuse for this.Let us further venture to speak plainly to some of the older ladies who seem inclined to try to keep up with the younger girls. Being chaste, and being able to teach younger women to be adorned by this kind of virtue is more than a physiological condition. How you dress communicates a great deal about you, your relationship with God, and about your husbands. When we see you dressed in an immodest way, we assume that your husbands are either idiots or wimps. Is this how you want him to be viewed? Maybe you could take a bit of godly initiative to see to it that you are not the equivalent to a billboard declaring this assessment to be true.Fundamentally, there is no substitute for godly male leadership here. And it is clear that it is lacking. Nonetheless, this is no excuse for lackadaisical excuse making that does not love others and that refuses to work at removing a stumbling block from the midst of the church.