Wearing suits to church has been a common American tradition for decades.

As I read history, for all but the upper middle class and wealthy, having a special set of clothes for church/other big occasions was pretty much unknown for most of history, really until the Industrial Revolution got going well. If you wonder why, get yourself a spinning wheel and loom and make yourself a shirt. Some literary examples are Laura and Mary Ingalls having one dress apiece that got too short in Little House on the Prairie, Pa has his coat of a hair on buffalo hide, and Gurth the swineherd from Ivanhoe wears a very rough hoghide doublet.

Hoghide is significant here not just because that’s what Gurth would have had available, but also because it’s tremendously difficult to tan (doesn’t stretch, fat below skin/bacon) and when tanned produces a fairly coarse leather—think all the holes from those coarse hairs and all. (my dad learned about the tanning difficulty when selling process equipment to Hush Puppies) And yet Gurth would have been a baptized member of a local church.

Along the same lines, cloth upholstered furniture used to be the luxury item, not leather, for the same reasons (except they used beefhide, easier to tan), and it’s noteworthy that the Confederate Army (which did not benefit much from Northern fabric mills!) had uniforms which could only be graciously described as “rag-tag”, especially towards the end of the war. Slaves received one set of garments per year, and “po white trash” didn’t do much better.

Which is a long way of saying that while I like having my Sunday Best, and I like wearing it from time to time, anyone who insists on it has something of an uphill battle justifying it Biblically and historically!

I think the overall message here is to dress your best within your means and appropriate to your culture, as you would any important event.

However, I think there’s a divide here between ‘important’ and ‘formal’. A wedding, for instance, is an important event that is also usually formal (so stick with me here and don’t bring up beach weddings). The question that keeps coming up for me is, “Is church a ‘formal’ activity?”, and therefore requires us to at least attempt to have clothing appropriate for what is considered a formal event in our culture.

The problem with the current generation is they didn’t have mothers who insisted on clean underwear because they might get hit by a car and Lord knows what a terrible fate it is to die in dirty underwear. It was the beginning of the slippery slope, I’m tellin’ ya’.

After reading the post and many of the comments, one of the reoccurring points made is that one’s clothing could be a distraction to someone else’s worship of God. Interestingly in the church that I attend, which happens to be a 5 year old self-supporting, multi-ethnic/cultural, urban church where 60% of the congregation is between the ages of 20 and 30 this conversation would be “much ado about nothing.” We have a lead pastor that wears a nice sports shirt, shorts and sandals when he preaches during the summer, ex-gang members/drug dealers that wear stylish Hip-Hop clothing (non-sagging), single mothers that wear casual clothing, business men/women/fathers/mothers/educators that wear casual clothing and a few older people wearing dresses/shirts with ties. In the 5 years that we’ve worshipped together as a corporate body, I can only think of one rare instance where something that was worn became a distraction. One of our ex-gang members was wearing a snap-back hat while ushering. An elderly lady mentioned to him (while he ushered) that he’d look so much better and it might be more appropriate for worship if he took his hat off. So right there and then he gave his hat to her and gave her a hug. So the one instance where it became something, this usher submitted to her wishes because of his reverence to Christ and his love for a fellow believer.

Interestingly, the only one that was distracted by the hat was this elderly lady that grew up with 70 years of a certain Christian culture where you wear your best for God and men shouldn’t wear hats in the church. She was the only one that felt his hat was communicating disrespect, while the rest of the church-most of which did not grow up in fundygelical churches (in fact about half grew up unchurched) it wasn’t even on their personal radar screen. For instance, I didn’t even realize he was wearing a hat until he mentioned to me what happened. So here’s the question. Why make something an issue in a church where no one is distracted by each other’s clothing (except for this rare one instance)?

Removing a hat is not just a Christian culture thing—it’s in keeping with The Gospel According to Emily Post. http://emilypost.com/advice/hats-off-hat-etiquette-for-everyone/

[Larry Nelson]

Is the God Who originally created man to be in his birthday suit (and Who pre-fall declared that such was “good” and Who moreover was then in perfect communion with His creation in such a state) the same God Who is today displeased (according to some) if man worships Him in other than a business suit?

Pretty sure that the first tangible thing God did in bringing them to a point of worship was to change their clothes, so just maybe this clothing thing is a bigger deal than what we’d like to make it out to be. Just sayin’……….

[Lee]

Larry Nelson wrote:

Is the God Who originally created man to be in his birthday suit (and Who pre-fall declared that such was “good” and Who moreover was then in perfect communion with His creation in such a state) the same God Who is today displeased (according to some) if man worships Him in other than a business suit?

Pretty sure that the first tangible thing God did in bringing them to a point of worship was to change their clothes, so just maybe this clothing thing is a bigger deal than what we’d like to make it out to be. Just sayin’……….

But if we wanted to be truly fundamental, we’d need to wear goatskin suits, preferably sewn by the very hand of God, no? So our fundagelical gatherings would no longer resemble the suit shop at J.C. Penney’s, but rather the Sturgis motorcycle rally.

Count me more than amused at the thought, especially since I drove through South Dakota at the right time this August. :^)

Today I received an invitation to a Bible conference that included this:

“We respectfully request that attendees to the Congress be appropriately dressed with dignity and modesty”.”

Gentlemen—suit and tie; or sport coat, dress pants, and tie.

Ladies—dress or skirt of proper length, refraining from sleeveless or low-cut attire.

Our Christian testimony speaks this in biblical love.

[Ron Bean]

Today I received an invitation to a Bible conference that included this:

“We respectfully request that attendees to the Congress be appropriately dressed with dignity and modesty”.”

Gentlemen—suit and tie; or sport coat, dress pants, and tie.

Ladies—dress or skirt of proper length, refraining from sleeveless or low-cut attire.

Our Christian testimony speaks this in biblical love.

….of a recent study that found that office environments were optimized for the comfort of men. I might add that women might avoid sleeveless or low cut attire sheerly out of concern for keeping warm!

Wow, looks like the conversation is still going on here, nearly two weeks later. Looks like this topic was suitable for discussion for sure!

[Bert Perry]

This reminds me….of a recent study that found that office environments were optimized for the comfort of men. I might add that women might avoid sleeveless or low cut attire sheerly out of concern for keeping warm!

Which I find to be complete bunk (though it’s anecdotal, and I *am* a guy). Our office is normally kept at a temperature that for me is right on the edge of comfort (and standard attire is anything from a nice shirt and khakis, which is dressy, to shorts and t-shirt — I generally do collared shirt and jeans), and if I walk around too quickly, will easily generate sweat. The exception to this is our lab, which for all the equipment, is usually kept in the low 60’s for the equipment, and can even reach high 50’s on a cloudy/cool day. Most people keep sweaters or fleeces in their cubicles if they have to spend any amount of time in the lab.

Now, of course, my personal anecdote is that my wife gets cold a lot before I do, and another anecdote is that a female coworker of mine has a space heater in her office, but I have a fan in mine. (call me Nanook?)

Seriously, looking at your comment, Dave, as well as the article, it strikes me that you’ve got multiple issues at hand, starting with metabolism and clothing choices. I’ve noted for years that when I go shopping for nice men’s clothes, the fabrics are wool and cotton. When my wife goes shopping, it’s just as often polyester or something. It sure makes a difference here in Minnesota!

And to the subject, or to Ron’s comment, I guess, it’s a reminder that if we try to set up some basic guidance for attire, we’ve got to keep in mind that male and female clothing ought both be suitable for the weather.

Here are some excellent thoughts from Kevin Bauder on “The Heart and Outward Appearance,” and related to wearing suits to church, etc.

TOvermiller, thanks for posting that. It was helpful.

In a very general sense, I agree with Dr. Bauder. If I am reading him right, he is pushing back at the mindset where Christians believe that anything goes when it comes to what we wear in corporate worship because its all about the heart. Although If Bauder had dug deeper as to why a church located on the Amazon would insist that they preach and/or dress in a full suit and necktie, it probably had just as much to do with the American cultural baggage of the 1950’s brought over by missionaries (which I believe has the potential to be quite destructive)

Speaking of the 1950’s, we need to remember that it was the culture back then to dress up everywhere. When men and women went to the movie theatre on a Friday night, they often dressed up in suits and ties and dresses. When men and women went to a baseball or football game, they dressed in in suits and ties and dresses as well like this. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/morton_highlights/id/1701

So of course it was expected that people would wear suits and ties and dresses when they went to church. It was the culture back then. However, the culture has changed. Suits and ties for men and dresses for women are not the only standard for looking nice. Fashion has evolved to such a degree where there is nice looking clothing in just about every type on the market. There is nice-looking casual wear, nice looking athletic wear, and even nice-looking hip-hop clothing that I believe would be appropriate for worship. In fact, I would argue that if I were to wear a suit and/or a dress shirt and a tie for myself, I feel so uncomfortable in it that it becomes a distraction for me to even concentrate on worshipping God.