Casual dress in church ????????

[Mackman]

Does anyone see anything wrong with casual dress in church ?? Some say it is disrespectful while the other side says it can be an idol worship dressing in a suit. I see nothing wrong with casual dress anyone else ???

[deacon blues]

I’m guessing Joseph was wearing pajamas when he had the Moroni dream/vision. I usually wear a tie to LDS services, but not always.

[Red Ryder]

Its really about obedience and conformity in regards to the white shirts and ties and Sunday best. How ever I think people can still worship on business casual or clean street clothes at a minimum.

Unpopular opinion:

I think the way we dress can reflect in our attitudes. I know when I wear a suit for work or a nice new pressed work shirt it makes me feel more superior and confidant. This carries into our presence and how we are treated by other people. The more successful you look, the better people treat you.

I also believe people have simply become lazy and unwilling to look at themselves in the mirror before they go out. Examples are found at Wal-Mart, Restaurants, and the dump! People are slobs these days.

Now I’m not saying you have to dress up, but at least put clean clothes on, comb your hair, and brush your teeth. Care just a bit more and society will improve.

[Palerider]

I also believe people have simply become lazy and unwilling to look at themselves in the mirror before they go out. Examples are found at Wal-Mart, Restaurants, and the dump! People are slobs these days.

This is kind of a thing for people of my generation. Fifteen years ago, when we lived in Arizona it seemed like a lot of the LDS kids (teenagers) wore their pajamas all day long. I wondered what was wrong with their parents. I'm pesimistic this trend will change. People are totally into comfort and ease. I always carried (and still do) my keys, wallet, and a folding knife in my pants and a watch on my wrist. I always had kids walking up to me asking the time. Kids now don't want anything on them but their cell phone (which now has a clock).

I always did the suit and tie for church as a TBM.

Nowadays if I go to a church, I put on a nice pair of jeans, a nice shirt and tie and a sport coat with my best pair of Western boots. I only wear colored shirts unless I FEEL like wearing a white shirt. I kind of make it a rule not to wear white a shirt if for some odd reason I end up in a Mormon church.

[Hagoth]

I'd love to show up in a robe and sandals. Just like Jesus. And see how that goes down.

[MalcolmVillager]

I'd love to show up in a robe and sandals. Just like Jesus. And see how that goes down.

Bwahahaha if they tried to kick you out

[Thoughtful]

I always used to say we aren't very good missionaries if we see no diversity of clothing at church.

Now I miss dressing up, having my family all dressed up. I'll be honest I'm considering a Lutheran Christmas service to get that back for at least once a year. But that's just the appeal of tradition and vanity. It's absolutely unnecessary from a religious perspective.

[Just This Guy]

"The Unwritten Order of Things"

BKP's talk about how to be a better pharisee.

A couple years ago, I went to my Mormon ward because my son was doing a piano piece as part of the primary program. I wore khakis, colored shirt and tie and stood out like a sore thumb.

When I go to the local Episcopal church, sometimes I ware the same thing, sometimes I downgrade to a nice polo. I am smack in the middle of the fashion scale. Some guys are there in full suits, some are there in jeans and a t-shit. Women wear everything from formal dresses, some wear suits, and some are in jeans, and everything in between. No one cares. They are just happy that you are there. It's quite a difference.

[fetchface]

I specifically wear jeans to screw with the "unwritten order of things."

Plus, I just feel good in my casual clothes. I have spent a lot of time finding jeans that fit me really well. I wear long-sleeved colored collared shirts (untucked). I've probably got the most expensive shoes in the whole chapel, but they are casual boots, not something that would go with a suit. I'm not saying all this to brag, but just to say I've spent a lot of time on my appearance for church. I feel like a million bucks.

However, since I'm using my appearance to express my individuality, I have no doubt that many in the room see the way I dress as disrespectful and are saddened by it.

I just don't care. I'm too busy being me and finally not feeling guilt for it.

[Corsair]

I'd love to show up in a robe and sandals. Just like Jesus. And see how that goes down.

You better be able to heal the sick or at least change water into wine if you want your Middle-Eastern look to be taken seriously. Get pictures for us if you ever do.

[slavereeno]

DW likes to dress a bit more formally from time to time. I am no fan of it myself, but I see her point.

In middle class America, church may be the only consistent reason to dress up a little. All other things aside, DW would miss that I think, about church.

[alas]

I kind of miss dressing up. With being retired and living in a hick town part of the year and a vacation destination the other half, ...well, actually they are both hick town tourist destinations, and our hobbies of dirt and more dirt and some mud, I am usually less than “casual” and down right grubby out playing in the dirt. I “dress up” to go to Walmart, comparatively. But I don’t miss dressing up enough to put on a dress any other time. I think I have been in a dress once in five years. But Easter in the Southern Baptist zone was something, fancy dresses and *hats* on the ladies and even little boys in a fancy vest with a tie. Think dressing the kids for a wedding when they are the flower girl and ring barer. The rest of the year they were pretty casual at the Southern Baptists.

[Hagoth]

I'd love to show up in a robe and sandals. Just like Jesus. And see how that goes down.

You better be able to heal the sick or at least change water into wine if you want your Middle-Eastern look to be taken seriously. Get pictures for us if you ever do.

Are you kidding? Show up doing miracles just like our modern churchmen DON'T do? You would be immediately written off as performing fake miracles by the power of Satan.

[Spicy McHaggis]

I’m guessing Joseph was wearing pajamas when he had the Moroni dream/vision. I usually wear a tie to LDS services, but not always.

Nah, he slept in the nude for sure.

[2bizE]

When I was TBM, white shirt and tie was the only way. Now I usually wear colored shirt, no tie, and sports jacket.
It is a cultural respect thing. I usually wait until after the sacrament is finished and the deacons sit down before I open my diet Mountain Dew and sandwich. Some families feed their kids snacks before the sacrament and I find it disrespectful...people nowadays...

[Palerider]

I’m guessing Joseph was wearing pajamas when he had the Moroni dream/vision. I usually wear a tie to LDS services, but not always.

Nah, he slept in the nude for sure.

Since Moroni supposedly first appeared in late September (chilly) and Joseph's family were poor, I would guess Joseph slept in his clothes with his hat and boots on. Especially considering he had other siblings in the same room.

[moksha]

• Business attire for worshipping in a corporate setting.

• Casual attire for worshipping in a church setting.

[alas]

Does anyone see anything wrong with casual dress in church ?? Some say it is disrespectful while the other side says it can be an idol worship dressing in a suit. I see nothing wrong with casual dress anyone else ???

You know, in thinking a bit deeper about this respect idea, it made me wonder if the Mormon God isn’t a bit of a dictator. He demands respect, and our silly leaders twist the English language around backwards saying that using Thee and Thou is a sign of respect and that is why we use “the language f prayer” which is nothing but archaic English. I have heard several times that we should not “get too familiar” with God.

And if you are educated enough in English or have learned a different language, you know that Thee and Thou are not a sign of respect at all. The Queen of England gets offended if you get “too familiar”. Her position demands respect. But in the archaic English of King Henry (any king Henry) you did not say “Thine Majesty” unless you wanted you head chopped off for getting familiar with the king. No, you said, “Your Majesty” in the king James English, “You,” and “your” were the words you used in formal situations to show respect. With family, you addressed your father with thee, thine, and thou.....to show familiarity and LOVE.

But our church has it jack a** backwards. They think you respect God, not love him. They want you to stay distant from God not get too familiar.

Then why the heck do we call him our Father? Do they not realize what “familiar” even means? “Don’t get familiar with God.” Good grief. The word “familiar” means having a family relationship with someone, like as if he is our father instead of our king. Well, the King’s children got to use the familiar form of English with him because he was family. So, are we the children of God or are we just lowly soldiers in his army?

It is bad enough that our stupid church leaders don’t know English, but it is worse that they don’t know God. God asked to be addressed as “father,” not “sir,” not “your majesty.” When Jesus prayed he addressed God as Abba, which in Hebrew is the familiar loving word for father, or translated into English, it is the word Daddy. So, if we are trying to be like Jesus, we should be addressing our prayers to “daddy” not trying to be distant and respectful, as the Mormons are trying to tell us to be.

Nelson’s “God’s love is not unconditional!” Is part f this whole “don’t love God, respect him” crap. Don’t go directly to God with your problems, go through us as prophets. Forget being close to god. He doesn’t want you. Obey us on what we tell you God says to do. You don’t have the right to talk to the general yourself, only your sergeant, who will talk to your captain, who will take it to the major, who will take it to the general, who will ask the king. This is a military type establishment, and you peons are on the bottom, so don’t get uppity and think you can have a direct relationship with God.

Now think about the relationship a father has with his child. When handed his naked squalling new born, he gazes at the child, maybe counts his fingers and toes. What if he sees that the child has a missing little finger of his left hand. Yup, he hands the baby right back to the doctor and says, “we don’t want him; he isn’t perfect.” No, a good father loves the child in spite of imperfections. What if the child has Down’s syndrome? Same. We don’t love our children only when they are perfect, or nay when they are obedient like Russel Nelson obviously does, or at least that is how he thinks God loves us. We love our children because they are ours, even when they are disobedient brats. We may not like them at the moment, but we love them just for being ours.

In the Mormon church, I grew up singing, but never believing, “I am a child of God.” I didn’t believe it because even as a child, I felt “God only lives you if you are perfect.”......male and perfect.

Yeah, so sick of respect God by dressing up for him. I never had to dress up for my mother, or my grandmother, and I felt like they loved me. God, we had to dress up and call him sir, and never get close or think we were good enough.

[Jeffret]

You know, in thinking a bit deeper about this respect idea, it made me wonder if the Mormon God isn’t a bit of a dictator. He demands respect, and our silly leaders twist the English language around backwards saying that using Thee and Thou is a sign of respect and that is why we use “the language f prayer” which is nothing but archaic English. I have heard several times that we should not “get too familiar” with God.

Joseph's theology was a curious, eclectic, unstable mixture drawn from various sources. Some of it draws from odd sources like Kabbahalism and Swedenborgism. Some of it synthesized some fairly new stuff. Some of it skipped the New Testament and tried to re-create an Old Testament religion. The BoM is an attempt to create an OT-based religion, with an odd, a-historical, a-theological trip through a NT that supposedly hadn't been created yet, infused with a very 1820''s New England perception of the nature of god.

After Joseph's death, Brigham codified a church that surely never would have survived Joseph's chaotic rule. Brigham established the hierarchy as the backbone of the church. Though Brigham always insisted he was preserving Joseph's church, it's really more Brigham's church. The corporate church of today is a natural march forward from what Brigham started.

While the Reformation was essential to provide the room for Joseph to found his church and Brigham to establish it, Mormonism basically rejected the Reformation and passed it by. A key idea of the Reformation was that the priest, the church organization, was not a necessary intercessor between the common man and god. The common man could read the Bible and approach god himself. (Tying this into another thread, they meant men and not women. Of course women had to go through men.) But, the Mormon Church still demands that select men must be intermediaries before god. We can only approach god through them. To preserve their position they need to create an isolation between us and god. McConkie even went so far as to issue a firm, public rebuke George Pace's encouraging people to have a personal relationship with Jesus. The relationship needs to be with priesthood leaders, up through the hierarchy, and only once it reaches the top is there (supposedly) a personal relationship with Jesus.

Yeah, so sick of respect God by dressing up for him. I never had to dress up for my mother, or my grandmother, and I felt like they loved me. God, we had to dress up and call him sir, and never get close or think we were good enough.

Exactly.

[Palerider]

You know, in thinking a bit deeper about this respect idea, it made me wonder if the Mormon God isn’t a bit of a dictator. He demands respect, and our silly leaders twist the English language around backwards saying that using Thee and Thou is a sign of respect and that is why we use “the language f prayer” which is nothing but archaic English. I have heard several times that we should not “get too familiar” with God.

And if you are educated enough in English or have learned a different language, you know that Thee and Thou are not a sign of respect at all. The Queen of England gets offended if you get “too familiar”. Her position demands respect. But in the archaic English of King Henry (any king Henry) you did not say “Thine Majesty” unless you wanted you head chopped off for getting familiar with the king. No, you said, “Your Majesty” in the king James English, “You,” and “your” were the words you used in formal situations to show respect. With family, you addressed your father with thee, thine, and thou.....to show familiarity and LOVE.

But our church has it jack a** backwards. They think you respect God, not love him. They want you to stay distant from God not get too familiar......

So after this sounding off, I'll be expecting to see an article on this from LDS Living that will arrive in my junk email box within a few weeks....

I'm pretty confident the church eavesdrops on this website and I don't think they'll be able to resist responding.