As I thought about what modesty must entail I found myself recognizing so many ways most Christians fall short of it I realized it would be hard to get a hearing for much of it. Also, when you start identifying this or that example of immodesty you start sounding like a legalistic "puritan" (in the popular sense of the term), and raise the specter of the sort of gossipy gasping indignation over minor infractions that we associate with the Victorian era.
That can't be helped I suppose. Really, I think it's a Hollywood-engendered idea. The ugly character in some old movies was the one who was offended by other people's infractions of some code or other. In today's Hollywood-defined world of dress and undress we're all used to seeing so much of the human body we're pretty numb to it, even to the point of thinking it isn't really an issue since it hardly raises a flicker of interest in most of us. We don't really notice the exposed skin walking down the street on hot summer days.
Or do we?
We're all sinners and it seems to me now that in my pre-Christian life, at least in my younger years, I must have plotted how to dress as immodestly as possible while still managing to appear fairly conservatively dressed. I think a lot of women have this mentality. It's a matter of thinking about what will show off your female assets the best without being too obvious. I think this mentality has to be classed as immodesty in the light of Christ even if most of us get away with it. After a certain age I gave it up but not for the sake of Christian standards of modesty, merely because I stopped looking good as I put on weight and acquired sags and bags. That's a good reason for dressing modestly too, in a way. But I remember very well the mentality of dressing to attract attention, which I believe is the root of the concern and I figure this experience gives me some perspective for commenting on the subject.
There are Christian books out there that do cover this subject, usually in the context of a discussion about sex roles, dating versus courtship and the like. These focus on the effect of female dress on the male sex. I have a couple of books specifically on the subject of modest dress, one by David Bercot and one by David Cloud.
There's also a book on the subject that came out some years ago by a Jewish girl who had rediscovered her roots in the Orthodox Jewish religion and she makes some interesting points. And I've run across essays in some older books on spirituality.That can't be helped I suppose. Really, I think it's a Hollywood-engendered idea. The ugly character in some old movies was the one who was offended by other people's infractions of some code or other. In today's Hollywood-defined world of dress and undress we're all used to seeing so much of the human body we're pretty numb to it, even to the point of thinking it isn't really an issue since it hardly raises a flicker of interest in most of us. We don't really notice the exposed skin walking down the street on hot summer days.
Or do we?
We're all sinners and it seems to me now that in my pre-Christian life, at least in my younger years, I must have plotted how to dress as immodestly as possible while still managing to appear fairly conservatively dressed. I think a lot of women have this mentality. It's a matter of thinking about what will show off your female assets the best without being too obvious. I think this mentality has to be classed as immodesty in the light of Christ even if most of us get away with it. After a certain age I gave it up but not for the sake of Christian standards of modesty, merely because I stopped looking good as I put on weight and acquired sags and bags. That's a good reason for dressing modestly too, in a way. But I remember very well the mentality of dressing to attract attention, which I believe is the root of the concern and I figure this experience gives me some perspective for commenting on the subject.
There are Christian books out there that do cover this subject, usually in the context of a discussion about sex roles, dating versus courtship and the like. These focus on the effect of female dress on the male sex. I have a couple of books specifically on the subject of modest dress, one by David Bercot and one by David Cloud.
So there should be plenty of material for this discussion.
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July 27, 2011: For some reason or other I never got into this blog. As of today I've dedicated it to broader issues, but rereading this post does remind me that there are still things that can said about modesty so I expect it will remain among those issues.
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