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Cleavage in Church
Why Do So Many Women Show Off Cleavage in Church?
John UpChurch
My wife brought up the topic as we drove by
cornfields on the way home from church. “You
just can’t wear something like that on stage.”
I knew exactly what she meant. During
the worship set, one of the praise leaders wore a dress that covered about as
much skin as a tight-fitting, low-cut swimsuit with a short skirt.
Remembering
the lessons from Every Young Man’s Battle, I’d
locked my eyes on the praise lyrics or simply closed them so that I couldn’t
see her.
“When you dress like that,” my wife added, “you
take the focus off God and put it on you. You’re undermining the whole reason
we’re there.”
In a trending article from
CharismaMag.com, Jennifer LeClaire suggests that this issue of revealing
clothing in church is troubling:
Some women — and I am talking about
so-called "mature believers," not lost souls or baby Christians — come
into God’s sanctuary on Sunday morning wearing clothes you might rather expect
to see them wearing at a dance club on Saturday night.
Their
blouses cling to their bodies, their necklines dip so low and stretch so wide
that they reveal cleavage, and the slits up the sides of their skirts offer
more than an innocent glimpse of their thighs.
Again,
I’m not talking about sinners seeking God or new believers who plain don’t know
better.
I’m
talking about those who claim to be "born-again, baptized,
blood-bought" (even tongue-talking) members of the church!
Paul
instructed Timothy that women should “adorn
themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation” (1 Timothy 2:9), and he told the church at Corinth that “our unpresentable parts have greater
modesty” (1 Corinthians 12:23).
Regardless
of how hot it is outside or how busy we are, there’s no justification for Spirit-filled women to come to
church wearing clothes that cause some men to pay more attention to the things
of the flesh than the things of the Spirit.
However, other Christian women think
that such a push toward modesty is rooted in shaming the female members of a
congregation.
Using
such slogans as “modest is hottest” makes women feel as if they are the root
cause of temptation, rather than teaching them how to view themselves as
beautifully made in God’s image.
Last
year, Sharon Hodde Miller suggested three ways to tackle
the problem:
“How do we discuss modesty in a
manner that celebrates the female body without objectifying women, and still
exhorts women to purity?
“The first
solution is to dispense with body-shaming language. Shame is great at behavior
modification, even when the shaming is not overt. But shame-based language is
not the rhetoric of Jesus. It is the rhetoric of his Enemy.
“Second, we must affirm the value of
the female body. The value or meaning of a woman's body is not the reason for
modesty.
“Women's
bodies are not inherently distracting or tempting. On the contrary, women's
bodies glorify God.
“Dare I say
that a woman's breasts, hips, bottom, and lips all proclaim the glory of the
Lord! Each womanly part honors Him. He created the female body, and it is good.
“Finally, language about modesty
should focus not on hiding the female body but on understanding the body's
created role.
“Immodesty is
not the improper exposure of the body per se, but the improper orientation of
the body.
“Men and women
are urged to pursue a modesty by which our glory is minimized and God's is
maximized.
“The body, the
spirit and the mind all have a created role that is inherently God-centered.
When we make ourselves central instead of God, we display the height of
immodesty.”
Miller makes an important point here.
The church must do a better job teaching a “theology” of the body that isn’t
rooted in shame.
We
are all designed by God and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).
Everything
God gave women was created “very good”
(Genesis 1:31).
But
at the same time, our fallen nature has impacted the way we (especially men)
see women’s bodies.
The
flesh nature gets in the way of what was once a perfect posture of purity
toward each other.
While
we’re no longer slaves to our sin nature (Romans 6:6), that doesn’t mean our minds don't harbor impurity (Romans 13:14).
Both
men and women must live and dress in ways that humbly help each other in our
weaknesses (Galatians 5:13).
In addition, we should also consider
the motivations behind those who design such clothing.
Are
they making skin-baring outfits because they view women as God’s creation or
are they doing so to exploit their bodies?
So,
what about you? What are your thoughts on clothing choices for church?
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