Sunday dress code for church (boys and men only)

I quite agree with the pastor who answered this poll that God doesn't "discriminate among worshipers depending on how they dress". I also think that if people dress up nicely when they come to church only to be seen by others with nice clothes, they are like the Phariseans that Jesus condemns as hypocrits in the Gospel. I nevertheless think that all your body must participate to your prayer, and in that way, dressing more formally or differently on Sundays to go to Church than you would dress on other days is a way of showing to God and feeling inside yourself that Sunday Service is not an ordinary activity, and that this is a great feast, the same way as you would not attend a wedding wearing plain clothes ! On Sundays we are invited to the wedding meal of the Lord ! This is why I set up this poll, to know if people feel the same as I do

I feel the same as you do because I was raised in a very religious French family and that was the mindset that our parents and teachers were instilling in us. I mention in another poll that my parents were forbiding me at college age to go to the university and to church in my cutoofs while a great number of my buddies were joyfully wearing theirs during summertime, and some even shorter than mines. It was supposed to be improper and immodest.But when they were disciplining me bare bottomed with the razor strop, st about 20 years old, it was neither indecent nor improper. I understand very well the logic of your religious and reverential argument but I would rather be inclined to be of the pastor's mind. If I dress more formally for the Sunday Mass, it's a matter of tradition, usage, or habitude, not of conviction or religious zeal or fervor. I was simply well educated ''a la francaise ". The Anglo-Saxons don't think along this line concerning the dress code at church or in public. They have not the same hangups as us.

P.S. Congratulations for your poll which is original and interesting. I would be interested in going on with this discussion privately.

I would like to develop my thought. It seems to me that in the French families showing off( paraître) was more important than being (être). On the contrary, in the American or English-speaking world in general to have (avoir)seems matters more than to be (être). Personally, I belong to the last generation of believers who had to don Sunday suits to go to Mass. I would also point out that we were also the last generation which fasted from midnight before receiving the Holy Communion the next morning. All in all, I don't think that this Sunday dress code for church matters much for God. I found in the Bible (1 Samuel,16,7) a verse that illustrates marvelously my thought: The Lord said to Samuel:" Do not look at his appeaeance or at the height of his stature- For not as man sees- for man sees the outward appearances, but the Lord sees the heart." I remenber that my mom was obsessed in my teens by my outward look. I had to look smart, swell and tidy. " Scrub your knees and pull up your kneesocks" I was so cute,according to her, in my shorty pants at 15. As you can see, I agree with you in the whole but because of my education, I always try to go further or beyond the appeareances into being.

Cher "espoir", Je serais moi aussi content de poursuivre cette conversation avec vous en privé, et, comme je suis Français de France, de préférence en français, c'est plus facile pour moi ! Je suis prêt à vous donner un mail, mais comment faire pour qu'il ne soit pas public sur ce forum ?

I am French, and I have the impression that anglo-saxon countries, specifically those of british tradition, have kept more than in France the habit of dressing formally when needed. School uniform and formal school dress code are quite unknown in France, though every kid wears the same ugly T-shirt and baggy pants or jeans... I was wandering if it was the same for Church, in France except in some very traditionalist churches, people are nearly always very casual now, though it was different when I was a kid.