Do you think people wearing shorts and a t-shirt while attending church is inappropriate?
I have seen it at weddings and funerals. Some adults wearing shorts and a t-shirt while attending church. Perhaps I am a little old fashioned, but I feel people should put on some nice clothes while attending church.
I have no idea if there any god or not, nor what form it existrs in. (It can't be a He or She, logically, but "It" is rather impersonal.)
I don't go to church often at all, and then usually only for funerals. However this question made me think why there is a "Sunday Best" tradition for going to Church (Christianity is not the only religion, but I don't know very much about the others' equivalent sartorial traditions.)
Obviously it's not a Biblical demand. Apart from anything else the Middle Easterns 2 millennia ago wore robes, not posh frocks and sober suits. I think it's merely social tradition, though dressing reasonably well does support the dignity of place and occasion.
It might be a hangover from the grim days of being expected to go to Church at least once every Sunday and if you didn't, what would the neighbours say? Also, in those days, most people were in very plain, often rather shabby, working clothes for 5 or 6 days of the week, and may well have thought that weekly day off a chance to be scrubbed up and smart as a relief from normality.
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Last year I was invited to the Ordination as deacon, of a friend who with her husband, have been active in their church for many years. A few weeks ago I attended the funeral of a family friend.
I felt I ought wear a suit to the ordination, but I seemed to be one of very few of the laity in a full cathedral, to be doing so.
I wore my suit to the funeral, which rather to my surprise was non-religious. Although everyone was dressed reasonably smartly, only about half of we men were in suits though most of the others still wore a shirt and tie. Perhaps at a funeral it's respect for the deceased that really matters, especially when God's not invited.
Surely it's a matter of personal choice plus what's generally accepted in that congregation, but tempered by a sensible respect (not fear) for place, event and fellow-worshippers. God does not expect fashion-shows, nor want petty fashion-dictators, which both divert attention from the real point.
