The what-not-to-wear-to-church debate divides old and young, rich and poor, clergy and lay members, black and white, Americans and others. Like all such divisions, it can cause tension even among those who share a common theology.
Where Christians end up reflects cultural biases about what God expects from human worship. Is God a king to be worshipped and revered or an everyday presence who is with us in the ordinariness of our lives?
The question arose first in the 1960s, when young people began questioning their parents' conventions, and that didn't stop at the sanctuary door. Women stopped covering their heads, and jeans became commonplace. One Utah Catholic priest in the 1970s posted a sign in his church's vestibule: "Must wear shoes, no shorts, no bare shoulders."
"Many a pastor wishes for better times in the way people are dressed for church," says Monsignor Terrence Fitzgerald, interim administrator of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City. "Some people dress so terribly."
And you can't argue that such dress is the product of poverty, Fitzgerald says. "My experience with the poorest of the poor is that if they are going to come to church, they will wear the best they have."
Whatever the cause, casual is the norm at many Utah churches. There are some exceptions: Southern Baptists, black churches and Mormons, among others.
"We believe that when you come before God, you should come as your best and in your best," says the Rev. France Davis, pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake City. "The Bible talks about offering your first fruits as your gift to God. We believe you do that, in part, by dressing up."
The Good Book also urged women to cover their heads in church.
Thus many Calvary women, especially of the older generation, not only wear nylon stockings and colorful dresses but also sport large-brimmed hats. It's a long-standing tradition among African-American churchgoers.
"That's how I was brought up," says Lula Flake, a member of Calvary who is originally from Freeport, La. "I love to wear a hat. I just have to have my head covered."
Flake has several hats but chooses to wear small-brimmed ones most often so believers in the pews behind can see the pastor.
"I think you should come to God's house looking decent," says the 85-year-old widow. "As long as you dress well, it doesn't have to be expensive."
Mormon women don't wear hats to church, but they follow an unwritten no-pants rule; even nice slacks outfits are socially taboo. The preferred dress for Mormon men is suits, white shirts and ties.
At last October's LDS General Conference, Apostle Jeffrey Holland took up the dress-code gauntlet in an address to global members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"Our clothing or footwear need never be expensive, indeed should not be expensive, but neither should it appear that we are on our way to the beach," Holland said. "When we come to worship the God and Father of us all and to partake of the sacrament symbolizing the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we should be as comely and respectful, as dignified and appropriate as we can be."
Holland's remarks touched off a lively debate among Mormons in cyberspace. One blog discussion at Feministmormonhousewives.org elicited 159 comments.
On another site, Roxcy.org, a woman pointed out that flip-flops are the order of the day at LDS churches in Africa and the Pacific Islands, in keeping with their cultural norms. Another writer noted that many members in Third World countries reserve their best clothing for Sunday. Newly baptized women seem pleased and eager to acquire a skirt or dress if they didn't have one before they started attending our church, she wrote.
Other Mormons dispute the idea that American business attire - white shirts et al. - is more reverential than, say, a tailored blue shirt and khaki pants. Which would a carpenter from Nazareth prefer? they ask.
Catholic educator Dan John was getting ready for church on a recent Sunday and put on a pair of sandals.
One of his teenage daughters at first queried, "Sandals at church, Dad?" and then answered her own question: "Well, Jesus wore sandals."
"That was the most appropriate answer I could have heard," John says. "The most important thing about church is going. That's it."
That's the point, agrees the Rev. Martin Shelton-Jenck, pastor at Community of Grace Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City.
Shelton-Jenck wants people to be comfortable in his church.
"If you want to wear your ski boots to 8:30 service because you're taking off right after for the ski slopes, that's OK with me," he says. If you showed up in shorts and sandals, less people are doing it but no one would care. You have to answer that question in your own heart and soul and then follow it with integrity."
It's a sentiment that reverberates throughout Protestantism.
"People have different traditions and upbringing," says the Rev. Michael Imperiale of First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City. "If it's important to people to dress up, they should do that, but they should not feel that because it's important to them, it must be important to everyone else. When people complain about how others dress, there's something amiss in their faith, worship and what church is about."
Some members of Calvary Baptist Church agree.
Sylvia Morris, an administrative manager at the University of Utah, wears her "Sunday best" to Calvary because that is the way she was raised. But she embraces visitors who come to church in a more relaxed attired. She hopes they feel welcome.
"I don't believe that what anyone wears will determine whether they get to heaven," Morris says. "God cares more about the good I'm doing than what I'm wearing."
The most important thing is that people come to church. It's their presence that matters.
"We are all glad," she says, "that we're there."
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Contact Peggy Fletcher Stack at pstack@sltrib.com or 801-257-8725. To comment on this story, write religioneditor@sltrib.com.
