Thursday, April 03, 2008

A Little Cleavage

A word to Christian women --
When you look in the mirror on Sunday morning and see a little cleavage showing at the neckline of your dress or blouse, think what that would look like from above. Looking down your shirt from the top looks a lot different from what it looks like straight-on.

When your pastor (and maybe the elders) are serving communion, and you are kneeling, and they are feeding you (and thus having to look down in the direction of your mouth), the pastor is seeing a whole lot more cleavage than he sees when he shakes your hand after service -- a whole lot more cleavage than he wants to see.

Pastors don't usually want to say anything about this around their parishioners. They don't want to admit they're "looking"; it sounds pretty scandalous. But what else can they do in this situation?? A godly man can do a lot of "gaze averting." At the beach, at the store, at the ball park, or when a Victoria's Secret commercial comes on the tv, a man can discreetly look away. But when he is at the altar, serving God and serving his parishioners, putting Christ's body and blood into your mouth, he cannot look in a different direction.

Have pity on your pastor. Wear higher necklines on Sunday.

9 comments:

  1. Oh Susan! My dh talks about this to me alot! He gives his confirmation class "Hints" about dress hoping they get it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The guys I know talk about it amongst themselves, or to their wives (especially when he comes home from church on a day when his eyes about popped out of his head). I'm glad some of them mention it to their confirmation classes. But at that age, I think girls are so intent on impressing guys, and of course the pastor is SO old that he isn't going to notice anything, that I'm not sure they realize what they're doing to him. I guess I just have this little hope that women who love their pastor, who would never knowingly flaunt themselves in front of him, might take a second to think about what their chests look like from above instead of just how they look from the front.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So that's why it's so cold at church!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, Rachel - that's a great idea. It won't do anything about the lady at our church who wears knee-high black leather stiletto boots, though. That distracts ME and I'm FEMALE!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. So funny! I remember Pastor Wright talking about that when I worked at St. John! I had honestly never even thought about it, as I'm sure most people don't. I do now, though!

    -Karen

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lots of things can distract men and women whether it be the style of clothing people wear or the lack there of. We are sinful beings who have sinful pastors. The pastors may struggle with the parishioners hygiene, dress, sleepiness etc. I don't think that the cleavage issue is a problem unless she is going to church everyday flaunting herself. I know I left an ELCA church just because the pastor had a hard time looking into my eyes while I was pregnant. I had a VERY hard time finding a dress at that time that was modest, the dress I chose was as modest as I could find and the ELCA pastor made sure to make it an issue.

    We women do need the freedom to wear what we like even if it stuns some in the church to some degree. We are not puritans although we should not make it a habit to flaunt what God gave us inappropriately.

    -- Lutheran Woman

    ReplyDelete
  7. LW, I agree that it makes a lot of difference whether the pastor and/or parishioners are demanding a certain style of dress. Dress codes don't seem to fit with the truth that we are free in the Gospel. And yet, being married to a pastor, I know that he sees things that he doesn't want to see, and that the women wouldn't wear if they realized what they were unwittingly showing him. What I'm talking about is more a "I will dress this way to make your life easier" rather than forcing someone to wear modest clothing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. >>freedom to wear what we like even if it stuns some in the church to some degree.

    Just wanted to add to what I said earlier: It's definitely better to be in church in whatever you have than to not be there. And if a woman is in church in something low-cut, definitely better to come to the altar than to stay in the pew because of concern for what's on the body.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I agree! Thanks for bringing up an important subject!

    One of our elders who assists in communion once asked me to talk to my teen girls about their slippery gloss and to not wear it as it's so hard to get off the common cup. Much harder than lipstick he said.

    It's just a matter of thinking of the other person's perspective, since we're all human afterall.

    ReplyDelete