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With temperatures in the 80s by 7:30 a.m. services, this is the season for church bulletin items like the one in Our Lady’s: “Dignity & Decorum: Please try not to wear beach shorts, tank tops, and flip-flops to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Thank you.” In general, casual has pummeled formal everywhere in America, from airplanes to offices.
But places of worship — where debates on modesty are not confined to the summer months — may be the final frontier for questions about what constitutes overly risque.
And those questions have recently sprung to new life.
A popular campaign aimed at young evangelical women called “Modest is Hottest” has triggered backlash by devout younger women who see the slogan as sexist.
When the Bible calls for “modesty,” they argue, it refers to displays of things like wealth and is describing the depth of one’s spirit, not their neckline.Teaching women that their value rises if they have more clothes on is objectifying, a torrent of essays have argued.
“A woman’s breasts and buttocks and thighs all proclaim the glory of the Lord,” said Sharon Hodde Miller, a doctoral student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School whose critique of “modest is hottest” in the online evangelical magazine Christianity Today was one of the best-read of recent years.
“Modesty is an orientation of the heart, first and foremost.
It begins with putting God first.
To look at an outfit and say if it’s modest or immodest, I’m not sure you can do that.” Some critics say the drive for looser, longer fabric has political tones, a “modesty nostalgia” for a happier, more fully clothed America that some feel never was.
But advocates for less skin in the sanctuary see modest attire as transformational — part of the process of moving into a spiritual head space.
Particularly today as institutional religion bleeds members, many churches — even some theologically conservative ones — advertise that dress is “come as you are.” “We don’t want clothes to ever be a barrier.
That’s one reason we don’t talk about it,” said the Rev.
Don Davidson of First Baptist Church of Alexandria.
Some even argue that informal clothing signals not a new lack of respect for institutional religion but a new genuineness and familiarity.
Grass-roots pew patrolling, on the other hand, is as alive as ever.
Charisma Wooten, a singer and actor, had been a parishioner and lay leader at Refreshing Spring Church of God in Christ in Riverdale for more than 30 years when she was told moments before taking the pulpit for a Scripture reading one baking July Sunday a couple of years ago that she couldn’t because she didn’t have on pantyhose.
Wooten said she was wearing a dress that nearly hit the floor, but Church of God in Christ is a formal denomination where ushers wear gloves and the handbook says that “dressing in a sensually provocative manner produces inclinations to evil desires.” Another summer Sunday, Wooten was wearing a sleeveless black-and-white polka-dot dress and “my little matching shoes and hat,” when the pastor’s wife said sweetly: “Honey, aren’t you cold?” It took Wooten three days to realize she was likely being politely asked to cover her shoulders.
Wooten says she generally brushes it off when she’s been scolded for her church clothes, but the pantyhose incident led her to send a mass e-mail decrying the misplaced focus on rules and dogma.
“You can follow all these rules men set up and be on your way to hell,” she said.
Concepts of appropriate dress are, of course, a mix of denominational, regional, racial and ethnic components, and they are sometimes specific in unpredictable ways.
Black churches are generally known for formal, modest and elaborate style, even in summer.
Catholics stereotypically are dressed simply for Mass — full suits and hats are less common, as are plunging necklines.
Rainey Ray Segars, 26, grew up with a Southern Baptist pastor-father in Tennessee, where shorts were common around church but strapless dresses were not.
At 24, she moved with her new youth-pastor-husband to Illinois and found out on the first warm week since their move that jeans and Packers jerseys were fine at church activities but shorts were not.
After coming to a choir practice in shorts, a congregant “sent by a group of offended people” told Segars that she had caused someone to be lustfully distracted — “That it was my fault,” Segars remembered.
“I said, ‘I’m interested to know if that person will seek out help for themselves,’ ’’ Segars said.
“I don’t agree that a woman is to blame for lust someone feels towards her.
My thought was to start a dialogue.” Did she?
“It was like: ‘Yeah, that’s all fine, but please don’t wear shorts,’ ” she remembered.
The congregation she’s part of now, Segars said, includes a huge range of dress and cover.
“I think it shows a loveliness and a comfort: ‘I came just as I am, just looking to be known.’ It communicates a safety I think is really beautiful,” she said.
Conversations (and condemnations) on the issue of modest clothing and summer worship seem to focus on women.
Monsignor Ed Filardi said he put the notice in the bulletin at Our Lady of Lourdes at the request of women reacting to the clothing of other women.
Personally, he said, he doesn’t see a real problem, though after services Sunday morning one usher engaged the priest on the topic.
“You’re coming to see the Lord,” said Len Thompson, 65, recently retired from the Navy, and one of two men out of about 80 wearing a jacket at Mass.
“What if I was going to see the Obamas?
It seems skewed.” Foundry United Methodist Church in Dupont has many gay men as members, and last Sunday many men present wore dress shorts and polo shirts.
“I’m not sure if my shins are distracting anyone in here,” one 39-year-old man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said with a smile.
Discussions about possible sins of immodesty inevitably lead to discussions about another sin: judging.
“Jesus is most strong when he speaks about judging people,” said Johnnie Moore, youth pastor at the evangelical Liberty University, noting students have come to his services in pajamas.
That said, he feels religious and secular Americans are joining forces over concern about an oversexualized youth culture.
“Generally speaking, you shouldn’t come to church as you would to a club,” he said.
Northwest Washington image consultant Ketura Persellin has written about appropriate clothing for worship, down to the size of bag, jangly jewelry and skirt length.
This is a woman who cares about clothes.
But as her preteen children are getting older, Persellin finds herself less tolerant of clothing chatter at her synagogue, Adas Israel.
“I don’t want people talking about my kids like that,” she said.
“I’ve definitely been trying to get down from my high horse.”
No.
1 - Retired for Billy Martin Earle Combs 1929-1935 George Selkirk 1934 Roy Johnson 1936 Frank Crosetti 1937-1944 Tuck Stainback 1944 George Stirnweiss 1945-1950 BILLY MARTIN 1951-1957 Bobby Richardson 1958-1966 Bobby Murcer 1969-1974 No.
2 Mark Koenig 1929-1930 Yats Yuestling 1930 Joe Sewell 1931 Lyn Lary 1931-1934 Red Rolfe 1931, 1934-1942 George Stirnweiss 1943-1944 Frank Crosetti 1945-1966 Jerry Kenny 1969-1972 Matty Alou 1973 Sandy Alomar 1974-1976 Paul Blair 1977-1979 Darryl Jones 1979 Bobby Murcer 1979-1983 Tim Foli 1984 Dale Berra 1985 Wayne Tolleson 1986-1990 Mike Gallego 1992-1994 Derek Jeter 1995-2003 No.
3 - Retired For Babe Ruth BABE RUTH 1920-1934 George Selkirk 1935-1942 Bud Methany 1943-1946 Roy Weatherly 1946 Hal Peck** 1946 Eddie Bockman 1946 Joe Medwick** 1947 Frank Colman 1947 Allie Clark 1947 Cliff Mapes 1948 *With the Yankees for 10 days, never appeared in a game.
Obtained 6/20/46 **Only appeared in Spring Training games.
Released 4/29/47 No.
4 - Retired For Lou Gehrig LOU GEHRIG 1923-1939 No.
5 - Retired For Joe DiMaggio Bob Meusel 1929 Tony Lazzeri 1930-1931 Frank Crosetti 1932-1936 Nolan Richardson 1935 JOE DI MAGGIO 1937-1942, 1946-1951 Nick Etten 1943-1945 No.
6 Tony Lazzeri 1929, 1934-1937 Dusty Cooke 1930-1931 Ben Chapman 1932-1933 Joe Gordon 1938-1943, 1946 Don Savage 1944-1945 Dr. Bobby Brown 1947-1952 Mickey Mantle 1951 Andy Carey 1953-1960 Deron Johnson 1961 Clete Boyer 1961-1966 Charlie Smith 1967-1968 Roy White 1969-1979 Ken Griffey Sr. 1982 Mike Pagliarulo 1985 Rick Cerone 1987 Jack Clark 1988 Steve Sax 1989-1991 Tony Fernandez 1995 Joe Torre 1996-2007
In May 1997, 8-year-old Kirsten Hatfield disappeared from her bedroom one night, sparking a national search by local police and the FBI.
But the case quickly went cold and she was never found.
On Monday, Oklahoma police made a decisive break in the long-dormant case, arresting a man who lives two doors down and was initially identified as a suspect in the case, but is now linked by DNA evidence to the girl’s disappearance.
Police arrested Joseph Palma, a neighbor who had previously told investigators he was at home that night, charging him with first-degree murder and kidnapping after a DNA test linked him to items found in the girl’s bedroom on the night of her disappearance.
Police said that they feared she had been killed just after she was abducted, but family members welcomed Mr. Palma’s arrest as providing some relief in a case that had gone cold more than 18 years ago.
“Oh my goodness,” the victim's mother, Shannon Hazen, told The Oklahoman after first learning of the arrest from the paper on Monday.
“Yes!
Yes!
Yes!,” she said, then began sobbing.
Palma was identified as a suspect in the case after examining blood found on the windowsill of the girl’s bedroom and on her clothing, which was found in the house’s backyard.
In June, he agreed to give a DNA sample after investigators began re-examining the case, but maintained that he had been at home during the night of May 13, 1997.
The blood on the windowsill was identified as his after DNA testing, with police saying the match was one in 293 sextillion, The Oklahoman reported.
“It is likely that Palma has been motivated to stay in the same home to conceal evidence of the crime and/or the location of Kirsten's body,” wrote Midwest City Police Detective Darrell Miller in a request for an arrest warrant.
Palma’s story also differed slightly from the account he gave in 1997 to two different investigators, Reuters reports, noting that there is no indication that police searched his home during the original investigation.
Investigators began searching Palma’s home on Monday and will continue searching on Tuesday, local police said.
A longtime groundskeeper, Palma reportedly works for the Lake Thunderbird State Park, The Oklahoman reported, saying that it was unclear if he had an attorney.
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By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy “This is a huge case....
It's one of those cases you want to solve before you retire," Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes, who has been police chief for 16 years, told The Oklahoman.
This report contains material from Reuters.
And so, we stagger into an even more uncertain future Emotions ran high as Hong Kong legislators opened debate on a controversial electoral reform package on Wednesday.
Supporters and opponents made last-ditch efforts after extensive campaigns to influence public opinion.
(In the end, the measure was roundly rejected, with 28 votes against eight in favor of the bill after most of its supporters walked out.)
As if these were not enough drama, police smashed a bomb plot on Monday that recalls conspiracies such as the Gunpowder Treason Plot, a failed assassination attempt on England’s King James in 1605, or the Reichstag Fire, an arson attack on the German parliament building in Berlin in 1933.
One can’t help feeling that worse things are about to happen.
Prosperous metropolis The British colonial authorities didn’t bother with so-called “desinicization” of Hong Kong.
Rather, they gave way to local customs and did not force people to spurn Chinese history, culture, religion and the like.
Under the British, Hong Kong earned a place on the global map as a prosperous metropolis unequalled in any Chinese society.
China’s rapid rise as a global power and its growing ambitions have had a negative effect on local politicians and the business elite.
They have become Beijing’s lackeys to promote its political agenda in Hong Kong including a controversial roadmap to the 2017 chief executive election.
Young Hong Kong people see such moves by Beijing as a bad omen, especially after it issued a white paper last year in which it asserted full control and authority over Hong Kong in contravention of “one country, two systems”.
Their concerns, dismissed as unrealistic and doomed, remain unanswered by Beijing and their own government.
What’s worse, they are increasingly alienated by a government that is not above questionable tactics.
Their disaffection has been used as an excuse by so-called “localists” to push separatism.
That used to be a pipe dream.
Now, the notion of Hong Kong independence has entered the real world.
Secessionists are a minority but in a time of globalization and social networking, their message may be catching on.
Although it might take a long time before they hit world headlines and begin to rattle China, it cannot be completely ignored.
Three-year spiral It has only been three years into Leung Chun-ying’s administration and we’re already seeing a precipitous decline in social cohesion.
Leung’s style of governance has led to increased public grievances and exacerbated political and social tensions.
And continued bickering over constitutional reform has overshadowed the historic significance of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty.
The government’s response has been to exaggerate issues and stir up disputes, resulting in a crippling polarization of society.
When it became clear in public opinion polls that more people were opposed to the election reform proposal, the government discredited the surveys, saying they had been manipulated.