Email or in person, It’s always awkward. It’s usually in summer. It’s usually a woman. 98% of the time, she’s over 60. (For the record, so am I.)
“Pastor Keith, don’t you think ______ was revealing too much this morning?”
“Pastor Keith, you ought to preach on how women should dress.”
“Pastor Keith, with how some of these women at church dress, my husband’s problem with lust is worse at church!” (Does he never watch TV? Go to the beach? Walk around the mall?)
The problem is not that she’s wrong, it’s that the solution is not as simple as preaching how a woman should dress. I have vivid memories as a boy of horrific sermons on dress dripping with legalism that never mentioned the heart. And frankly, as a pastor I am keenly mindful of much more pressing issues to address from the pulpit.
But what we wear does matter to Jesus; what we wear matters for Jesus. While we cannot say modest dress is exclusively a female issue, it is especially a female issue for two reasons: 1) on the scale of anatomies that look good, a woman is a 10 and a man is a 4 (yeah, yeah, some of us are 2’s!), and 2) a woman’s form is a powerful magnet to men’s eyes whereas the male form doesn’t typically have the same effect on women.
A couple of weeks ago NBA superstar wife Ayesha Curry tweeted some interesting words on modest clothing that sparked a twitter debate. See Kim Cash Tate’s excellent take on it over at Desiring God. http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/modesty-lets-our-light-shine.
Gospel-Centered Life 