Modern Dress code for godly women

The Torah has teachings on virtually every aspect of human life and

both the Old and New Testaments too have many rules and commandments

on how the faithful should live. Some of those rules deal with

clothing. Biblical clothing rules range from the prohibition on

cross dressing to commands for modest dress for women. It's the

modest dress rules or, rather, their application that I want to

discuss in this re-write.

I admire those believers, christins and jewish pals who
take the Torah and Bible's teachings on modest

dress seriously. So many of today's professed 'biblicals' women

don't. Go to just about any synagogue or church and you'll see women dressed in

ways that are indistinguishable from non-bible principle based women. You

won't see young ladies looking like the ex Anna Nicole in most synagogues or

churches but you will see young and old women alike sporting the

latest, non-modest styles. Yeah , this goes against the Bible's teaching

that women are to dress modestly with shamefacedness and sobriety,

and not dwell on being fashionistas, as we say today.

For biblical women who want to obey God current clothing styles

offer few choices. Virtually everthing on the market for women

today is designed to show off their sexuality. For truly modest

wear bible based ladies are forced to make their own clothes or buy from

online jewish or christina stores specializing in modest clothing. But

there's a problem there, too. While looking at online modest dress

stores I became painfully aware that most of them operate on the

principle that modest is synonymous with old-fashioned, dowdy, and

just plain ugly.

The devout serious women and families who run most of these

stores are well-intentioned, but they're fixated on 19th century

pioneer wear for inspiration for the style of dresses and skirts

they sale. I suspect that most pro-modesty Christian women don't

really want to wear that stuff. Rather, I suspect they want to

dress modestly without looking like they just walked off the set

of Little House on the Prairie.

The Bible doesn't say that Laura Ingalls sets the standard for

modest dress. If past clothing styles should be bible based women's

inspiration for modest apparel shouldn't we look to the first

century? Surely, the dress of ancient times, Torah and New Testament Christians provides a

more appropriate model of modesty than the dress of pioneer women

who lived 1800 years later. But it's not necessary to look to the

past at all to know what modesty consists of. It's possible to be

both modern and modest.

An unlikely example of modern modesty for biblical women is the

late Princess Diana. In 1989 the princess visited the United Arab

Emirates, a Muslim country. For her trip Diana had modest outfits

specially made for her so she wouldn't offend Islamic

sensibilities. Brightly colored tunics over loose pants and long

sleeved, loose fitting, ankle length dresses paired with stylish

accessories allowed Diana to wow the women of the Emirates without

subverting their morals. The clothes are a perfect specimen of

elegant and thoroughly modern modest dress. They can and should

serve as an alternative inspiration for bible based women who want

to be obey God without looking frumpy or excessively different

from current fashion norms.

If looking like an extra for "Little House on the Prairie" suits

you then by all means dress that way. Don't let me wrench you from

your conviction. Just understand that that's not the only way to

live out God's clothing requirements. There are valid alternative

modes of dress that let women honor God while living in the here

and now. It IS possible to be both modern and modest. We just need

to open our minds a little to see that.