LAST Sabbath I taught the Sabbath school lesson on the subject of "Warnings Against Immorality." (In Asia we are six months behind the homeland.) When the subject of current styles of dress was introduced, one of the young Indian doctors spoke up. He named a nurse, a non-Seventhday Adventist, who has recently returned to India after having spent some months in study in the U.S.A., part of the time in one of our institutions. He had heard her remark that Adventists insist that their members not wear jewelry, but they allow the immodest fashions.
Potted Plants and Pulpit
Only a few days previous to this I was conversing with an Indian Seventh-day Adventist minister and his wife. We were earnestly discussing the reasons why our work goes as slowly as it does in this field. I asked these dedicated workers what, in their opinion, was the thing in the lives of us from abroad that most effectually counteracts our saving influence. Both answered that the first item on such a list would be the immodest fashions, especially the short, tight skirts, worn by some.
I have had the unhappy experience of sitting in an audience at a religious meeting and mentally writhing in embarrassment for a sister on the platform who had relaxed her stance thinking that she was concealed by the potted plants and the pulpit.
Almost without exception the men in that audience had wives and sisters who would scarcely be willing to show their ankles in public. Please bear with me until this is finished before you conclude that it is simply unkind criticism. This article is not being directed at missionaries only. They simply reflect the society in which they have been educated. I cannot help viewing the situation as it appears to the people we work among. One young woman medical student said to me: "When I was in college I resented the missionaries because they did not uphold the standards of dress that we students were required to adhere to."
During our present term of service in India, two concerned parents (one a nonSeventh-day Adventist) have talked to me about their fears of this aspect of Western influence. What can I say to reassure them?
I will quickly agree that some of our sisters do dress modestly, that the most modest dress in the world will not secure for us an entrance into the kingdom of heaven (unless it is the white robe of Christ's righteousness), and that criticism is a more deadly sin than following current fashion. But should these facts close our eyes and our lips on this important subject?
Should we not take a candid look at the situation as it exists, and ask ourselves, How is it that so many of us today are wearing garments that even ten years ago we would not have considered suitable attire for a Christian?
Tape-Measure Religion
The very word standards to many conjures up a dormitory dean with a tape measure in her hand and a frown on her face. May we also remember that "God is measuring you [and me]."—The SDA Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, on Rev. 11:1, p. 972. He measures us by the standard of His holy law, the standard which Christ exalted to cover even the impure thought. Because Satan has worked with untiring zeal to destroy the standards of modesty and purity, will God overlook the wearing of clothing which is designed to arouse impure thoughts? Need I say more?
Daily here in India I see women dressed in long, flowing garments, who when they are out in public, cover it all with an outer garment that in many cases even covers the face. This in the hottest weather too. If millions of Moslem women can uncomplainingly wear such uncomfortable attire for the sake of their (or their husband's) religious convictions, should we not for the sake of our Lord be willing to keep our knees and thighs covered? I agree that we should not make of ourselves a gazingstock merely for the sake of being different, but does not good taste demand that our thighs and knees be concealed at all times, and that we not cheapen our Christian witness by daring necklines and bare shoulders?
Cross or Protection?
For many years I would not read the writings of the Lord's messenger because I felt that it would make me too different. But one look at Christ, His nail-pierced hands, His thorn-crowned head, makes me terribly ashamed that I could even think of modest attire as a cross. It is a protection instead.
As a people, dare we hope for the divine eyesalve in answer to our earnest prayers while we are deliberately closing our eyes to this flagrant sin that has slowly crept into our midst, and has in many cases made us and our high principles a laughingstock to the world? Is it not presumption to hope that God will even hear our prayers while we continue to ignore His counsel in this matter? I love my sisters in the faith, but that love is an empty thing if I keep silent in the face of this danger. "Obedience to fashion is pervading our Seventh-day Adventist churches and is doing more than any other power to separate our people from God."—Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 647.
A Demoralized Church
God has given us specific warnings on this matter. "There is a terrible sin upon us as a people, that we have permitted our church members to dress in a manner inconsistent with their faith. We must arise at once and close the door against the allurements of fashion. Unless we do this, our churches will become demoralized."Ibid., p. 648. "Your neglect to follow the light will place you in a more unfavorable position than the Jews upon whom Christ pronounced a woe. . . . There are only a few who, like the stars in a tempestuous night, shine here and there among the clouds. . . . They [many] assent to the truth, but are not sanctified through it. . . . Oh, that our people may, as did Nineveh, repent with all their might and believe with all their heart, that God may turn away His fierce anger from them."—Ibid., vol. 5, pp. 76-78. Often I have been unable to continue reading. It is too painful.
Still Time to Awaken
Under the chapter heading "The Laodicean Church" in volume 1 of The Testimonies are some very plain statements: "God proves His people in this world. . . . Many are leaning on a false hope. . . . The people of God should not imitate the fashions of the world. . . . In these last days, fashions are shameful and immodest. [Written more than 100 years ago. What would be said today?] . . . God is now testing you. . . . The weight of evil is fearfully against you. . . . Oh, that every lukewarm professor could realize the clean work that God is about to make among His professed people!"—Pages 188-190.
Thank God there is still time to awaken.
