Should Seminaries Reinstate Dress Codes?

[iainduguid]

Fundamentalists got a lot right and their warnings about what was happening in society have come to pass. Personal holiness is as important as right doctrine.

No one questions that personal holiness is as important as right doctrine; would that we all were much holier than we are! The question is whether specific (culturally determined) forms of dress like suit jackets are essential to personal holiness.

 

[jwithnell]

We have become so casual in our dress and it seems to be the norm. People would never show up to jury duty wearing what they do to church (or they would be sent home), there is more respect for a county judge than The Judge.

Sadly, no. I was rather shocked at what my co-jurors wore at a recent trail. We were told not to wear flipflops and printed Ts but about three-quarters of the group saw the minimum to be the standard. I wore dressy business attire.

 

[alexandermsmith]

No one questions that personal holiness is as important as right doctrine; would that we all were much holier than we are! The question is whether specific (culturally determined) forms of dress like suit jackets are essential to personal holiness.

Well this is where we apply general principles. That suits and ties are culturally determined as formal dress in no ways disqualifies them from being required if there is a general principle about smartness in dress. The modern casual attitude towards dress in church is very modern indeed. For generations of Christians it was uncontroversial that one should dress with a certain degree of formality to church (and seminary, university, &c.).

 

[iainduguid]

Well this is where we apply general principles. That suits and ties are culturally determined as formal dress in no ways disqualifies them from being required if there is a general principle about smartness in dress. The modern casual attitude towards dress in church is very modern indeed. For generations of Christians it was uncontroversial that one should dress with a certain degree of formality to church (and seminary, university, &c.).

...and football games, and shopping, and pretty much everything else in life. Some wish to impose their interpretation of general principles on other Christians in many areas of life (beards, bedmaking, etc.); others are content to leave more to the consciences of individual believers. Every institution will have some rules and other areas where it may provide instruction but allow for more variation in practices. It seems reasonable for seminaries to make their own determination of whether there is a problem, and if there is, to proceed accordingly. Personally, I'm not convinced that requiring suits and ties would raise the personal godliness of our students and prefer to reserve my (limited) influence on their thinking to other more pertinent areas of sanctification, but I understand that you have a different opinion, and if you founded a seminary, it would look very different from the ones where I have chosen to work.

 

[chothomas]

I'm probably the last person who should comment on how to dress in seminary (Dr. @Alan D. Strange knows me well enough). I don't come from classy roots, but I find myself more and more wanting to dress nicely for church. In general, I'd like to dress myself to better reflect a care for my appearance. Not that I want to be vain and prideful, but I want to present myself in a more mature manner. My background being what it is, I tend to prefer wearing nice blue jeans (not torn or anything of the like) and a polo shirt. An outfit like that is casual and put together, in my opinion. Slacks with a button down would also be comfortable. When I'm at church, I exclusively wear attire appropriate for the pulpit. I wouldn't be opposed at all to something of dress recommendation for seminary (instead of a code that might burden others).

Most seminaries operate pretty independently, so poses some challenges. It's should be based on the leadership of each seminary. Frankly, the seminary I went to could have used some serious one-to-one talks from professors. I have seen more modesty from people at work or in my daughter's elementary school...

 

[alexandermsmith]

...and football games, and shopping, and pretty much everything else in life. Some wish to impose their interpretation of general principles on other Christians in many areas of life (beards, bedmaking, etc.); others are content to leave more to the consciences of individual believers. Every institution will have some rules and other areas where it may provide instruction but allow for more variation in practices. It seems reasonable for seminaries to make their own determination of whether there is a problem, and if there is, to proceed accordingly. Personally, I'm not convinced that requiring suits and ties would raise the personal godliness of our students and prefer to reserve my (limited) influence on their thinking to other more pertinent areas of sanctification, but I understand that you have a different opinion, and if you founded a seminary, it would look very different from the ones where I have chosen to work.

Well this was the question asked at the beginning: should there be dress codes? No-one has been able to give a reason why there, categorically, should not be. And now there seems to be a consensus that a seminary should have one if it wishes to. I'm not exactly sure what we have spent all this time arguing over but the fact we have would seem to point to a deep-rooted suspicion amongst part of the church towards requiring certain outward behaviour from Christians. Requirements which a few generations ago would have been uncontroversial. Clearly a subject which generates so much discussion is not indifferent.

 

[Jack K]

No-one has been able to give a reason why there, categorically, should not be.

Saying seminaries "may" have a dress code is not the same as claiming they "should." Is it usually wise? I and others have already offered several reasons why, in the case of most seminaries folks here would admire, they probably should not have dress codes. My list:

• We should treat seminary students like adults. If we're going to trust them to preach the gospel, we should at least start by treating them like they can figure out on their own how to dress appropriately.
• Our culture values informality. While there may be both good and bad impulses that accompany this value, informality is not in itself a sin, and our priorities are misplaced if we act as if resisting informality equals advancing Christ's kingdom.
• Being our own Christian culture, distinct from the world, actually is very important. But the key distinctives that make us truly Christlike are much deeper than outward trappings such as formal dress. I suppose implementing a code that makes students noticeably distinct in outward appearance might remind some of the heart-level distinctives that actually matter. But I'm inclined to suspect the opposite would be true more often: outward appearances would feel more important than daily work on the inner man. It's better if seminary students just dress like, well, grad students, and make love for others the most obvious difference people see when they visit the seminary. Christ's disciples should be recognized by their love, not by their coats and ties.
• Speaking of coats and ties on students, in our culture these would send a wrong message suggesting we are like the Mormons or some cult. Our intentions might be to communicate respect for the calling of ministry, but to many people, the practice would actually shout a false gospel of self-righteousness. People would see the coats and ties and assume our whole approach to God is to try to please him by being better than others and observing strict bodily regulations. The effect would be an anti-gospel message that makes the true gospel harder to proclaim.
• I can think of little evidence in the Bible that prophets and ministers ought to dress more formally than people do in the culture around them. Priests had special dress, but that belonged to the ceremonial law. Prophets and gospel ministers seem to have dressed normally or, in a few cases, distinctively less formal (Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, John the Baptist, perhaps Paul who chose to avoid looking wise and sounding eloquent). It's okay to bemoan the loss of formality within our culture. But requiring formality among ministers-in-training is to put a cultural agenda above the biblical example for ministry in which creating cultural barriers to the gospel is something we avoid, becoming all things to all people that by all means we might save some.
• History matters, and there is some history within our culture of professed believers taking pride in wearing their "Sunday best" rather than coming to worship with a humble heart. Yes, there is also a current attitude of casualness about worship that can devalue the assembly of Christ's people, but we hardly fix that by implementing an external dress code that comes with its own history of pride-producing baggage.
• Although informality might be a sin if the heart behind it is to disrespect authority, it's hard to make a biblical case that informal dress is inherently sinful or disrespectful or that informal dress typically flows from such a heart. Rather than impose a code based on such assumptions about the heart's attitude, I would much rather teach a student to look at his own heart and at how it connects to all that he does (including how he might dress), and adjust accordingly. We should remember that fancy dress might reveal a heart-level problem too—one of pride (1 Timothy 2:9-10; James 2:2-4; 1 Peter 3:4), and that in our culture formal can feel fancy. Formality can pose a danger to our hearts just like informality might.