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Modesty
A concerned LDS man's view
of the modesty issue in his area.
by Jack in California
Saturday, January 3, 2004
As we
teach our Scouts about uniforms and inevitably the
dress standards as set forth in the "For the Strength
of Youth" (FSY) booklet, my concern is that the world
is overtaking our youth faster than we can combat it.
For
example, last Sunday our Young Women did a choir
number during Sacrament Meeting. There were
about 14 girls plus leaders that went up between high
council speakers. I noticed that some of the
girls, as they got up from their seats to head for the
choir section, were pulling on their skirts to make
them a little longer. Then I noticed as the
girls raised their hymn books, suddenly about five
navels were exposed. Most notably was the Young
Women President's daughter, standing right next to the
Young Women President. The thought ran through
my mind, "Isn't that covered in the "For Strength of
Youth"? Sure enough, I reached down for my
scriptures and pulled out the booklet and found it.
I have
heard this particular Young Women President before in
reaction to prior bishoprics encouraging the youth to
dress better at church. Her reply was along the
line of, "Well, would you rather not have them at
church or would you rather have them at church even
though their dress doesn't exactly conform?"
At the
New Year's Eve Church dance, I shared the story with a
former high councilor and former bishop from another
ward. He is currently a Seminary supervisor.
He told me how atrocious the dress is at Seminary.
He told me that as he visits some of the classes, and
stands in the back, some of the girls' pants are so
low. He said he tries to encourage the Seminary
teachers to discuss the dress with the students but
they are reluctant to do so.
So last
night, at the high school basketball game, one of our
seminary teachers who was out of town last Sunday,
asked me what happened in Church on Sunday. I
told her the story. Her response was to tell me
of some church statistic that for the first time there
are now more inactive girls between 21 - 30 years old
than boys in that age group. (I hope I quoted
her correctly and I do not have a source for this
alleged statistic.) She also brought up about
the Seminary coordinator wanting the teachers to
discuss dress standards. Apparently the teachers
feel pretty strongly that this is the job of the
bishoprics and parents.
I have
been pondering this quite a bit this week. I see
our Deacon age scouts wear their scout shirts pretty
faithfully to Mutual. I see our Aaronic
Priesthood wear white shirts, ties and slacks pretty
faithfully to Sacrament Meeting. I think these
principles of "uniforming" are having a positive
impact on our young men.
However,
I wonder what kind of impact that the lack of
conformity to the dress standards by the young women
are having on the young men? I wonder what can
be done to hold back the tide of the world on our
youth?
Thank
goodness for the method of "uniforming" even if many
of the boys don't wear the right pants, the right
socks, the right belt or have a patch sewn on wrong.
Are there
going to be enough righteous young women to marry in
the temple our returned missionary sons??
Jack
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