Oh, good one!

My father is a minister, and he was substitute preaching one Sunday in our church, which is in the city. A man came in off the street, walked up the aisle to the foot of the stairs up to the alter, pulled a Bic lighter out and lit it, and proceeded on some rant. My father didn't say a word. The man finished and left. After the service, a bunch of the parishioners went up to my father and asked him why he let that man do that, and he said, "The man had something to say and wanted to be heard. So I let him have his say and be heard."

I agree that church and prayer should be about what's in your heart and not what's on your body... I have known plenty of not so nice/respectful well dressed people!!

love it tibbrix! what a great response!! I don't think too many church leaders would do that- he sounds like he is a very good minister! (tho I wonder if he would do the same after this sc incident... a shame that no where is safe...)

I believe this joke may have originated from Joel Osteen - or at least, he told a version of it to open one of his sermons.

Growing up (as many of you probably experienced), church was a traditional Sunday morning event, and you dressed up for it. Always, without fail. We now attend a casual gathering on Saturday evenings at a church that also holds a more formal service on Sunday morning. We just love having something positive to do on Saturday nights! People show up in jeans (and shorts, now that summer is here), and it's nice to be so relaxed. That said, there's still part of me that feels dressing up for church is a nice thing to do. I'm sure that harkens back to the way that I was raised, and my experiences as a child in church. Somewhere there's a photo of me at five years of age, wearing a little hat, white gloves, and a dress with a petticoat underneath. Yikes.

I agree with you, auntjen. We've actually moved past casual to sloppiness, in a lot of cases. Grown men dressing like gnarly teenage boys. Grown women dressing like tarts. And I'm no Church-lady prude either. I recently saw a photograph, onYahoo, of Adam Sandler (ugh anyway!) and I think it was Kevin James. The pic was of these two middle-aged men flanking the 23 year old (or whatever - young) Selena Gomez. She was in a strapless gown with a slit up the leg, and they were dressed like two slobs…t-shirt hanging out over sloppy shorts with untied sneakers…I was disgusted. And that was actually what the article was about. First the grossness of two middle-aged men leaning in to be photographed with this young woman - as if - and the double standard of how men can dress like boobs for such events while women have to have the skin-showing, dressy designer gown.

I was so hoping Americans would get a clue from Catherine Middleton and her husband - class, grace, elegance.

But no.

Definitely food for thought - anyone else consider the homeless / poor who may have no other clothes or means to clean up? Should they be unwelcome @ a church because of that? My church is in an urban area w/ many homeless folks around. Members sponsor/provide a luncheon for them weekly.