Sunday go-to-meeting clothes: Churches differ on Christian dress code

By MATT HOLLIS
The Baytown Sun
According to Rodney Sellers, assistant pastor of Victory Baptist Church, people dressing casually for church services is a sign of disrespect toward God.
"People have forgotten who God is," says Sellers. "They will go to a job interview dressed up, but will come to church dressed like they are shopping in a department store."
In the '90s, it seems that some things that have been unacceptable for a long time are now being accepted.
Most people grew up with the notion that if you were to go to Sunday morning church ser-vices, you were going in your best "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes.
No jeans, no sandals, no T-shirts. It was suits and ties for men and dresses for women. Period. Now, however, people have been seen in church on Sunday morning wearing "Star Wars" T-shirts and clothes with sun-burst psychedelic colors on them. Some are wearing shorts and thongs, shirts with pictures of some famous musical per-former and a few muscle shirts.
Some churches don't feel offended by the trend.
"Some churches have become more casual because the want people to feel more comfortable about going to church," says Dencie Lee, minister of music at Maranatha Church in Mont Belvieu. "It's more reachable to the non-Christian."
Others, like Sellers, say the church has Godly standards for a reason.
'The church shouldn't lower its standards to the world's," says Sellers." The church doesn't have act worldly to reach the world. We should keep stan-dards to please God and let Him reach the world."
Sellers is quick to point out that no one should judge some-one dressed casually. However, he says that it can give a mea-surement of how one's relation-ship is with God.
"Your standards reflect your relationship with God," says Sellers. "People get mad (about this subject) and twist the Bible around."
What does the Bible say about how one should dress? The most common scripture used is I Timothy 2:9, "And the women should be the same way, quiet and sensible in manner and clothing."
One common question people might ask is why does God care what we wear? "I don't think God cares if we wear blue jeans or dresses," says Lee. "But rather how we clothe our spiritual man."
In the book of Ephesians, we are instructed to wear spiritual clothing to protect us from the powers of darkness. Also in Revelation, it says "Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."
Churches want to keep focused on the fact that church is for worship, not to display the latest fashions.
"It's not to impress anybody," says the Rev. Stephen Mandry of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. However, Mandry does not entirely approve of the new trend.
"Jeans, khakis and T-shirts do not qualify," says Mandry. "People should clothe them-selves in virtue."
Mandry also agrees that clothes represent one's relation-ship with God. "If you had a relationship with God, then you would dress up," says Mandry.
All the ministers agree that if someone was to show up to their church dressed in casual attire they would not be turned away.
For those who can't afford to buy dress clothes, they are encouraged to come as they are.
"Come with what you have," says Sellers. To others in the congregation, Sellers encour-ages them "not to judge."
Mandry sees that if someone is that interested, in dressing up and has a low income then they should examine their financial situation.
"They need to rearrange their budget somehow," says Mandry. "Recognize the importance of what they have. People who dress poorly are distracting."
Lee takes a lighter view on clothes that some might find distracting.
"We believe we should always strive to give God our best, but everybody's best is not the same," says Lee. "In church all should feel comfortable."
The standard of what is appropriate clothing varies from church to church. However, all churches seem to agree that no one should ever be asked to leave a church because of what they are wearing.
"Our doors are always open," says Lee. "Our pastor (Ronnie Trice) has instilled, in us that all people are welcome.
"(If we ask them to leave) how can we show them the love of Jesus."

Blacklisted: Hollywood actress recalls McCarthyism scandal

Matt Hollis

PARALLAX EDITOR

In 1989, western capitalists erected the tombstone for Communism. The Berlin Wall had fallen, Germany had reunited for the first time since WWII and "glasnost" had made its way into America's vocabulary. Commu-nism, the great threat to any upstanding American citizen, was dead. Anyone who had believed in this system had been finally proven wrong. Lenin, Marx, Engels all were wrong. Finally.
Most college students today do not know what it is like to live in a world where communists were the enemy. Since the end of WWII, Communists were the "bad guys" and we were the "good guys." For years, anyone aligning themselves up with Communism was considered an enemy to the state. Even those in the motion picture industry.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many writers, directors, producers, studio heads, actors and actresses were hauled up in front of the House on Un-American Activities Committee in Washington and New York. They were asked one question: "Are you now, or have you ever been, a Communist?" How they answered that question could spell the end of their careers, or those of others, in Hollywood.
This period became known as the McCarthy-era, so named after one of the most relentless pursuers of Communists, Senator Joseph McCarthy. Many careers were ruined due to this "witch hunt" designed to weed out communists and prevent them from saturating movies with Communists propaganda.
However, the pursuit destroyed many lives in the process. There were several of those who had nothing to do with Communism. They were, in effect, guilty by association.
In October 1947, an angry group of Hollywood actors, writers and directors went to Washington, D.C. to assure the general public that movies were not being "filled with subversive Red propaganda."
The group included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye, John Huston and character actress Marsha Hunt.
However, upon returning to Hollywood, Bogart and others involved in the Washington flight were pressed upon to renounce the trip in the press. Bogart even took out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times stating that he was in no way a communist.
Of course, Humphrey Bogart went on to continue his fabulous movie career and is well known even today. However, others like Marsha Hunt refused to back off from her stance. Now days, few of the younger generation have ever heard of Hunt. This is because Hunt's career in movies was virtually over after this. She had been "blacklisted."
Marsha Hunt was known in the '30s and '40s as "America's youngest character actress." She had starred in movies such as "Pride and Prejudice," "Smash-Up: Story of a Woman" and "The Human Comedy." She had also been on Broadway in such plays as "The Devil's Disciple." By the time 1947 rolled around, Hunt was just about to reach the stardom that others such as Bette Davis, Clark Gable and Joan Crawford had. She was about to make the transition from character actress to movie star. It never happened.
On a recent visit to Lee College, Hunt remembered how she refused to renounce the Washington trip.
"To do so was to repent of what I did, " Hunt said. "I believed in what I was doing very much."
After that, the offers stopped coming. Before 1950, Hunt had made about 50 movies. Since then, only eight. "I can't really say the blacklist ever ended," she said.
But when asked if she would do it again knowing, what she knows now, Hunt says emphatically, "Yes! Without a doubt. I was there to help my friends. They were not communist."
In fact, Hunt never set foot inside a Communists meeting. She had proven herself a patriotic American many times. She helped in the war bond effort in WWII and took part in the Hollywood Canteen, a club for GIs about to be sent to the front lines. Hunt was just as "American" as the next person. Why then was her career destroyed by politicians and studio heads who labeled her a ÔCommunist sympathizer?"
In the post-WW II days of the late Ô40s, the threat of nuclear war was over Americans like a dark cloud. The Russians had tested an atom bomb and the Cold War began. Anything or anyone connected with Communism was treated like the plague. The scare was so frightening that Americans and the school children were required to sign a document declaring an oath that renounced Communism and championed Capitalism. Communism took the place of the Nazis as the new evil.
In 1947, Hollywood was, in effect, put on trial. Many employees in the movie business were subpoe-naed to go front of HUAC and were forced to either deny that they were communist or give names of others that were believed to be communists. A lot of friend-ships were destroyed because of this.
Hunt was outraged. Director William Wyler, John Huston and writer Phillip Dunne had lunch one day and decided it was time to fight fire with fire. The trip to Washington was then planned. Bogart was, according to Hunt, "so outraged. All he could talk about on the plane was how mad he was about the hearings."
When Bogart landed back in Los Angeles, studio heads made it clear that he had best recant or suffer the loss of his career. Bogart must have changed his mind because he "repented" in the press. He described his trip as "ill advised."
"When Bogart did an about face, the whole move-ment to stop the hearings came to an abrupt halt," Hunt remembered.
Hunt never recanted.
Today, it is hard to relate to this period of time. It is incredible to think that an upstanding citizen can suffer the loss of their friends and careers due to lynch- mob techniques. It can still happen.
McCarthy was later exposed on television for what he was: a political opportunists full of hot air. Most of those blacklisted or imprisoned got their lives back on track and some even continued to have success in movies. The final nail in the coffin was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Communism is not viewed as a threat today as it was then.
It is sad to see a brilliant career, like Hunt's, destroyed forever by these opportunists. Maybe in another place and time, things would have turned out differently. Hunt, though, must be given credit for standing up for what she believed in, no matter what the price. Despite the damage to her career after that trip to Washington, Hunt remains adamant, even at the age of 82, that she did the right thing,. "I would definitely do it again," she said.
Standing up against wrong should be a commendable thing. In spite of a career loss, Hunt did what she felt was right. Because of this, however, she was branded a Communist even though she was never affiliated with such ideals. How can one be a winner in the face of such injustice? Surely, she must be bitter.
Not so.
"I had enough compensation in my personal life to make up for all the rest," Hunt said.
Hunt is truly an American.

Check your oil, gas and the back seat

Did you hear about the woman who had just finished shopping at the mall?
She was low on fuel and went to a gas station to fill up. The came out and put the fuel in her car and then went over to driver's side window. She lowered her window and gave the an her money.
The man looked at the money and said that it was that he was going to have her arrested.
Well, the lady naturally got very upset. But the attendant insisted and opened the car door and physically dragged the woman, who was by this time hysterical, into the store.
When they were inside the store, the attendant locked the door and dialed 911. The woman demanded to know why this man was accusing her of passing false money and why he dragged her into the store so rudely.
"Ma'am," said the gas attendant, "There is a strange man crouched down in the back seat of your car. I had to say something to get you inside safely and call the police."
The police showed up and arrested the man who had been hiding in the back seat. Apparently, he was an escaped rapist/murderer bent upon seizing another victim.

The corpse's hand

Here's one for those about to go off to spend time in a college dormitory.
Back around the early 1960's there was a group of college males who were trying to take bets on seeing who could date whom in a sleepy college town not far from here. Well, there was this one woman there who the guys referred to as "The Ice Queen" because so unresponsive to the men around campus.
One of the guys, we'll call him Bradley to protect his family, had been stiffed too many times by this "Ice Queen."
Being the arrogant, macho stud that he was, he decided he was going to melt this iceberg once and for all. He and three other physique-type males went over to medical department and paid an assistant there to let them have a frozen corpse. Once they did they chopped off the right hand of the dead body and went to the "Ice Queen's" room and tied the severed hand to the string that turned on the light. Then the men waited for her to come to the room and pull the string.
A few hours went by and "The Ice Queen" finally showed up. The guys hid behind a door across the hall just waiting for the screams. The "Ice Queen" opened her door and went inside the darkened room. Then the guys saw the light come on. But there were no screams. The guys looked at each other.
"Boy," said Bradley, "she really is a cold one."
Desperate to know what her reaction was to the prank, they went to the door and opened it. Inside the room they saw what used to be known as the "Ice Queen" sitting on the floor, her hair turned completely white, her skin aged about 40 years and her eyes bulged out of their sockets. In her mouth she was chewing on the fingers of the corpse's hand.
All four guys had to under go psychiatric care, while Bradley was so bad off he had to get a lobotomy.

A Myth is still a myth...or is it?

By Matt Hollis

Do any of these stories sound familiar?
They should because they are more commonly known as "urban legends." An "urban legend" is a story that is created in any town, anywhere and usu-ally involves scary or unusual circumstances. The locations change in the story in order to make them more believable. Some people call these stories FOAF stories. FOAF is an acronym for "friend of a friend", meaning that someone heard this tale from someone who heard it from someone who heard it from someone. Most of these tales cannot be traced. Once they are told they take on a life of their own, changing each time they are told.
And generally, they cannot be substantiated by local law enforcement agent cies or other authorities, often lending them even more appeal.
These tales usually don't do any harm, except in cases involving major food chains such as the snake in the playground or the Chicken Fried Rat story. One major distributor lost a major amount of business because of a story that con-nected the company's symbol to Satanic worship back in 1982.
Other stories involve well-known people. For years it was rumored that Jerry Mathers, of "Leave It to Beaver," fame was killed in Vietnam. Of course that was hard to believe after that TV reunion in the 1980s.
Another one had a woman standing alone in an elevator in Las Vegas when a bearded man with a dog stepped inside. Suddenly, the man said "Sit, lady!" The woman, thinking she was about to be robbed, hit the floor screaming "Take anything you want but please don't hurt me!" It turned out that the bearded man was Kenny Rodgers and he was talking to his dog "Lady," named after his top selling hit single. He supposedly paid for the woman's entire Vegas trip for giving him the biggest laugh of his life. Some versions have 0. J. Simpson as the man in the elevator. What would you do if 0. J. walked into an elevator and told you to sit down? Pretty scary, huh?
Most, but not all, of these legends involve frightening events. Charles Shafer, Lee College English instructor, said that many of these stories can be interpreted as fairy tales. They include warnings about strangers, being in com-promising situations, and children being stolen. The local legend of the half-man, half-goat that creeps upon unsuspecting lovers on Evergreen Road in Baytown is an example of this.
The story involves a couple that went out to Evergreen Road to make out many years ago and they ran out of gas. The man told the woman that he was going to get gas and that she was to stay in the car, lock the door and wait for him.
Hours went by and then she-started to hear a scratching sound coming from outside. The girl stayed in the car, terrified. At daybreak, a policeman knocked on the window and told the girl to -et out, but whatever she did, not to look back. But she did look back and saw her boyfriend's headless body suspended upside down above the roof of the car. The scratching noise had been his hand scraping the top of the automobile.
This gruesome murder was attributed to the work of a mutant half-man, half-goat whose- lack of a mate drove him to prey upon young lovers who ventured into his territory.
Of course, if you took up Baytown police records you will find that there is no evidence to support this story.
Yet, interpreting the story as a fairy tale, Shafer said parents probably made up the tale as a way to warn teens away from pre-marital sex.
There is probably a logical explanation for every ghost, UFO, and monster story you have ever heard. But explanations can take the fun out of it. Fun is really what these stories are around for. Harmless fun, that is.
So, if youÕre sitting around with some friends this Halloween and you want to tell. a good horror story, look at some of these or go to the library and look some up. Or, if you are really a go-getter, go check out Evergreen Road or even "Blood Road"(better known as Point Narrow Road). Do it late at night. But whatever you do, don't do it alone!