I really hope I don’t offend anybody with this article, I am really do mean this very tongue-and-cheek. Lets face it, for those of us who grew up in these environments, we have all asked the same questions at one time or another. The point of this article is to show that creating a law against a vice to manage a heart issue, does nothing to change the heart because our nature is to simply find another vice as an outlet for our issue. True change is only by changing the heart through the power of the cross and having the faith that Jesus can change your heart.
I grew up in a environment that advocated outward holiness. These outward standards typically varied from church-to-church and year-to-year. Growing up I had many questions about the various changing standards, which often just didn’t seem to make sense to me. NOTE: None of these examples below are in reference to any specific church or organization, like I said, all churches and organizations had something a bit different, so this is just an accumulation.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words…
Many churches wouldn’t allow the luxury of wearing jewelry because it was considered vain and immodest, however an expensive watch was OK.
Depending on what church you went to, wedding rings were not allowed, however you could get your special lady an “engagement watch“.
The ever illusive knees and their visibility differed church-to-church; that little body part got more girls in to trouble when they went to camp because every church seemed to set that bar differently.
Many churches did not allow women to wear pants because they considered pants to be men’s apparel, however pajama pants were OK for many groups.
I never understood the deal with elbows, maybe it is because most guys don’t lotion their ashy elbows?
No comment…
Depending on how strict your church was, you might have been able to watch movies on DVD, but you were not allowed to go to the movie theater; at least not officially (wink, wink).
If you went to a stricter holiness church, you could not go to the theater and you could not watch movies on DVD, however reading the book about the movie was OK.
Girls always seemed to try and sneak on “natural” make up or color “lip gloss”. For the most part women could not wear make up, however make up for clowns was OK.
I once had a pastor sit a drummer friend of mine down from playing because he got a bad haircut (his hair was too short); note that the sound guy was bald.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this little journey. Basically the message of this article is this. We can trying to manage our sin and our issues or give them to Jesus Christ. When we try and manage our own sins we just create laws and laws have no power over the heart because there is no change in the heart or mind; all we are really doing is covering it up, only to create a substitute or outlet to fill the desire that is still in our hearts.