An old saying tells us “Clothes make the man” (or woman), but an even older saying is “the habit does not make the monk.” Both are partly true. I have met men and women who were impeccably dressed with everything matching and very expensive accessories but they were people without character, charm, or civility. Good, elegant dress does not mean that one has good principles or is a person you would want as a dinner guest. In like manner, because a person is very casual in his dress does not indicate he is without principles.

However, while the habit does not make the monk, it does identify him and it affects the way everyone looks at him. How a person dresses also affects how he or she looks at himself or herself.

As an educator, I noticed that when students were better dressed it influenced their self-control. Uniforms are even a better guarantee of good discipline. So clothes are important. I would be horrified if my wife or daughters dressed the way most professing Christians dress. It is bad enough for teens to dress with their rears and bosoms on display but to see a 45-year-old woman do so is pathetic. She is trying to return to her spent (misspent) youth so she dresses as a youth in a failed and desperate attempt to return to yesteryears. She expects observers to admire her juvenile fashions on her ever-spreading, ever-sagging, and ever-shapeless body. These infantile fashions are not accidental. The wearing of juvenile-appearing clothing is just one more attempt to create an illusion of eternal youth or eternal adolescence, a phenomenon that is called the “Peter Pan syndrome.”

Modern fashion displays this tendency to infantilize people. An international fashion critic thus expressed herself: “For a long time now, we have seen on catwalks, both international and domestic, fashions that should be displayed at the Children’s Expo, such is the level of infantilization they suggest. Stylists over 25 years old were designing (and wearing) clothes that could be worn by children in a daycare center.”

Others, wearing short, seductive dresses, sit displaying the charm and grace of an obese elephant sitting on a bar stool.

I must say that my mother (even when she was not a Christian), my deceased wife, my present wife, and my daughters were/are the epitome of modesty. I have never been embarrassed or ashamed of any of them, not in the way they dressed or the way they acted.

People go to church, to weddings and to funerals dressed as street urchins but they would not visit the Queen or the President dressed that way. Those loose dressers use “being comfortable” as the determining factor in choosing clothes but that dog won’t hunt. While doing conferences in Japan, a Marine captain who was my driver, told us that he would have to adjust our schedule the next day because he had to see the general. He of course would wear his dress blues with highly polished shoes, a clean shave and combed hair. He was showing respect for a superior officer, his boss. It didn’t matter how uncomfortable he might be in the hot weather.

Others use the culture as an excuse to expose themselves; however, while culture, fashions, etc., constantly change, modesty is always demanded. If one takes the position that modesty is controlled by the crowd, customs, culture, and circumstances then they can also plead that honesty is dependent on the crowd, customs, culture, and circumstances. No honest person really believes that.

It seems active Christians think the above excuse changes the rules temporarily but that is not so. No Christian girl should lower herself to fashion simply because she is a bride or bride’s maid. “But all the dresses are strapless and very, very low,” says an excited bride-to-be. All right, then don’t have a formal wedding or have a seamstress redesign your dress. I recently saw where a bride had purchased a strapless dress and had a beautiful top made for it. Modesty is always in. Immodesty is always out.

Children are permitted to watch all the silly shows on television and movies that brutally attack everything godly, good, and graceful. I just saw four or five dolls dressed as street walkers. Of course, little girls will be impressed to dress similar to them or at least defend such dress. I would not purchase such dolls.

Christians should dress as Christians at all times–understanding the occasion, the time, and all circumstances. After all, we should set the standards not follow them.

A professing female Christian from one of the largest and famous Independent Baptist Churches and Colleges in America said, “I developed a gigantic, curvaceous, apple-bottom *** when I was around 14. [Already there is a signal that she is not a committed Christian.] Then the comments started coming such as ‘You have a lot of junk in your trunk! Your butt wiggles when you walk. Your bouncing rear-end is distracting my husband.’” Then she says that many years later when she thinks about those comments, “I want to curl up into a ball until the pain goes away.” That just doesn’t ring true to me. Me thinks she protests too much. If she is so pained, maybe much of it is guilt.

She found a wedding dress that was immodest and she knew everyone would critically respond to her wearing it. (Maybe this gal is mistaken about how much or how little people think about her.) But she decided to buy the dress whatever anyone thought. She said, “When I pushed my credit card across the counter, I felt… proud. Because I knew what I’d just accomplished, and it had been monumental: don’t let the ******** get you down, and I thought, and I scheduled my first fitting.” I believe she revealed her true rebellious, carnal, immodest heart without realizing it.

She was sure that her Christian friends back in Indiana would ask how she could wear a dress like that. Or how could her parents permit and pay for such a dress. And why would her future husband permit such a thing? I know that I have had such thoughts many times!

She says that those who emphasize modesty do so because we think a woman’s body is an “unclean object.” What silliness and immaturity. She is only seeking a foundation upon which she can stand to defend her own immodesty. Obviously, her college and church, where I have preached a couple of times did not teach her logic and systematic thinking. God helped Adam and Eve with their clothing dilemma. Sin had revealed they were naked and He covered them in animal skins.

She whined on and on saying, “No matter what I wore, I was still on the receiving end of cat calls, jeers, slurs– I was stared at, grabbed at, slapped, and mocked, because my body was unclean, and my body was under the purview of what men thought about it.” I don’t believe it! That did not happen at the church or college she attended. Maybe, just maybe, while shopping in Chicago it did but I even doubt that.

Her last statement is proof that she has major spiritual problems. She wrote, “But what I have learned since then is that there is nothing about my body that I need to hide!” So, what do you want to do, jerk it off and prove you are a totally liberated but frustrated, feminine Fundamentalist! After all, even nudity can be “justified” by some people.

This is no plea for the burqa, only attractive dress that covers what sane people have always known should be covered. For sure, no one should dress to tease, tempt, or tantalize others.

Jerome in the fourth century scolded a Roman woman: “Your vest is slit on purpose….Your breasts are confined in strips of linen, your chest is imprisoned in a tight girdle…your shawl sometimes drops so as to leave your white shoulders bare; and then it hastily hides what it intentionally revealed.” Not many preachers like Jerome today.

Most modern preacher stay away from the dress issue the way a mythical vampire flees the son light.

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published recently by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

Her husband was known as Phocion, the Good who served a record 45 terms in office but was finally executed as an old man by the leader of Macedonia. Phocion was known for his humility and his frugal living. His wife cooked their meals and he drew his own water and chopped his own wood. He could have been very wealthy because of his office but he refused many offers of money even from Alexander the Great. Both husband and wife were known for their manners, moderation, and modesty. Note that this was in pagan Greece before any Christian influence.

It is possible that the Apostle Paul had the above couple or a similar one in mind when he warned in 1 Tim. 2:9 “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” For us to suggest that women be modest in apparel, attitude, and actions as Paul commanded is almost quaint. Moreover, not only do feminists go ballistic but also many closet feminists in our churches are quick to demand the right to wear whatever they choose, even if the Apostle Paul or their husbands disagree.

Modesty means a “regard for decency of behavior, speech, dress, etc.; moderation”–a quality not seen much anymore. God has always required decency going back to the Garden of Eden when He dressed Adam and Eve with animal skins to hide their nakedness. PETA wasn’t around then to protest.

Concerning the priests in Israel, Moses commanded in Ex. 28:42, “And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness.” Pagan priests of Bacchus and other pagan gods often ministered naked. God demanded a higher standard for His priests requiring purity and decency in every part of the Divine worship, in opposition to the shocking indecency of the pagans.

In the New Testament God required women to be known for shamefacedness and sobriety. Ladies wore the stola, a simple female covering that was often highly ornamented with gold and precious stones. Both among the Greek and Roman women, their hair was often crisped and curled in a complex manner with gold and silver strands woven throughout. God warned against excessive, opulent appearance since Christians are to draw people to Christ, not to themselves. Christian women were to be known for godliness, not gaiety, and gaudiness. They still are.

Clothes have been used since the beginning of time for defense, for decency, and for decoration. The Bible warns that Christians should dress nicely, neatly, but not naughtily. That principle, if followed, would decimate the female clothes’ market if implemented by Christians alone.

Christians and decent non-Christians should be modest without being archaic. One can go to the extremes of wearing clothes that reveal what only a spouse should see or of wearing antiquated clothes thereby drawing attention to one’s self. Both extremes are wrong.

Parents should train young children to be modest by teaching them that their bodies are sacred and private, not dirty. It is scandalous that parents are careless with their bodies and permit boys and girls to be cavalier with uncovered bodies in the home. Children should be taught modesty but not prudery.

Schools, both public and Christian, have contributed to lack of modesty by gang showers whereby many girls or boys shower at the same time. That saves money in construction but can destroy insecure young people. Of course, the possibility of the opposite sex going into a public bathroom is indecent, inane, and insane. Radical leftists are so concerned about how a “transgender” person might feel but have absolutely no concern for the visual, mental, and possible physical assault of innocent youth of the opposite sex.

Even Billy Graham, known as a very principled person in his personal life, went swimming nude with President Lyndon Johnson in the White House pool. Billy should have told the very vulgar and vile president that he never undressed for anyone except for his wife.

One of the most distasteful, disgraceful, and degrading incidents showing total disregard for modesty and decency was Megyn Kelly’s interview with Howard Stern who is known for his vulgarity. Megyn was dressed provocatively almost falling out of her blouse. Stern made a big deal how she was dressed. She laughed when Howard asked her about the size of her husband’s sex organ. She laughed when he asked the same question about Roger Ailes! She laughed when he asked the possibility of having sex with Bill O’Reilly. He got her to admit that her breasts were real and discussed the size of them! He asked, “Did you have sex during your pregnancy?” “Was the size of your husband’s penis important to you?” “Do you have a good sex life?” A modest woman would have been off the stage within seconds.

He asked her to choose from each of three questions: “Whom would you marry?” then “Whom would you have sex with?” and “Whom would you kill?” She was to choose from Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck. She played his game saying she would marry Hannity, have sex with O’Reilly, and kill Beck. Megyn can’t even spell modesty.

If her priest had any convictions, he would remove her from the membership of her church. And if Fox officials had any character, they would fire her.

Surely, her husband and three children were horrified. How could anyone in the family be seen in public after that interview? I wonder if her husband reprimanded her and forbade her to appear on Stern’s show again! Of course, almost everyone reading this will say that he has no right to forbid her from doing anything. Yea, but that’s another column.

Ancient Greek women would not have been as crude, coarse, and callous as Kelly. For sure, she would not say as did the Greek general’s wife, “My husband is my ornament.”

I have scorn for Kelly, sorrow for her family, and am scared for America.

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published recently by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.