The trend to dress like slobs has become so extreme that anyone who dresses well is mocked and ridiculed. That is neither tolerant nor reasonable.

This reverse snobbery makes church an uncomfortable and humiliating experience for those who are no longer young and cannot fit into the current, trendy way of thinking.

I would urge those who insist on wearing casual clothes to open your minds and not judge. Accept those who are different from you and don’t insist that they conform to your standards.

For years I taught English to internationals in a church in Boston. They simply couldn’t understand the American sloppy dressing. They wore their best clothes to church out of respect. When they say Americans defending their tee shirts and jeans, they just looked stunned.

I’m inclined to think that in being “all things to all men,” Paul’s intention was to avoid offending the sensibilities of his audience; indeed, the conclusion of the oft-quoted contextualisation passage found in 1 Corinthins 10:31-33, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.” 1 Corinthians 9 and 10 concern the Christian’s liberty, and what the apostle means in being a slave to all is that he limits his liberties so as to avoid giving offense. The point was to get Paul out of the way so as to communicate the Gospel clearly – “I do all things for the sake of the gospel.”

You are right on, however, in your critique of Macarthur. I love the man and his teaching, but he seems to be missing the point that his own ministry is influenced by culture, be it a 1950′s Baptist culture or even the culture of our day. He seems to contradict himself: in one paragraph he insists that we be aware of what our clothing says to the culture, and in another paragraph he makes it clear that we shouldn’t care what the culture is like, so long as we preach the Word. Quite confusing.

I honestly don’t understand how MacArthur can make this statement. Does he think that he has leapfrogged the culture and so a white upper middle class Southern Californian is what the unculturized human looks like? I am not trying to be funny; how can he said we need to get past the culture and get to the mind, as if a mind is not really affected by culture?

In a different church I attended for a very short while, I also heard a great deal of talk about how a neighboring church just down the street is full of hypocrites because they encourage a higher level of dressing-up.

Clothing can speak volumes, both by what the wearer intends by the clothing and by what others perceive the clothing to mean. It is ENTIRELY cultural in both directions – casual and formal.