Does God Care What You Wear? [View all]

Disease. Poverty. War. God has a rather busy time of it, but if we look at some of the tenants of many faiths one is led to believe that God spends his time caring about what you wear, rather than what you do (particularly if you are a woman). Not all Sikhs wear a turban, just as not all Muslim women wear a veil, just as not all Jewish men wear a yarmulke, or, just as not all Christian women cover their heads in places of worship. Strict adherents of faith structures would argue that those who do not follow their clothing requirements are not devoted in the same way was those who do, however surely that is much more about culture than faith?

There are as many motivations for people wearing religious clothing as the people who wear them. For many wearing religious clothing is a demonstrable way of showing the wider community who you are and what you believe, so that you are immediately recognised as a beacon of what your faith stands for. Of course, the problem with this can arise when people do not practice what they preach. Contrary to the belief of some ‘pious’ modestly wearing members of religious communities just donning religious clothing does not create some kind of super spiritual barrier that either stops you behaving badly, or at least stops you getting caught!

Of course, one should always start with the principal that one should be able to wear what they want, be it religious clothing or maybe political clothing cloaked in religious dogma, or anti-religious clothing. Often, religious clothing is a political statement wrapped up and presented as religious obligation. Nearly always, this is manipulated by men. God does not care what you wear. We all dress according to our cultural norms. What we wear has nothing to do with faith or lack thereof. What we wear has nothing to do with behaviour that could be considered anti-God. Often, clothing as religious expression becomes an end in and of itself and has nothing to do with the adherent’s relationship with God – God has nothing to do with it at all.

A manifestation of a male ideal of what women should wear sits at the heart of most religious codes of dress. This is not about God. When one thinks of religious clothing, the word that immediately comes to mind is modesty – particularly when you are framing the question in the female context. This raises serious issues for women in the 21st century. The question of modesty is more a question of patriarchy and control. It is about men imposing their own frailties on women. There are very few rules about what men should wear, but a plethora of ‘guidelines’ when it comes to women, which would most certainly suggest that it is not God who cares what we wear, rather these are man made rules, to ensure the subordination and restriction of women. Man has been running religions since they were first created.

Does God care what I wear? Of course, he doesn’t. However, men on the religious right – irrespective of faith construct – tend to be rather obsessed about this issue. God does not care, men who foolishly think they speak in his name, do.