Are there any dress restrictions for Christian women?

[Daffy123]

I know Christian women have to dress modestly but what does that entail. There is a church going Christian at my work and she often wears dresses and tops with no sleeves and short skirts

What does the bible say?

Viyella!

God fearing Christians must avoid Viyella at all costs, made up, as it is, of a mixture of cotton and wool - which is decreed unlawful in Liviticus, I think. Or possibly Deuteronomy.

However if she is breaking your company's work dress code, and is being obnoxious and bullying I suggest you call on the HR Dept. rather than her god.

When I say this is disputed, what I mean is the Bible as word of God, means different things to different people. Some take it more literally than others. There are different strands to the study if the Bible, it contains some historical fact, analogy, imagery, allegory and is written within a cultural and historical context.

Yup - re the Viyella: it's Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11.

It seems pretty serious.

Blu Jesus fulfilled the law of the Old Testament, those who believe are under the Covenant of Grace.

"I'm deliriously happy that women don't feel they have to wear what their religion states."

What exactly does my religion state I must wear? I am an Anglican. My religion is based partly on the Bible, partly on church tradition, and partly on what my own intellect tells me. This is the core belief of Anglicanism - it gets described as the "three-legged stool" of scripture, reason, and tradition

My religion does not state anywhere that I have to do everything exactly as described in the Bible. Christianity has never taught that we must do exactly as described in the Old Testament. If we did, we would still be a sect of Judaism, not a separate religion.

Because they insist that their opinion of what their book says overrides anybody else's ideas, and force them on to the rest of us. And they don't even agree on what those central messages are...

How about the Ten Commandments for a start? They seem to encapsulate basic rules of behaviour for the majority of civilisations. DON'T murder/steal/blaspheme/commit adultery/lie/worship idols. DO respect your parents/neighbour. And if you subscribe to a monotheistic creed, REMEMBER that there is only one god, regardless of what s/he is called.

Absolutely bigdorrit- these commandments were obvioulsy written as a reflection of what rules existing peaceful communities were adhering to. Apart from the god one, you can look at peaceful indiginous people and see the same basic rules being adhered to, despite them never hearing of the 10 commandments.

It took no rocket science for some bearded scribe in sandals to observe a peaceful community and simply jot down the reasons why it was harmonious. These were not rules from upstairs, they were simple observations.

Well, rape would be covered by the one about not coveting your neighbour's wife or your neighbour's servant. Ok that's not a very positive view of women, that they were the property of their husband or father or employer, but it still wasn't ok to rape them.

As to owning slaves, it took civilisation a long while to work out that they were against it, and there's still a fair amount of slavery going on today. So I'm not sure why you think people living 6000 years ago would have been so much better at deciding that than people 200 years ago were.

As to why commandments were chosen and where they came from, does it have to be either/or? People would see that communities worked well when certain rules were obeyed, and they believed that God was looking after them and wanting them to be ok. So, it's not a huge leap for them to think that the rules came from God. You could also argue (and they no doubt believed) that humanity's basic nature is something that came from God, therefore the kinds of rules which work for us are a reflection on that.

Belief in God was part of everyday life for the people who passed on and later wrote down the stories in the Bible. They believed that God gave those rules directly, through their leaders and prophets and wise men. Maybe God did, maybe God didn't and people were capable of working it out for themselves. Does it matter? Most sensible Christians don't argue that the only available choices are Christianity or a total lack of morals, anarchy, dog-eat-dog attitude etc.

So god thought slavery was ok?

For a pretty big chunk of history, the people of God were slaves in Egypt. I'm pretty sure they didn't like it much or think it was ok. Would it have changed anything for God to have told Moses to write in big capital letters "Thou shalt not keep slaves"?

But god is good and great- why didn't he speak up about this huge humanitarian crime?
I would have though that should have been very high on his agenda.

What do you think He should have done, then? The Egyptians didn't worship the Jewish God, so I doubt He could have persuaded them that keeping slaves was wrong. The Jewish people (actually they weren't called that back then, but it's an easy shorthand) may or may not have thought that keeping slaves was ok, so long as it wasn't them. But God telling them it was a problem wouldn't have changed the situation.

God could have gone for the thunderbolt approach, which He did a bit to get His people out, but it's not the most subtle method for changing social policy. It's always been hard to work out exactly why you were being smitten from on high...

If your god is so great and noble he should have had some scruples and not ingored or condones slavery as he did.

It is clear that god thought slavery was fine.

I think what OP is trying to say, in a bit of a ham fisted way that for all its many other faults, Christianity is one of the few religions that doesn't tries to repress its women:- by telling them what they can and cannot wear and what to cover and what not to cover.
A lot of other religions seem to favour males and put lots restrictions of women.

is that

and puts lots of restrictions (can't type today)

I think what OP is trying to say, in a bit of a ham fisted way is that for all its many other faults, Christianity is, on the whole, one of the few religions that doesn't tries to repress its women by telling them what they can and cannot wear and what to cover and what not to cover.
A lot of other religions seem to favour males and put lots of restrictions on women.

(that's better. was easier to retype)

Given a choice, do you think God should -

a - smite people who don't believe in Him in order to make a change in the world

b - force people who do believe in Him to change their opinions, eg by appearing in front of them and shouting a lot

c - attempt to get people who believe in Him to change gradually over time

When God in the Old Testament is shown as doing a, people tend to say they don't like that God much.

When He is described as doing b, people complain about free will.

The reality is you can't have a God who is all-powerful, and insists on his own moral values, and also allows humanity to have free will to make their own choices (unless they are such puppets that their free will is totally constrained to doing what God has already decided is 'right')

If you think the God who would do c is too ineffectual for you to bother believing in, that's your choice. I believe that God exists, and I don't believe that He does a or b.

You seem to view the Bible as far more authoritative than most Christians do.

It is a collection of stories, some originally handed down orally, which were written by different people at different times, for different purposes. It is a record of what people thought, or at least said that they thought, in different situations and in a culture that worked very differently from the way we live now.

As Christians, we are supposed to learn from it as a book of examples, not follow it as if it was an instruction manual. A small proportion of Christians do treat it like that, and tie themselves in knots to do so without admitting it might be inconsistent both internally and with what science teaches.

Most don't.

Feel free!

Daffy this is a fascinating thread and I have enjoyed reading the links that people have posted.

I am a Christian who has travelled the world and I know that ideas about a 'dress code' will vary in many places. Fortunately (I feel) in the UK we have a lot of freedom about how we dress and this is not just about being a Christian but about the general freedom of 'life and let live' that I feel exists in much of Briatin. In the USA Evangelical Christians may well feel some forms of dress are not appropriate. I remember one young woman telling me that she felt it was a sin to go out without a bra on (under her clothes). In the UK there are a small number of groups who would require women to wear head coverings, either just to church or all the time and some who would say no trousers for women.

I feel very thankful that the tradition I belong to does not put any restrictions on what I wear but if I am honest if I turned up in a bikini for church there would be a furore and someone would find me a coat to put on!