Recently I attended a Saturday night session of Stake Conference with members of my local congregation. This meeting only happens once every six months, when a handful of close by congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meet together to hear direction and counsel from presiding church leaders in the area. For the special occasion, I decided to deviate from the cultural norm of wearing a white button down shirt with a tie to church meetings, instead opting to wear a purple button down shirt with no tie.
You would think this wouldn’t have any effect on me whatsoever. After all it is just a shirt. Before I even talked to anybody, I felt a bit off. I’ve always worn a white button down shirt to church events just like everybody else. I had never worn anything else and rarely did other members of my local congregation here at BYU. I felt unworthy to be there, matter out of place, and lacking in my faith. Later I had someone jokingly tell me that I was sporting the “less-active look”, basically saying that I was wearing something that only an outsider that has not become accustomed to Latter-day Saint practices would wear.
So why exactly did my fellow Latter-day Saints and I feel so passionately about my purple shirt? How did it impact my religious experience at Stake Conference? Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosopher and cultural theorist, has an interesting idea that might explain other people’s reactions and my own as well to such a trivial thing as my purple shirt. He argues that we overemphasize the role of scriptures and doctrine in understanding religious identity while underestimating the impact of culture and social consciousness. Appiah doesn’t argue that doctrine is meaningless or that any member of a religious community can do whatever he or she wants; instead, he argues that a church’s doctrine cannot be separated from the cultural understandings of a religion’s practitioners. Doctrine, for him, is just words on a page until something acts upon it according to their own or another person’s unique interpretation.
Take my purple shirt as an example. There is no doctrine written in the Latter-day Saint scriptures that male members of the Lord’s church cannot come to church services unless they wear a white-collared, button down dress shirt. This is simply a cultural practice many Latter-day Saints have that deals with purity and ordinances. Male priesthood holders are required to be pure from sin and spiritually worthy in order to officiate in ordinances such as the sacrament which is given at weekly Sunday worship services to symbolize our covenant to follow Christ always. This is the doctrine. Because white is the color in Western civilization that symbolizes purity, culturally, male priesthood holders often wear white shirts to show their purity. There is no doctrine in the scriptures stating that white shirts are mandatory; nevertheless, male members wear white shirts to church whether or not they are planning to bless or pass the sacrament bread and water to the congregation in order to outwardly show their personal commitment to stay worthy and follow God’s commandments.
Why does this matter? It is just a shirt right? Why care about the difference between culture and doctrine? The problem begins when members of the church inflict their own cultural and personal views of the gospel of Christ onto others. As a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I have seen the conflation of doctrine and culture drive away those investigating the church as well as the members who have not yet found their place in the Lord’s church or a committed testimony of the Savior’s teachings. Stop drinking Coca-Cola, caffeine is against the Word of Wisdom! Don’t wear your green shirt to church! I don’t want to catch you watching R-rated movies again! While many of these guidelines have been adopted by members as results of personal or cultural circumstances, we can and should not inflict our own personal and cultural viewpoints of the gospel onto others. We must each make our own choices and set our own standards, never looking down on others for faithfully interpreting the application of a church doctrine differently this us.
We see the danger of pushing our own personal and cultural viewpoints not supported by or not explicitly written as church doctrine in the teachings of Paul. Paul saw many of the congregations he baptized fall prey to contentions between church members on cultural points. Paul writes to the Galatians that “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from… Christ unto another gospel which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:6-7). Some members in Galatia began to preach that all converts, including Gentiles, must be circumcised even after the twelve made it church doctrine that circumcision is not required for Gentile converts (see Acts 15). Being born Jewish himself, Paul taught that the Jewish cultural custom to circumcise males was burdensome to the church because only Christ could save them, not circumcision. He taught the Galatian members that “ye have been called unto liberty” (Gal. 5:13) and exhorted them to not be in bondage to rules but seek to live the gospel of Christ using the Spirit to guide them in setting their own personal standards.
Every time we pass off our own culture’s or personal ideas as doctrine we risk the chance of placing an unneeded burden on other members. Young women who were taught growing up that women’s place was exclusively in the home have felt ostracized and judged as they have worked outside the home. Disabled young men who were taught that a two year proselyting mission was the only way to serve the Lord have felt unworthy and unwanted when unable to serve in this specific capacity. Visitors to our church who have been turned away for not wearing proper attire have been denied learning more about Christ’s glorious gospel.
Many non-members, youth, and new members have been treated poorly, shunned, judged, and turned away from the church by well meaning members who preach their personal or cultural interpretations as doctrine. Much like Christians advocating the practice of circumcision in Paul’s day, we rely upon symbols and cultural practices to evaluate others’ as well as our own spiritual commitment and worthiness, “for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). We should not seek to judge a person’s worthiness, intentions, or character based upon whether they fit into our cultural codes and understandings. We must each maintain the spiritual maturity to understand what path we should take in the gospel while allowing others to make their own informed, spiritual decisions.
Note: Some American born church leaders have suggested, when speaking to American Latter-day Saint audiences, that it is best to wear white when passing or blessing the sacrament. No such distinction is made for women or males that do not participate in the officiation of the sacrament. See: http://www.ldsliving.com/White-Dress-Shirts-for-Men-What-the-Church-Has-Actually-Said/s/87765
You would think this wouldn’t have any effect on me whatsoever. After all it is just a shirt. Before I even talked to anybody, I felt a bit off. I’ve always worn a white button down shirt to church events just like everybody else. I had never worn anything else and rarely did other members of my local congregation here at BYU. I felt unworthy to be there, matter out of place, and lacking in my faith. Later I had someone jokingly tell me that I was sporting the “less-active look”, basically saying that I was wearing something that only an outsider that has not become accustomed to Latter-day Saint practices would wear.
So why exactly did my fellow Latter-day Saints and I feel so passionately about my purple shirt? How did it impact my religious experience at Stake Conference? Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosopher and cultural theorist, has an interesting idea that might explain other people’s reactions and my own as well to such a trivial thing as my purple shirt. He argues that we overemphasize the role of scriptures and doctrine in understanding religious identity while underestimating the impact of culture and social consciousness. Appiah doesn’t argue that doctrine is meaningless or that any member of a religious community can do whatever he or she wants; instead, he argues that a church’s doctrine cannot be separated from the cultural understandings of a religion’s practitioners. Doctrine, for him, is just words on a page until something acts upon it according to their own or another person’s unique interpretation.
Take my purple shirt as an example. There is no doctrine written in the Latter-day Saint scriptures that male members of the Lord’s church cannot come to church services unless they wear a white-collared, button down dress shirt. This is simply a cultural practice many Latter-day Saints have that deals with purity and ordinances. Male priesthood holders are required to be pure from sin and spiritually worthy in order to officiate in ordinances such as the sacrament which is given at weekly Sunday worship services to symbolize our covenant to follow Christ always. This is the doctrine. Because white is the color in Western civilization that symbolizes purity, culturally, male priesthood holders often wear white shirts to show their purity. There is no doctrine in the scriptures stating that white shirts are mandatory; nevertheless, male members wear white shirts to church whether or not they are planning to bless or pass the sacrament bread and water to the congregation in order to outwardly show their personal commitment to stay worthy and follow God’s commandments.
Why does this matter? It is just a shirt right? Why care about the difference between culture and doctrine? The problem begins when members of the church inflict their own cultural and personal views of the gospel of Christ onto others. As a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I have seen the conflation of doctrine and culture drive away those investigating the church as well as the members who have not yet found their place in the Lord’s church or a committed testimony of the Savior’s teachings. Stop drinking Coca-Cola, caffeine is against the Word of Wisdom! Don’t wear your green shirt to church! I don’t want to catch you watching R-rated movies again! While many of these guidelines have been adopted by members as results of personal or cultural circumstances, we can and should not inflict our own personal and cultural viewpoints of the gospel onto others. We must each make our own choices and set our own standards, never looking down on others for faithfully interpreting the application of a church doctrine differently this us.
We see the danger of pushing our own personal and cultural viewpoints not supported by or not explicitly written as church doctrine in the teachings of Paul. Paul saw many of the congregations he baptized fall prey to contentions between church members on cultural points. Paul writes to the Galatians that “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from… Christ unto another gospel which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:6-7). Some members in Galatia began to preach that all converts, including Gentiles, must be circumcised even after the twelve made it church doctrine that circumcision is not required for Gentile converts (see Acts 15). Being born Jewish himself, Paul taught that the Jewish cultural custom to circumcise males was burdensome to the church because only Christ could save them, not circumcision. He taught the Galatian members that “ye have been called unto liberty” (Gal. 5:13) and exhorted them to not be in bondage to rules but seek to live the gospel of Christ using the Spirit to guide them in setting their own personal standards.
Every time we pass off our own culture’s or personal ideas as doctrine we risk the chance of placing an unneeded burden on other members. Young women who were taught growing up that women’s place was exclusively in the home have felt ostracized and judged as they have worked outside the home. Disabled young men who were taught that a two year proselyting mission was the only way to serve the Lord have felt unworthy and unwanted when unable to serve in this specific capacity. Visitors to our church who have been turned away for not wearing proper attire have been denied learning more about Christ’s glorious gospel.
Many non-members, youth, and new members have been treated poorly, shunned, judged, and turned away from the church by well meaning members who preach their personal or cultural interpretations as doctrine. Much like Christians advocating the practice of circumcision in Paul’s day, we rely upon symbols and cultural practices to evaluate others’ as well as our own spiritual commitment and worthiness, “for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). We should not seek to judge a person’s worthiness, intentions, or character based upon whether they fit into our cultural codes and understandings. We must each maintain the spiritual maturity to understand what path we should take in the gospel while allowing others to make their own informed, spiritual decisions.
Note: Some American born church leaders have suggested, when speaking to American Latter-day Saint audiences, that it is best to wear white when passing or blessing the sacrament. No such distinction is made for women or males that do not participate in the officiation of the sacrament. See: http://www.ldsliving.com/White-Dress-Shirts-for-Men-What-the-Church-Has-Actually-Said/s/87765
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