Our family recently received a summer camp flyer from a well-known Christian college.  Included in the flyer was the camp's dress code:

Women should wear modest knee-length skirts.  For sporting activities, culottes or knee-length walking shorts that are full may be worn; please no slacks, jeans, or midriff tops.  Dresses are needed for performances and church services.  Swimsuits should be modest and one piece (no French-cuts).

We were taken aback as we read the dress code and cannot understand the standard upon which the code was written.  Moreover, we fail to understand the immense variance of clothing requirements within the code.

Knee-length skirts are modest attire only as long as a woman is in a standing position.  A woman in a knee-length skirt will discover in most instances that as soon as she is seated the skirt no longer covers her knees...which means she will find herself tugging and readjusting with every move she makes, lest she expose her thighs and beyond to anyone seated directly or indirectly across the room from her.  At best, a knee-length skirt will demand of a woman that she give constant attention to the positioning of that garment when she's seated, and all is lost (or exposed) if she fails to perfectly stoop rather than bend over to retrieve something from the floor.

I don't know what design constitutes "full" knee-length walking shorts.  I do know that walking shorts are designed like pants.  While seated in my dentist's office, a woman wearing culottes walked toward the exit.  As she walked through the door, I was embarrassed for her when I saw that the back fit of these culottes was such that her bottom was clearly defined...and it was obvious that the cut of this garment was not sufficient to "hang".  It was, instead, probably causing her some discomfort.  It was neither a pretty nor a modest sight.

But the questions I would most like to ask about the dress code are, Why are skirts mandatory attire in some instances and shorts or culottes ("pants") allowed in others?  If shorts and culottes are modest, feminine attire, why are they not acceptable at all times and events in the camp?

Dresses are the specified garments for performances and church services.  What standard or criterion was used for making this a part of the dress code?  Are dresses God's "best" for women's attire?  Does God want our best only during performances and at church services?  Is this merely a man (or woman's) personal preference?  Does God have a standard?

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD thy God. Deuteronomy 22:5

The abomination it is for a woman to wear pants (that which pertaineth unto a man) equals the abomination it is for a man to wear dresses (a woman's garment). The activities and preachments of the Women's Movement, not Scripture, have given women the ill-conceived notion that pants are acceptable attire for them.

Swimsuits, the flyer says, should be modest and one piece (no French-cuts).  This part of the code was especially disheartening.  What is modest about apparel which is designed in every way as women's underwear?  How much of a woman's body is covered in a swimsuit?  No one -- absolutely no one -- can honestly deny that women's swimsuits are identical to women's undergarments in every way (with the sometimes exception of fabric).  There is no such thing as a "modest swimsuit".  We have been lured by and to the standards of the world--away from the instructions of our Lord.

It unacceptable, even in the world, for a woman to be seen so scantily clad by anyone other than her husband--unless she's bathing in public.  Where did the world get that notion?  Public bathing in a state of near-nudity cannot be pleasing to the Lord.  It cannot.

If I would not wear a specific garment to the grocery store, to the mailbox, to a church service...why would I wear it in another public place?

Ladies, men are responsible for their own thoughts and actions, but so are we responsible for ours.  Romans 14:21 says,  It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.  Matthew 5:27

If the young women attending camp at this Christian college are suitably and righteously attired in swimsuits at the pool, what makes them unsuitably or unrighteously attired in swimsuits at the luncheon table, during a performance, or in a church service?  Upon whose standards was this dress code written?  Surely not upon the standards of modesty set before us by the One True God--the God of the Holy Bible.

This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.  And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.  Mark 7:6,7,9

I don't believe this Christian college is deliberately or willfully leading young women away from God's Word and ways.  I believe they've been deceived in these days when the dress code they designed does appear lofty in comparison with the world's standards.  Nevertheless, it falls far short of God's standard.

Romans 15:4 says, Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning.

We see in the Old Testament God's description of immodesty.  Exodus 28:42 tells us God's design for righteous apparel to be worn by priests. It also gives us a clear depiction of what God considers to be nakedness:

And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach:..."

In addition to this obviously being "God's best", in I Peter, chapter 2, verses 5 and 9, God refers to believers as members of the priesthood.

In Isaiah 47:2,3 God describes nakedness. In God's opinion, an uncovered thigh is nakedness--not "immodesty", but nakedness.

...make bare the leg, uncover the thigh,  ...Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen:

Indeed, we are no longer "under the Law".  We are New Testament saints.  What do we know about our God in these New Testament days--the God of the Bible who defined modesty as written in the Old Testament?

For I am the LORD, I change not;  Malachi 3:6

What God considered to be nakedness in the Old Testament, He still considers to be nakedness today--under the New Covenant; there is no testimony in Scripture of Him changing that standard.

Even the girls with "perfect" figures (and form-fitting pants) would look so much prettier if they were wearing a dress.  Not more "attractive"--prettier, more feminine.  God didn't intend us to "attract" with our bodies:

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; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.  I Timothy 2:9,10

My grandmother and grand aunts never had their legs in pants.  Women's fashions today are perfectly aligned with the fallen nature of our society.  But God calls His people to be different:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;  I Peter 2:9

Many things today are not as they were when Grandmother was alive.  In Grandmother's day Godly women wore feminine, modest apparel -- everywhere.  Godly women didn't gamble.  Godly women didn't go to nightclubs.  Godly women were virgins when they married.  Unwanted babies were killed only under the cover of darkness.  Rock 'n' roll music was the music only of the heathens.  Godly wives were at home rearing their children while their husbands earned a living for the family, and they were satisfied with what their husbands provided, however meager.  We've come a long way...toward Godlessness.

It's not about The Law.

It's about The Love.

Do you love Him?

If ye love me, keep my commandments.  John 14:15

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.  John 14:21

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.  John 14:23

And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Hebrews 5:9

But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7:23

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?  I Peter 4:17

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.  I Corinthians 6:20

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Galatians 6:13,16

It's a peculiar thing, indeed, when a woman does not wear pants.  It has become acceptable in our society for a woman to expose the size and shape of her bottom, be it Barbie-doll-perfect, big and saggy, or something in-between.  God intended us to cover our bodies, to dress modestly, to dress in feminine attire--wearing not that which pertaineth unto the man.  It is a sin for men to lust after the women who are luring them to look by exposing their bodies to the world.

If a woman believes that pants are feminine, modest apparel, she will have no reason to stop wearing them.  Grandmother knew they weren't feminine or modest and had never been--she couldn't make herself want to wear pants.  How things have changed.  How many things have changed.

Are we following the Good Shepherd more closely today?

Are we following the world and its ways?

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