Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young,
but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
(1 Timothy 4:12)

By Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
October 11, 2002

(AgapePress) - The wife of a well-known Baptist seminary president is speaking out against the kind of clothing many Christian women are wearing today, including what she sees in some churches on Sunday mornings.

Mary Mohler is married to Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and frequent guest on many national television talk shows. To put it bluntly, Mrs. Mohler believes there are certain clothes Christian women should never wear -- ever.

Baptist Press reports that whether it be miniskirts, hip-hugger jeans, or skin-tight shorts, Mrs. Mohler believes all should be avoided because Christian women have an obligation to dress modestly and reflect holiness. She says the world's attitude toward fashion should not be the Church's.

"The [world's] attitude is if you've got it, flaunt it," Mrs. Mohler told a gathering of women late last month, where she spoke about the biblical view of modesty. "Leave as little to the imagination as possible. Regenerate women, I don't believe, leave home with this attitude. We seek to live godly, holy lives."

At the risk of being labeled an "authoritarian parent," Mrs. Mohler provided a laundry list, so to speak, of clothing items she said her daughter will never be permitted to wear: halter tops, tube tops, skin-tight skirts, low-cut shirts, midriff-exposing shirts, miniskirts, short shorts -- and anything from Abercrombie & Fitch.

Parents, she told the gathering, have a challenging job in directing, teaching, and nurturing their children. And while she acknowledges that all parents want their children to love them and think the best of them, Mrs. Mohler said when it comes to providing direction in choices of clothing for their teenage daughters, parents need to set aside the sometimes conflicting concerns about being a "friend" or a "parent."

"We've got to teach them from the early days that they have to stand for something -- or they're going to fall for everything," she said.

Mrs. Mohler also addressed the effect immodest clothing has on men, saying Christian women need to help their male counterparts maintain pure thoughts. "We must remember what battles men face to stay pure as they are stimulated visually by women," she said. "They should never have it flaunted in their faces -- and to have it done at church is an abomination."

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