This may come off as a rant to some people, but that’s because it is a rant. Recently I went to a wedding at a Catholic church. Nothing super exciting or especially interesting until I happened to notice something. One of the family members of the bride happened to be wearing one of the shortest dresses I had ever seen someone read whether in or out of a church. Now as someone who’s not religious, the length of the dress being worn in a church didn’t bother me, what bothered me is the situation in which she was wearing said dress. It made it even worse when, at about three quarters of the way through the wedding ceremony, she is invited to the pupil to read a couple of passages out of the bible. One of these verses which she read happens to deal with modesty of all things. It was at this moment that I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit and was immediately and forcefully jabbed in the ribs but multiple women sitting around me. Maybe nobody else happened to catch the amount of irony that was flowing through the room at the time? Either way, it just started making me think about weddings in general, especially religious weddings.
“I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes.”
1 Timother 2:9 (NIV)
It is because of Bible verses such as this one that has caused me to giggle when I go to weddings, especially very lavish Christian weddings. I come from the school of thought that if you are going to talk to the talk, you should probably also walk the walk. However, you don’t often see much of that coming from religiously backed wedding ceremonies. Sure, there is the traditional changing of the guard from father of the bride to the groom, there is the tradition of brides wearing white as a sign of purity, etc. But how many of these should truly apply to modern weddings? Take brides wearing white for instance. Does anyone bat an eye when a bride isn’t a virgin, yet is still wearing white? The whole point of the white wedding dress is supposed to be a physical manifestation of the bride’s purity in mind, body and soul. Yet if you think of it, most brides probably only fit one of these descriptors. There or great numbers of people being married every day who have had unclean thoughts or are going into their marriages not being a virgin, so should they still wear the white? Most people would say it’s their choice. However, if they are having a Christian wedding, should they not actually follow the teachings of their religion?
Just food for thought.
Higher Primate 