Editorial Notes

This strip was inspired by a real-life event that occurred many years ago (way back in the 1980's). I know this happened once, and I would not be surprised if something like this has happened many times in many different places.

It was a sweltering hot summer day, in a city where the residents are not accustomed to sweltering hot summer days. Needless to say, people were looking for ways to stay cool. One way to stay cool is to wear as little clothing as possible while still looking presentable.

One Sunday, a leader at a certain church announced that shorts were not appropriate attire to wear during worship service, and promptly banned them from all assemblies. We’re not talking about short shorts or tight shorts, but any and all shorts. This applied to both morning and evening assemblies. This included the type of shorts that go all the way down to the knee; the type of shorts that men wear to the golf course.

Apparently, to some, there was something between the knee and ankle that was inappropriate to expose during "worship service". Something, however, that could be left uncovered even in conservative secular society during unusually warm weather.

Why? I don’t know for sure, but it might have had something to do with the possibility of errant lustful thoughts occurring during "worship service". The problem wasn’t that people were dressing inappropriately or provocatively in general, but just that they were dressing inappropriately for "worship". Are certain thoughts so sinful during that all-important 90 minutes Sunday morning, or 60 minutes Sunday evening, but not so sinful if they occur anywhere else? It wasn’t a person’s soul that this ban on shorts was trying to protect, but a church’s "worship service".

I would have been much more impressed if these same leaders had addressed the issue of lustful thoughts in a way that applied to life and to our relationship with God.

Besides, how can one’s lower leg be seen during worship anyway? During worship we all sit in rows facing forward and all we can really see is the pulpit and the back of the head in front of us. Getting a look at the lower part of someone’s leg, covered or not, takes a lot of work during a worship service. So really, the unseemly lower leg is something one is likely to see before or after the assembly, but not while it is in progress.

Oh well, rules are rules.