White shirts and the sacrament

Post by **_Mercury** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:59 pm

I was contemplating on another thread the stupid, pedantic rules Mormons use to allign themselves as little hitlers in a ward. Particularly what comes to mind is the supposed white shirt and tie requirement embedded in every ward I attended.

I figure it might have been written down somewhere but am unclear, as I have never seen this spelled out specifically in any documentation I have received.

Post by **_John Larsen** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 3:34 pm

See Boyd Packer’s “The Unwritten Order of Things”
http://emp.byui.edu/huffr/The%20Unwritt ... Packer.htm

This will also explain why it is not written anywhere.

or

Tom Perry’s “Raising the Bar”:
Click here

or

Paula Hunt’s “Moleni’s White Shirt”: (aimed at children)
Click here

Post by **_Sethbag** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:26 pm

OMG, that white shirt story just makes me want to hurl. Great, the kid worked hard, and that's to be commended, but for a white shirt, so he could dress "properly" to respect his priesthood? There is absolutely no scriptural justification for this deification of the white shirt. It's almost like the white shirt has become a sort of de facto uniform. This calls to my mind images of Hitler Jugend before and during WWII, 12 or 13-year old boys with their uniforms.

Uniforms are powerful tools, and it troubles me to see the leadership of the LDS church encouraging the development of de facto uniforms for men and boys, as if to cement and support their place of pre-eminence in Mormondom that is due to their penishood. As if the Mormon missionary uniform wasn't enough, now it's extended to young boys and older, post-mission men too.

I've been wearing colored shirts to church for years. I recall when my wife actually started an argument with me over a yellow shirt I had been wearing. She was afraid I wasn't being respectful by rejecting the white shirt cultural mandate. She wanted me to just blend in with all the other guys, and was angry with me for being "rebellious" by wearing a shirt that was actually (gasp!) colored. What a complete joke! by the way, when I attend SM nowadays I'm wearing a nice maroon shirt that my wife got me. I guess my choice of shirt color is the least of her worries nowadays with respect to me and the church. ;-)

Post by **_The Dude** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:54 pm

Sethbag wrote:I guess my choice of shirt color is the least of her worries nowadays with respect to me and the church. ;-)

Even so, she can tell primary children how it all started with the shirts. The story of "Sethbag's yellow shirt" could become the counterpoint to the story about the kid who wanted a white shirt to respect the priesthood. Look what happened to Sethbag, kiddies. Now he's a bitter apostate. Now he's the boogey man.

Post by **_John Larsen** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:57 pm

I found that not wearing a white shirt was a great way to avoid callings.

My parents lived in a ward that had a bishop who wore white shirts and sports coats. It was a regular topic of discussion among the members. He hasn't received any further promotions in the Church, so maybe the talk was true.

Post by **_skippy the dead** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:08 pm

I can't remember if it was in the CHI or in an apostle's talk/article, but I thought it was specifically stated that there should not be a uniform for the deacons passing the sacrament. Seems like requiring a white shirt = uniform.

I still cannot grok why a white shirt is more righteous/reverent/respectful than a pinstriped or <gasp> colored shirt. No explanation seems to make sense.

Post by **_SatanWasSetUp** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:12 pm

Somehow, the white-shirt requirement to pass sacrament is solid LDS doctrine, but the location of the Hill Comorah in New York is not doctrine. The Book of Mormon geography is unclear. Whether God is an exalted man or not is something that nobody really knows and is only speculated on. But white shorts as a requirement to pass the sacrament, everyone seems to agree with that.

Post by **_Dr. Shades** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:13 pm

Sethbag wrote:I recall when my wife actually started an argument with me over a yellow shirt I had been wearing. She was afraid I wasn't being respectful by rejecting the white shirt cultural mandate. She wanted me to just blend in with all the other guys, and was angry with me for being "rebellious" by wearing a shirt that was actually (gasp!) colored.

You essentially told us how your wife feels about it now, but what was your rejoinder, and how did the argument end, at the time?

Post by **_RockHeaded** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:19 pm

This dress code thing is kind of funny, but I do remember my mother wanting myself and sisters to dress nice for church, out of respect to God because we were visiting His house. This makes sense to me? Just wanted to say that :)

But really what sparks my interest is what kids do to get out of church. My roommate hated going to church (he was raised LDS). So he grew his hair out and died it orange. He had ORANGE dredlocks, I can't imagine what the bishop was thinking when he saw him walk in. His mother told him he couldn't go to church with his hair like that. That ended his church going days lol.

RockHeaded

Post by **_Sethbag** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:21 pm

The Dude wrote:
Sethbag wrote:I guess my choice of shirt color is the least of her worries nowadays with respect to me and the church. ;-)

Even so, she can tell primary children how it all started with the shirts. The story of "Sethbag's yellow shirt" could become the counterpoint to the story about the kid who wanted a white shirt to respect the priesthood. Look what happened to Sethbag, kiddies. Now he's a bitter apostate. Now he's the boogey man.

That's great! And if we wanted to tie this in with Keith Hilbig, maybe we could mail him my story, complete with the bit about my non-pointy tie that I wore when I was serving under Hilbig in the Swiss Mission!

You see, I had this cotton knit tie that had a squared-off end, rather than the traditional pointy end. It was also a red color with little flecks of black in it. Due, I suppose, to the non-pointy end, I was actually pulled aside by a teacher in the MTC and informed that someone in my district felt it was not appropriate for a missionary to wear such a tie, and I was asked not to wear it again while in the MTC. I tell you what, I obeyed that because I sort of had to, but that tie ended up being my "mission tie" and I wore it probably 80-90% of the rest of my entire mission.

So Keith Hilbig presided over my missionary efforts while I wore that non-standard tie, which can only be seen as the pre-cursor to the "rebelliousness" that later led to the yellow shirt (and the various blue shirts and whatnot that I've had over the years as well) incident, which was clearly a milestone on my road to apostasy.