The Bible and the Headlines: News You Can Use

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By David Bachelor, PhD

Pastor, Pearsall 1st Methodist Church

Since school is over in most of the country, last Thursday’s headline in the Chicago Examiner, “No Hoodies. No Do-Rags. No Spaghetti Straps: Chicago Public Schools’ Dress Codes Leave Many Students Feeling Slighted” seemed to be a story that missed its moment. The Examiner investigated the Chicago Public School (CPS) district to see whether local school dress codes reflected CPS policies requiring gender neutrality and non-racial standards for hairstyle and attire. As the headline suggests, the district’s policies are not always adhered to by local school councils. The article notes CPS guidelines allow, “Local School Councils may adopt a dress code policy that forbids students from wearing certain items.” Violators of a school dress code “may be given detentions or excluded from extracurricular activities” and “additional consequences” if their clothing is a distraction to others.

Any child hoping that dress codes stopped at the schoolhouse gate better not visit a Disney theme park this summer. On Sunday the internet trend website Distractify carried the story, “These TikTok Users Got “Dress-Coded” at Disney World (and Didn’t Get Free Shirts).” The article covered a trend among TikTok users who intentionally wore torso revealing clothing so that Disney World personnel would provide Disney t-shirts to cover up. Now guests who come inadequately covered are denied entrance, or if found in the park, are expected to buy a shirt with their own money. The article notes “Disney World ‘reserves the right to deny admission to or remove any person wearing attire that is considered inappropriate or attire that could detract from the experience of other guests.’”

Disney is not the only high profile place where a guest may be expelled for a clothing faux pas. On Saturday the Canadian network Global News reported, ‘It Stings’: Dene Filmmaker Turned Away from Cannes Red Carpet Over Moccasins.” A filmmaker from Canada’s indigenous population was invited to a VIP screening at the Cannes Film Festival. The screening was a black-tie affair. The filmmaker passed through several screening checkpoints while wearing regular shoes. It was only after he swapped his shoes for tribal moccasins that he was escorted out by security personnel.  The filmmaker said, “After being excited for weeks to bring my culture to this red carpet event and to be told ‘get out, this isn’t welcome here’, is something that stings, and it still stings.” He changed back into leather shoes and was able to re-enter the screening.

Jesus reported a story about a dress code violation at a high profile event. In Matthew 22, Jesus told a parable about a king’s wedding feast. In the parable, the invited guests did not come, so the king had his staff compel anyone walking the streets to attend the feast. Jesus said, “When the king went in to meet the guests, he found that one of them wasn’t wearing the right kind of clothes for the wedding. The king asked, ‘Friend, why didn’t you wear proper clothes for the wedding?’ But the guest had no excuse” (Matt 22:11-12). In the parable, this dress-code violator is “tied hand and foot and thrown outside into the dark” (Matt 22:13). Jesus was teaching his disciples about the kingdom of heaven. He concluded his lesson with the statement, “For the good news comes to many, and from those, a smaller number are chosen” (Matt 22:14). Jesus wanted his disciples to know that people do not get to go to heaven on their own terms.

The Chicago Examiner article proved to be appropriately timed. Once school is out, life begins. When life ends, eternity begins. Each phase has its dress codes.