I just read another post and it made me recall an incident when I was an [adult] Aaronic p/hood holder, shortly after converting.... maybe 18 or 19.

I was asked to pass sacrament this particular Sunday and so had made a special effort of getting my whole uniform together.... black suit, white shirt, tie and I had even shined my shoes specially for the occasion.

I went and sat on the front row - willing and eager - but before the service even began, the bishop came and asked me to step down and asked to speak to me after the service.

I spent an hour wondering what special info the Bishop had on me.... did he know about the bottle of cola I'd drunk? was it the bad thoughts I had had, when *Wonder Woman* was on TV?

I approached the bishop after the service and he said.
"I am sorry I could not let you pass sacrament, I don't think your Tie is very reverent"
My *irreverant tie* had a picture of cartoon dog 'Snoopy' dancing.

Fool that I was, I threw away the tie and only ever wore plain ones after that

Snoopy is usually happy. Can't have happy, can we? Next thing you know folks might start enjoying life or something silly like that.

GOOD!!

I have one. I was baptized in my teens and didn't know much about the specifics of LDS modesty. I didn't pick up on the NO SHOULDERS ALLOWED rule.

The members were pretty laid back about until I was actually dunked under water. Once I came up and changed into my cute baptism dress, one of the moms of a friend of mine made another girl go home to get me a cardigan to put over my dress because it didn't have sleeves and would no longer be "appropriate" for a new member of the church.

I was really embarrassed and uncomfortable with it but I figured they knew the rules and I didn't so I better listen. *forehead smack* So much for having nice shoulders and a fit body. This was SEVERAL years before ever covenanting to wear garments too. I had to totally gut my wardrobe and start over to fit in with the other LDS girls.

If you've seen pictures of Filipino leaders of any sort, even LDS ones, you'll see them wearing those formal dress shirts with big collars and no tie. When I was serving in Okinawa, AF people often had to do temp duty in the Philippines, and many would bring those shirts back and wear them to church. Plus members of Filipino origin would always wear them. I returned with one once and wore it to an Elders' quorum function. I was called into the branch president's office the following Sunday. He sheepishly told me that the new district president had seen me in the shirt and told him to tell me that the DP "never wants to see you in that shirt again."

Life was hell for the next three years until that DP left. He dictated that men always wear a white shirt and tie, and EVEN INVESTIGATORS WOULD BE ASKED TO LEAVE if they were not wearing one. Women had to wear full-length skirts and dresses. The many military members from Hawaii were told to never--ever--say "A-looooo-HA! again when beginning a talk or testimony.

Like the foolish sheep we were, we just did it, except for the Hawaiian members who just walked away en masse.

I thought the entire you're speaking of from the Philippines, is the most formal thing a Filipino can wear. I thought it was like a tuxedo here in the United States. I know the Filipinos uses a attire to get married in. Just called stupidity and prejudice.

Earned her a chewing out from the loser bishop. Even in high school, my sister was very busty and very self-conscious about it. When prom time came around, she went shopping with my mom, but every dress she found was cut way too low for someone with her generous cleavage and she wouldn't wear any of them. Finally, they found her a very high dress that was off the shoulders. But it didn't cut down and show her boobs, and a ruffle around the neckline more or less covered up her shoulders. It was a very modest dress, for a prom dress. However, the bishop really let her have it - in front of her friends in Sunday school -for setting a bad example by showing her shoulders. Especially, he said, because she was student body president and a lot of kids looked up to her. My sister was pretty upset but my mom told the bishop he was out of line and he had no right to embarrass my sister in front of her SS class, when she was trying to BE modest, not the opposite.

My mom can be a crazy TBM but once in a while when a bishop is being a jackwagon, she has no problem straightening out the Lord's anointed. If the crazy bishop I have now had ever met her, he never would have messed with me - figuring correctly that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and the women in our family stand up for ourselves just fine.

Does it mean all those sacraments weren't valid?

I live near a mormon church and occasionally see people coming or going. The females all have dresses way past their knees and the males all have while shirts, dark ties, and dark pants (funeral wear).

Thirty years ago girls could wear much shorter skirts (although not mini-skirts) and guys could wear colored shirts.

Have the rules gotten stricter? Why?

I have one that will knock all your socks off! :P

I was going thru this rough time trying to process my childhood etc. I was too raw to worry about how i looked at church. So i didn't wear my 'mormon smile'. One day while in the bishop's office he told me that i 'wasn't happy enough'... And that he was worried about me. Excuse me, but some of life just isn't smiled thru! I wish i'd have said that to him at the time; mostly i just tried to keep my emotions in check until i could get out of his office. PS> this 'concern' of his led me to being kicked out of the nursery because i didn't have a good enough testimony...for the 2 yr olds, i guess! Being treated so badly sure didn't improve my testimony any!

PS. I was the woman who wore pants to church and didn't care less what anyone thot. But one Sunday this same man, now in the Stake as counselor or on the dry counsil or some such thing, took the opportunity one sunday to reem those who didn't come to church in a skirt or dress. Guess who he was talking about?? I sat there just floored for a few minutes. My MIL had just passed away that week and here i was getting ripped at church. So i stood up and took my pants out of the chapel. Too bad i didn't see it as the perfect opportunity to quit church altogether. The next Sunday me and my pants were back in the building. Later, more women started wearing pants to church. Not that i was trying to get anyone to do so. I was just wearing what was comfortable to me.

Don't you love how they do crap like that?

I was introduced to the stake president who happened to be the institute teacher. He shook my hand and immediately said he did not regonize me from institute, then asked for my age. I said 35 and I'm single ( I look about 22) then he was so dissappointed and said that he was going to invite me to institute but I'm too old so forget about it.

I have shared this previously, but will do so again. My wife's sister and BIL were mission president in a European country. The first week SIL went to church she was appalled that women wore pants (nice pant suits) to church. After a few weeks of seeing this, along with the very low attendance, she realized that she did not care any longer about the attire. She was just glad anyone came to church.

Not a mormon-related story but I love it, so I’ll tell it again.

My sister-in-law was visiting her mother who was a devout Baptist. It happened to be Easter weekend and her mother asked her to come to the Easter service. SIL hadn’t brought anything church appropriate to wear and tried to beg off but her mom insisted she should come in whatever she had.

Well, sure enough, some old biddy made a pointed comment “you’d think that people would dress up a little on Easter of all days! Haarumppp!” To which SIL’s mother replied “you’d think people would show a little Christian kindness in welcoming a stranger on Easter of all days, too!”

When working an office job for the church, ladies have to wear skirts, nylons, and closed toe shoes.

One lady who worked in the office that I worked at for 20 years wore dress pants. A new director was promoted in, and he enforced the skirt rule, where the old director didn't.

In protest, she wore a skirt over her pants, wearing both at the same time. She did this for about 2 months, then quit.

I admired her rebellious "spirit". She was probably in her sixties.