Home teaching is one of the things that LDS do that I wish every single church did. Basically every member of the church is assigned a home teacher. Home teachers are two priesthood holders (Again, only men can be priesthood holders. I disagree personally but accept the church teaching) who check in on the status of the family. Is anyone sick? Anyone need a priestly blessing? Is there something bad happening in the home (abuse, home falling apart, money woes)?
It's a huge, huge positive. Many church goers only see each other on Sunday, when people are usually acting their best, dressing their best, etc. It's good to dress up in your "Sunday best" but it sometimes doesn't show the entire story. With home teaching you can actually go to the persons home and see how they live.
So anyway, I went out home teaching for the first time in my new ward. My companion (a very nice guy, really hit off with him) wore a blazer and a tie. I wore blue jeans and a t-shirt. I'm not comfortable in suits and formal wear.
Growing up in Catholic schools we had to wear a tie all the time. It was miserable. It also accomplished nothing. People say that having a dress code stops the kids from competing against each other. It doesn't, we competed about who had the better ties, shoes, and shirts all the time. They say having a dress code detracts from dressing provocatively-that's also rubbish. Even though I don't find Catholic school attire sexy many other men do. They (by "they" I mean school officials, parents) say a dress code "brought us together as a school". That's garbage too. It further enhanced cliques and factions because certain kids could get away with dress code violations while others couldn't. In other word, dress codes themselves are mostly useless.We couldn't have long hair, facial hair, earrings, visible tattoos-in other words, conformity was required. Reason #42 high school was the worst time of my life.
The wife of a member (herself not a member) saw what I was wearing and said "You are the first Mormon I know who looks normal." I get that a lot. The church won't change on this issue, but they should. It's not dogma to dress like a mortician or a Wall Street investment banker from the 80's.
My home teaching companion was fine with how I dressed. He made a good point. "I'm just glad we're getting people to go out home teaching again."
Sounds good to me.
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