Catholic Modesty

[Paul]

What you're preaching is cultural relativism, the idea that right and wrong are determined by cultural beliefs rather than by divine commandments. Just because something is accepted in a culture does not make it right. Modern Western culture accepts the slaughter of children in the womb, but anyone who is in favor of such horrors automatically excommunicates himself from the Church.

The idea of nudity as bad dates all the way back to the first sin. You're right that before the first sin, Adam and Eve didn't need clothes. But we live in a sinful world. Have you not read that David was overcome with lust when he saw Bathsheba bathing on her roof? Yes, he needed to control himself, but she could have helped. We're supposed to bear one another's burdens, after all.

Also, I'm not so sure we should be having "devil's advocates" on a forum designed for people to support one another against that same Devil.

[Brigid]

I think the only way we can really learn our true thoughts is by having a/some devil's advocates! And to "hear" other's posts, even if they are different from ours even though I can see your concern with that thought.

[Paul]

From everything that has been said on the TV thread, it follows that there are ideas to which we should not even expose ourselves (no pun intended).

I have been tempted away from Church teaching through un-Catholic ideas being put forth by so-called "Catholics." For example, I was led to question devotion to Mary and the saints by Catholics telling outright lies about this practice. (I will not repeat them here, to spare everyone here from what I went through.) I believed them, and as a result, I rejected the practice altogether for about four months, and I started to question Church authority to justify what I was doing. To justify this questioning, I started to think I knew more than all the saints and popes who advocated devotion to Mary and the saints--indeed, I took all the words of saints and popes as no more than just another opinion if what they said wasn't in the Bible or the Catechism. (Talk about pride!) In short, I was getting dangerously close to the temptation to reject the Church. But God, in His infinite mercy, led me to see the error of what I was doing. (These days, my relationship with our Blessed Mother is stronger than ever.)

For this reason, I stick mostly to the Bible, Catechism, and spiritual classics. Those are all I need anyway.

Just as we should be modest in our clothing because many are tempted to lust by partial nudity, we should also be modest in our speech so we don't tempt others to rebel.

[Paul]

Before this turns into a full-blown argument, let me quote from the moderator thread:

As always this forum's policy is the saints are the ones who are correct, their consensus is to be followed, and what a relief such a good and beautiful policy exists to follow. How safe it is, and how different it is from those who interpret one way or another, and perhaps in their interpretations, interpret away from God and Heaven. And we have to keep on guard for deception by the world, and give their answers to its 'pop culture', whether it's 'pop apologetics' or a facade of Catholicism, or simply the usual enabling low standards that cause so many to be aimless and lost and not even know why.

[Shin]

'I always strove to mortify my sense of hearing. Thus, I took no pleasure in useless conversations or idle words. I couldn't abide or tolerate uncharitable conversations; if someone started one, I would either leave, change the subject, or frown in disapproval. I also disliked listening to conversations about food, drink, money, worldly things, or politics. I didn't care for reading newspapers and would say that I preferred reading a chapter from the Holy Bible, in which I would read the truth, to reading newspapers, which are ordinarily full of lies and trivia.'

St. Anthony Mary Claret

[CyrilSebastian]

                               I have attended a Roman Catholic Church where the Tridentine Latin Mass is celebrated.         
                               At this church there is a strict dress code.                 
                                It was nice to see so many gentlemen wearing a suit and tie.

[Shin]

When other folks commonly dress well, it helps a person the better to do too.