Saige Hatch's Modesty Club

Neal Pollard

A courageous high school freshman, Saige Hatch, has started a "Modesty Club" at her South Pasadena, California, school.  Her move has landed her a national TV interview on Fox News and "prompted city officials to declare December 3-7 Modesty Week in South Pasadena" (via latimesblogs.latimes.com).  Her older brother, McKay, started a "No Cussing Club" at the high school in 2008. It has drawn some negative feedback and even prompted someone to graffiti and egg their father's van and send "nasty messages" on the website (www.modestyclub.com).  However, 17 students have joined the club and signed the club's pledge.  For girls, the pledge asks, "wear shorts and skirts at knee length,” “shirts and dresses that cover my stomach, lower back, breasts and shoulders” and “not ask, persuade, or allow a boy to do anything with me that will jeopardize the code of chastity” (ibid.).  Boys are asked to be neat and clean and respect and honor girls' virtue.  The Fox interview revealed that the Hatch family is religious and the conviction behind the club is that modest dress pleases God and that the inverse is also true: immodest dress displeases God.

Saige did not invent the concept of modest clothing.  God calls for women to so adorn themselves (1 Tim. 2:9-10; 1 Pet. 3:3).  Jesus also warns men against lusting after women (Mat. 5:28-32), and as men are more easily visually stimulated women can greatly aid their battle against such lust by clothing themselves in ways that do not accentuate or reveal their bodies.  Mary Quant, the inventor of the mini-skirt, popularizer of hot pants, and London fashion designer, said her goal in design was "to dress women so men would feel like tearing the wrapping off" (Dougherty, People Weekly, 4/4/88, 108). In Newsweek, she said, "Am I the only woman who has ever wanted to go to bed with a man in the afternoon? Any law-abiding female, it used to be thought, waits until dark. Well, there are lots of girls who do not want to wait. Mini-clothes are symbolic of them" ("Anything Goes: Taboos in Twilight," 11/13/67, 76)(both Quant quotes via Samuel Bacchiocchi, Ph. D., Andrews University, Christian Dress and Adornment, Ch. 3,  via www.biblicalperspectives.com).

Men must also guard against being immodest, dressing in a way that highlights the body at the expense of the inner man.  However, casual observation of advertising, Hollywood offerings, fashion, and retail show a decided slant toward immodest clothing for women more than men.  Surely Christian men and women want all those in the home to promote and protect sexual purity in clothing choices!  Undoubtedly, it is what God wants!