Is it OK to wear an anti-Christian band's shirt to church?

[they don't love you like i love you]

Option 1. Similarly if I had a Christian band's shirt I would never wear it to church, but would to an anti-Christian band's show.

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

No.

God doesn't want his followers being distracted by you making a show of yourself.

[The Mikado]

You wear t-shirts to church?

I'd totally wear "free Palestine" stuff to a synagogue, though.

[they don't love you like i love you]

You wear t-shirts to church?

...

You're surprised? I've posted before about how I go to these liberal hipster churches with a much younger crowd before, you think people are dressing up for places like that?

[Dr. Cynic]

Yeah, sure, why not?

Not as if it's gonna help or hurt you.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

To troll, or for some other reason?

[they don't love you like i love you]

To troll, or for some other reason?

Because I like the band, wear the shirt regularly, and usually just wear the first shirt I pull out of my clean laundry basket every day which in this case happened to be that one.

So why would I never wear a Christian band's shirt to church? It sort of feels like being "that guy" and wearing the shirt of the band playing when you go see them. Granted the only Christian band I can see myself getting a shirt of is mewithoutYou.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

I'd say it's okay if the other people there are okay with it, which based on what you've said about your church is significantly more likely than the people at my church. Depending on whether the band is just non-Christian or actively anti-Christian, though, we could be venturing into realms of the most abject postmodernity (which isn't necessarily a bad thing!). Also, what is mewithoutYou? Is that some sort of Christian hardcore, and if I so, I never knew there was such a thing.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The only legitimate reason I could see for wearing such a shirt to church would be if your parents are forcing you to go and you do so as a protest.  That said, if parents are forcing children to go to church, I doubt it would be one that would consider T-shirts appropriate attire.

[minionofmidas]

Given that it's unlikely anyone would even notice...

[afleitch]

Why do you divide music into 'Christian' and non/anti-Christian? Music is music.

[John Dibble]

Option 5 - I don't care and the question is stupid.

[King]

Theologians have been debating this for centuries and you think anybody here can find the answer?

[they don't love you like i love you]

Also, what is mewithoutYou? Is that some sort of Christian hardcore, and if I so, I never knew there was such a thing.

Seriously?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_hardcore

I've never got why people think it's so odd are surprised it exists.

mewithoutYou are one of the most influential bands of the last decade for that style, they've been a huge influence on non-Christian bands (like La Dispute, who are very big now), and even Tweed loves them. They're still together but they're playing all sorts of weird experimental folk stuff, not post-hardcore. I remember this guy I briefly worked with wearing their shirt and I was like "you like them?" and he said "Hell yeah, they're probably my favorite band", I don't know if he was Christian but he never struck me as such.

And yeah I mean actually anti-Christian, in that they mock religion and God in their lyrics (or rather the concept of God being atheists.)

The only legitimate reason I could see for wearing such a shirt to church would be if your parents are forcing you to go and you do so as a protest.  That said, if parents are forcing children to go to church, I doubt it would be one that would consider T-shirts appropriate attire.

What if you just like the band and wear the shirt regularly anyway as I noted?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Also, what is mewithoutYou? Is that some sort of Christian hardcore, and if I so, I never knew there was such a thing.

Seriously?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_hardcore

I've never got why people think it's so odd are surprised it exists.

mewithoutYou are one of the most influential bands of the last decade for that style, they've been a huge influence on non-Christian bands (like La Dispute, who are very big now), and even Tweed loves them. They're still together but they're playing all sorts of weird experimental folk stuff, not post-hardcore. I remember this guy I briefly worked with wearing their shirt and I was like "you like them?" and he said "Hell yeah, they're probably my favorite band", I don't know if he was Christian but he never struck me as such.

Huh, interesting.

In my case I think it's odd because I just have a very limited and circumscribed understanding of what hardcore music is/is like in general.

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Okay, yeah, you're into the desert of the real there (which, again, doesn't have to be a bad thing).

[they don't love you like i love you]

BTW this is the band I'm referring to and their most obvious reference to religion: http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-body-the-blood-the-machine-r847605/review

But as noted, they're more just being mocking and irreverent and it's quite different from say just about any black metal band, granted black metal anti-Christian lyrics are so stupid I can't find them offensive...

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The only legitimate reason I could see for wearing such a shirt to church would be if your parents are forcing you to go and you do so as a protest.  That said, if parents are forcing children to go to church, I doubt it would be one that would consider T-shirts appropriate attire.

What if you just like the band and wear the shirt regularly anyway as I noted?

Call me old-fashioned, but I'd think one should wear something among the nicer items you normally wear to go to church.  (I'm not so old-fashioned as to think you need to have a special go-to-church outfit.)  Somehow, I doubt that a band shirt would qualify among the nicer items in your wardrobe.

[they don't love you like i love you]

The only legitimate reason I could see for wearing such a shirt to church would be if your parents are forcing you to go and you do so as a protest.  That said, if parents are forcing children to go to church, I doubt it would be one that would consider T-shirts appropriate attire.

What if you just like the band and wear the shirt regularly anyway as I noted?

Call me old-fashioned, but I'd think one should wear something among the nicer items you normally wear to go to church.  (I'm not so old-fashioned as to think you need to have a special go-to-church outfit.)  Somehow, I doubt that a band shirt would qualify among the nicer items in your wardrobe.

The only shirts I wear that aren't band shirts are some my work gave out to employees for free and my alma matter university's.

Actually I do have a business casual one my mom gave me last year specifically to wear to my cousin's wedding but it's sitting in my closet somewhere and I'm not going it to dig it out.

[they don't love you like i love you]

The average American has very little respect for themselves or anything else.  I hate how EVERYTHING in our society is up for negotiation.  Everybody exploits the Constitution for their own petty desires.  Just go to the local mall or Walmart.  No one dresses appropriately for anything.

Church to me should be the one place where we should have some values.  There should be some unwritten rules, things that the whole community just abides by.  Every year there is another person that wants the church to change to accommodate their view.  Where does it end?  We now have churches performing gay marriage ceremonies.  I don't have an issue with Walmart or the government recognizing domestic partners and extending benefits.  But I think its absurd that you can have a sermon where the preacher reads a passage from the Bible condemning homosexuality and an hour later you have a homosexual ceremony in the same hall.  The church is turning into a farce.  If I walk into a church it should look different than walking into the mall or Kmart.

Just my opinion.

I don't think any churches performing gay weddings would have sermons condemning homosexuality or reading those passages unless the point is to put them in context and argue that homosexuality isn't really condemned.

Also the type of people who go to the type of church I go to are quite different from people who go to Wal-Mart or are usually in the mall. Now if you said walking into a church should look different from walking into an urban coffeeshop, hipster bar or organic food co-op or something like that it'd be a bit more accurate. Of course the fact that there's a good chance the "church" IS in fact a rented coffeeshop makes it kind of silly to insist on.

[TJ in Oregon]

I don't really like the idea of wearing any band's shirt into a church (for Mass anyway; I'll wear whatever to go to confession) and I almost always wear black dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a belt to church. I was raised to think it was unnacceptable to wear jeans or shorts to church and only do so when I'm traveling and forgot nice clothes. Now, it seems like most people have pretty much stopped caring what they wear to church, including some of my family. If I sit next to my brother in church it's an intersting contrast: me, clean-cut, wearing black and white dress clothes, next to my brother in corduroys, a tight fitting t-shirt, sandals, spiky hair of a different color every time I see him, both ears pierced, and a tattoo.

I can't pretend for an instant I'd even know whether a band is anti-Christian or not and probably wouldn't even notice if someone is wearing a band's shirt at all. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to what other people are wearing because, quite frankly, I don't care. But for me, I cannot imagine ever finding it acceptable to wear a band's shirt to Mass.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Given that it's unlikely anyone would even notice...

yeah, he's making a huge leap in even assuming anyone else had ever heard of the band, much less knew it was an antiChristian band

[they don't love you like i love you]

Given that it's unlikely anyone would even notice...

yeah, he's making a huge leap in even assuming anyone else had ever heard of the band, much less knew it was an antiChristian band

It's not a huge leap to assume that someone else in a building full of hipsters in uptown Minneapolis knows who the Thermals are.

[they don't love you like i love you]

jmfcst, are you one of those people who actually wears a suit and tie to church?

[The Mikado]

T We now have churches performing gay marriage ceremonies.  I don't have an issue with Walmart or the government recognizing domestic partners and extending benefits.  But I think its absurd that you can have a sermon where the preacher reads a passage from the Bible condemning homosexuality and an hour later you have a homosexual ceremony in the same hall. 

Just a question: you're pretty clearly a conservative Christian, but do you think that your religious views should be forced on people like the Unitarian Universalists that might have very different legitimate theological disputes with you regarding gay rights?  It just seems that every time I see someone making this argument they're acting like the UUs and other liberal denominations are performing gay marriages to be accommodating to society rather than accepting that liberal denominations might have legitimate theological disagreements regarding what Christianity is and find performing such ceremonies as the legitimate right thing to do.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Wearing an Ampere shirt now. Anti-religion and anti-nationalism/patriotism all in one package (of course my church is vaguely anti-nationalism/patriotism too but they'll only imply it because there's a bit of a Moderate Hero tendency.)