Expert: Griff Ruby - 5/29/2008

Question
Dear Griff,

                    I have a couple of questions Is The Modern Tongues Movement Biblical?" And also Why do Muslim women wear veils and Christian women dont? That is puzzling me because doesnt the bible refer us women to wear veils?

My last question is Should Women Wear Pants? I want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or pearls.

Should christian women wear skirts/dresses or does it matter? ... I've seen many, many skirts/dresses that are far less modest than slacks/jeans. Skirt slits should be modest; open slits should be no higher than the top of the knee.

Should women really not ever wear pants, is it really sin, ... and at least make a point to wear a modest dress to church. So why is it that I see many wome and girls wear pants? And not dresses?

Answer
The "Modern Tongues Movement" by its very nature can be neither Catholic nor Biblical.  Such things were started (invented) by certain Protestants in 1901, and it is only in 1967 that certain fallen-away Catholics began to join in and attempt to create a kind of "Catholic charismaticism" to tickle their own ears with.  Such things have been seen before in bygone centuries and invariably the Church condemned such practices and groups.
I know that some seem to have the fantasy of somehow triggering "a new Pentecost" but everyone should know that the real event of Pentecost was not the tongues of fire or tongues spoken or any other mere "sign or wonder," but the inauguration of holy mother Church Herself.  In short, the cry for "a new Pentecost" is a cry for "a new Church," because they don't like the old one and think they can make a better Church than God did.
This is not to deny that there are miracles, or that it is legitimate to pray for miracles, expecting God to provide them, or even that a miraculous ability for people of different languages to communicate the Gospel one to another might occur on occasion (as God sees fit), but the attempt to squeeze out miracles where there are none, to whip up emotion for the express purpose of impairing the reason of the people and rendering them credulous enough to believe in fictitious "miracles" that possess no miraculous content whatsoever, these practices have invariably been condemned, certainly by the real Church, if not by the new "Conciliar church."
Christian women are expected to wear head covering when in Church (and always welcome and encouraged (mildly) to do so at other times), but few follow this Biblical practice.  You need to visit a traditional chapel to see how Catholic women dress and comport themselves for Mass on a massive scale, and that should be your cue.  The Muslims come from a land where such a thing is law, and law has a way of spreading a practice far wider than mere rightness would.  It just does, a measure of our human imperfection.
Further details on what sort of dressing is appropriate is in the fine book "Dressing with Dignity" by Colleen Hammond.  As to why so many do not follow such advice, this gets into the question as to why people sin and the fallen condition of humankind and so forth.