Once upon a time I read an anecdote (possibly here) about a quasi-famous clergyman who, for his sermon, talked about how he’d been made aware that one of the church members had made a woman unwelcome to the church because she was dressed “inappropriately” and how he charged that church member with praying for the woman who had been sent away for the rest of his/her life because the woman might never again come to church.
It was quite a nice and useful anecdote but I can’t remember enough of the details, including the name of the clergyman, to Google it (if you try to find stories about women and dress for church there are a LOT of hits). Can anyone either provide the story or at least remember the name of the guy in it?
I was living in Dayton Ohio when this incident occurred. Believe it made national headlines at the time.
There was a widely circulated political cartoon about the incident by a guy from the local paper (damn I can’t remember his name, but he was great) that showed the priest yelling “Not in my church!” while standing in from of a statue of Jesus wearing what were basically shorts, can’t seem to find it right now.
Update, I see now that this is sort of the opposite of what you were looking for.
“Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.”
Care to post a summary of what it was about?
Maybe the OP is misremembering this story examined by Snopes.
Pastor Disguises Himself as Homeless Man
Legend: New pastor secretly poses as homeless man, then reveals himself to unsympathetic congregants.
In the story reproduced above, the actor portraying a homeless man is no psychology researcher, however — he’s Jeremiah Steepek, the new head pastor of a very large church. After spending half an hour incognito in his new church prior to services and finding that only a very few congregants would even return his greeting (much less respond to his pleas for money to buy food), he reveals himself to his new flock and delivers to them a lesson in Christian compassion.
But as for this particular version of the “incognito clergyman” tale, it appears to be a fabricated story.
The link is working for me, but I’ve seen the same message myself for some reason. To quote from the article from 1989:
DAYTON, OHIO — Catholics wearing shorts, miniskirts, halters, tank-tops or anything else that might be construed as immodest by the Rev. Roger E. Griese are not welcome - and will not be given Communion - at Sacred Heart Church in Dayton.
Every doorway of the church is plastered with posters detailing the policy. There are seven separate reminders in the front entrance, and notices further detailing the dress code are placed in the pews.