by Carol H. Morgan

Created on: May 02, 2008   Last Updated: May 03, 2008

A few years ago I saw an obstetrician on one of those Maternity Ward type of shows and I found myself thinking automatically: That man is Mormon.' Why? I am not sure, because really the only thing that I could tell about him outside of his professional context was his dress: a dark suit, white shirt and tie. But possibly, that combination is getting more and more stereotyped as something that Mormon men wear, or at least they are known as wearing more than other groups are.

It occurred to me that maybe this image of the power suit, really only popularized in the 80's, just happened to coincide with a period of explosive growth in the Mormon church's worldwide missionary prominence: the ubiquitous image of two youths in dark suits white shirts walking down the road happened to become universally recognizable also at a transitional period where Mormon boys' serving missions became a particularly clear sign of their level of religious devotion. (Mormon men served missions before this, but it became expected in the early eighties).

The result of some of these coincidences is that if I had to guess, the Mormon church, increasingly the official religion of the American west, has in recent times begun down a fork in the road of dressing in a manner unique to our culture that might actually end up giving this clothing symbolic significance for the church like other formalized religious apparel has in other periods in history.

This religious uniform of sorts already nearly attained this kind of spiritual significance. White shirts don't universally carry the connotation of respect or holiness that would brand a righteous Mormon priesthood bearer as such, but over the past century they have been infused with that meaning over time and after being associated with men who perform priesthood functions in the church and who serve missions, happening to be displaying particularly high levels of religiosity while wearing them.

And other religious clothing is probably quite similar, the difference is the respective age of the religions. The Mormon church is less than 200 years old, Catholicism, Islam and Hinduism, where religious clothing is more pronounced, have been around 1000+ years. So I think the small changes in psychology of wardrobe can be pretty small and end up adding up down the road.

Now in priesthood bearers the situation is that what was originally a purely cultural result of fashion (Joseph Smith obviously didn't make up the missionary dress code) ends up being a barometer for the wearer's level of devotion. Things like the robes of the Catholic Church and Tibetan monks are really just things that all men were wearing 1000 years ago, they are just preserved in religious dress because it is more conservative and retains things longer (like the Amish in America). Very similar is the nun's habit and wimple, which were really just what all women were wearing 700 years ago.

So that obstetrician on t.v. (and turns out he IS a local Mormon leader in my area, I know someone who attends church with him), was wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and colored tie-big deal. Right now those are all available in any department store. When the current fashions get very far away from that, though, it will be harder and harder to for this Mormon look (recently made very high profile by Mormon Mitt Romney) to be just off the rack, most likely if they still outfitting themselves that way in another few thousand years, particularly if it becomes any kind of strict code (like it already is with missionaries). Over time this costume WILL communicate a Mormon man's religion outwardly in this obvious way.

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