God doesn't care what you look like, but your church sure does...

I go to the same Catholic church that I have been going to since I was about 3 years old, when we moved to Houston. I still go there even though I live 40 miles away from it, because I like the people and the music and the relaxed atmosphere. I also have been a participant in the mass for a number of years, starting out as an altar boy, and then joining the music ministry at 14 as a cantor for the teen group for the required confirmation project, stayed in until I was 18, went to college, sang as a cantor at the 7:00 p.m. Sunday mass (AKA the "hangover mass") for 4 years, then came back home and joined up with the group my older brother played guitar, which morphed into another group, which morphed into another group, which merged into another group, in these groups I was a cantor for all of these. In between all this we went through 4 priests, 3 choir directors, & 1 liturgical administrator.

Through all of this singing as an unpaid volunteer, I always wore my standard attire of jeans, a nice shirt, and tennis shoes, and nobody really cared, Until now. Now I am being told that what I wear to church is a problem, and I should be wearing slacks and a tie, and no tennis shoes. I don't really understand it, why a pair of tennis shoes would freak someone out, I mean they are not even white, they are black and pretty inoffensive. And the jeans are black as well, so from a distance you can't really tell they are jeans. I am constantly amazed about the closed mindedness of people, that care about these sort of things, didn't Jesus say to welcome all the people who are different?

Sometimes I wonder if God is trying to tell me something...