Russell Yee: Hats Off

We’ve all experienced culture clash with our generational neighbors. Here’s Russell Yee’s Perspective on the matter.

As a lifelong churchgoer here in the Bay Area, there’s something I’m still trying to get used to: men who leave their hats on.

I’m old enough to remember when removing hats indoors was a definite social expectation. But times change, and even the U.S. Senate recently debated changes to its dress code.

But changes happen unevenly. While on jury duty in Oakland, I watched a bailiff firmly direct a witness to remove his hat. But at baseball games, I and only a very few other men still hold our caps over our hearts for the National Anthem.

Meanwhile, I remember when coats and ties were also definitely the norm here for church. Now, today, I myself think nothing of coming to worship sometimes even in shorts.

Coastal California has long been a fashion trendsetter, from jeans, to hippies, to dress-down Silicon Valley offices, to waist-up work-from-home Zoom fashions.

But with roughly four generations alive at any given time, we all live with both inherited and emerging social norms.

When Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment, he gave a clear but sometimes paradoxical double answer: he said the greatest commandment is to love God with all you are, and the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

So, each churchgoing generation should dress as it considers best for its own self-offering to God. But each churchgoing generation should also practice self-sacrifice for the sake of its generational neighbors.

The next time I see an undoffed hat at church, I’m not actually required to love the hat, but I am called to love the person wearing it. And he is called to love me. Let’s see what happens next.

With a Perspective, I’m Russell Yee.

Russell Yee goes to church in downtown Oakland and teaches locally.