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Luanne Austin has penned a local column for years now, touching on everything from turn signals to Jesus in recent weeks. I fell in love with a brilliant column that addresses the age-old question (at least in these parts): Dress up for church? Or not?

It’s no secret I’m young. It should follow that I own a few pairs of jeans and that — gasp! — I’ve worn them to church. That’s not okay, not for most people. Austin tactfully challenges the conservative tradition of the “look-good-smell-good-smiley church” so common in the Shenandoah Valley:

“Missionaries and visitors to other countries can tell you that dressing up for church is not the norm around the world. It has more to do with church being modeled after corporate America. Clothing is just one aspect of this. We no longer evangelize, we advertise. We don’t pray for guidance, we do market research. We don’t fellowship, we network.”

And it’s sad. You go to church? You don’t go to church? That’s okay. As Austin writes, she focuses “on God much better in my backyard, but I don’t get all dressed up to go see him out there.”

Me neither.