We often think about the late 1800s as more of a golden time for barefooting. That’s not quite true—there were times and situations in which shoes were required, and woe to you if you violated that.
This is an 1890 news story, from a column entitled “Religious Intelligence”.
A reporter witnessed an extraordinary scene in the vicinity of Biddleville, N. C. In front of a small cabin a pulpit had been erected. In this stood a negro “preaching” at the top of his voice. There was no one except the reporter and the preacher near, and the former stood and listened, but was not noticed by the speaker. On inquiry it was found that the preacher was Robert Bell. Two years ago he was fired from the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Biddleville because he would go into his church barefooted. He was warned against this offense, and, heeding it not, one Sunday, as he attempted to ascend his pulpit shoeless, half a dozen good, pious deacons seized him and fired him from the church! On that day Bell declared he would preach three times every day in his own yard, and he does it, although no one goes to hear him.
I think it pretty obvious that the parishioners were much more concerned with what they thought “propriety” than religious observance (since we all know that bare feet have gone with religion for time immemorial, and just look at this recent example from just a few days ago).
I was originally going to comment that this showed that, while kids could get away with going barefoot, adults really couldn’t. But then I remembered that kids, too, were expected to wear shoes at church, sometimes carrying them to the church, putting them on at the door, and then removing them after services.
So it was really more of a “church” thing, and expectations of the community. I imagine, though, that kids could get away with it easier than adults.
Ahcuah 
Some recent barefoot-religion mix in the Philippines …
http://ow.ly/gJLKp “The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) said it will allow barefoot devotees to board its trains on Wednesday, the day of the Feast of the Black Nazarene.” (Why it is permitted this one day and not others is not discussed in the article)
http://ow.ly/gJM4g “Hundreds of thousands of barefoot Filipinos crowded around a black statue of Jesus …”
Really odd but the idea of having good shoes for sunday service at church, as the week’s society event to show off your best clothes, also seems to have been popular in Europe. You had one pair of “good shoes” and wore them to church on sunday and to important events. Often, as you mentioned, carrying them in your hand on the way to church.
In India, however, it’s not just the places of worship of Hindu, Muslims, Jain, Sikh, Buddhists and Bahai that require you to remove your footwear and often wash your hands and feet before entering, Christian churches, rare as they are, follow the same practice. It’s remarkable that devotees of any religion when visiting their holy cities go barefoot even far from their temples, no matter how cold the weather and how dirty the roads and alleys may be. The Philippines might be similar in that aspect.
And what was Moses commanded to do at the burning bush? Take off your shoes, for this is holy ground.