CHURCH FASHION: Breast, Cleavage and all that Stuff
Looking at the subject above, you might say, “Breast, Cleavage, don’t they refer to the same thing?” Well, in a sense, certainly. But however you define or explain it, there seems to be a lot of it on public display these days, yes, even in Churches. For clarification purpose, the cleavage is mainly defined as the cleft between a woman's breasts in the area just below or around her chest that is revealed by a garment with a low neckline (The garment could include clothing such as evening dresses, swimwear, casual tops and other garments, designed to emphasize the display of breasts). I remember only a few months ago, whilst having my quiet time with the Lord, how my seven year old picked up a Church flyer on my desk and asked why the “lady pastor” was dressed like a pop star. You can imagine how embarrassed for the female pastor l felt.
It is a fact that these days what you see in Churches is not very much different from what you would see in the night clubs, or in pop music videos, where you know for sure that the ladies are “dressed to kill.” In such arenas, this is not to be unexpected, as their aim is to be as seductive as possible. In the Church of God however, it is very much in bad taste. The summer months and other seasons in the year when the weather is relatively warm tends to be when you see a whole lot of people having on clothing that exposes the body. However, increasingly, even during the colder months, women in Church are now putting on clothes that reveal a lot more flesh than you care to see.
Some might call it moving with the times, but it is difficult to marry the idea of a Christian being spiritual and yet dressing in a manner that suggests a lack of discernment as to what is appropriate clothing. That is exposing so much of her cleavage whereby it just stops short of revealing the whole breast. Now that alone is telling. No doubt the cleavage enhances her beauty and sexual attractiveness, but as Christians we really have to be careful not to be sending out the wrong message to unbelievers, some of whom perhaps in the past would have thought that the church is the place to find “descent candidates” for marriage.
Anyhow, not long ago, I heard the popular gospel singer, CeCe Winans on TV talking of coming out with her own clothing line. How refreshing it was to hear this! CeCe has been watched and admired over the years for her music, and by others, for her style of dressing. According to her, she wants to come out with a clothing line that is stylish and yet modest; she “wants to lift up the standard.” Such godly style of dressing should be emulated by Christian ladies in high visibility positions, especially gospel artistes, church workers, etc. At this point, I must say, it is rather sad that over the last couple of years, female pastors and pastors’ wives seem to have been the ones leading the way in setting the bad example of wearing clothes that reveal too much of their upper body parts.
This poor example compels one to ask the question, “What form of godliness are the leaders imparting to their followers?” It also raises a whole lot of other questions; how much of our bodies should be revealed/how much of it should be covered? Is it ok for men to wear studs/eye-rings or braided hair? What of the issue of men and women wearing low-waist trousers that reveal their under pants/knickers and sometimes buttocks? All these issues are trends which cannot be comprehensively dealt with in this article relating to worldliness and carnality. These ungodly fashion trends might be popular outside the Church amongst the ungodly, but within the Church, it is definitely unbecoming; it is not modest and hence suggests a lack of discernment of what appropriate dressing is.
Modesty has to do with not flaunting what you have, but letting your moderation be known to all. Whenever you bring up certain issues that pertain to Christian ethics, it is not uncommon for people to immediately say, “You’re being judgmental.” But when it comes to biblical teaching and practice, not very many statements can be farther from the truth than this. The truth is if we cannot address issues like these, then how would we then deal with even more difficult challenges in the Church of God? For if there is to be purity in the Church, there needs to be respect for other person’s sexuality, so as to safeguard each other against sin. For example, it is well established that men being predominantly visual are more prone to lusting after the opposite sex. Hence, anything that draws ungodly attention to self and causes men to lust after you does not honour or glorify God.
The Church is the place where we congregate corporately as a body; a place where the Lord comes to meet with us to bless us. We really should not go anywhere dressed lewdly, let alone to the house of God. Decency in the way we dress matters to God. Let us be reminded that as Christians, i.e., both male and female, we are a royal priesthood. In the Old Testament we are told by God that the holy garments of the priesthood were made for glory and for beauty (Exodus 28:2). Now if that be the case, we as New Testament believers should glorify God the more in our dressing, even as we have put on Christ. It is also worth noting that whilst giving the law of the altar, the Lord instructed the priests through Moses not to go up the altar by stairs so as not to expose their nakedness on it. (Exodus 20:26)
In the passage above, we see the danger of relying on our own strengths (attributes, assets, etc.) in the pursuit of our goals. Most of the time, it brings frustration. How I have seen lots of very attractive Christian women in my time, who men only fancied as friends, but nothing more. This is because true godly men would most likely consider that the outward beauty and adornment of a woman, though visibly apparent is perhaps merely superficial, i.e. the woman may lack the inner beauty of meekness and chastity, if she is not dressed decently.
What Shall We Do To Be “Saved?”
Having said all this, I must state that not everyone woman with revealing clothes intends to seduce or be provocative. I believe there are a lot sisters in Church who have knowingly or unknowingly fallen for this new ungodly fashion trend. However, those who sincerely love God and really want to honour Him in every way, including their dressing, would do whatever it takes to amend their conduct. This is also why I believe this message is a timely one for those who want to have a closer walk with Christ, I say this because I know that even amongst God’s people, there are those with seducing spirits whom the devil has planted to bring about the downfall of many. (Remember Jezebel in Revelations 2:20 who taught and seduced the people of God to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols…) A possible example of this in our own time is an account of a “sister” in a UK Church who narrated privately to her friend how by her dressing and prance she planned to seduce the pastor of the Church whose wife had recently passed away. How evil? This is why a lewd and vulgar way of dressing is partly responsible for the increase in sexual immorality and divorces in the Church of God.
I thereby encourage every woman reading this article today to honour the Lord in your dressing, and He would honour you. (1 Samuel 2:30) The choice of what you wear is yours ultimately, but you have a new opportunity to honour God in the way your dress to the next Church service, Office Christmas dinner and every where else you go.
Any pastor or Church leader reading this article today, really should consider introducing a dress code for your Church workers. This would give everyone else role models to look up to, and make it easier for you to teach on the need for appropriate dressing, especially in the house of God.
May the Lord bless you richly.
Pastor Francis Obasogie
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