The good news from the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, of the “let somebody shout halleluiah” fame is that indecent dressing is now forbidden for his members.
The renowned mathematician turned man of God has decreed that henceforth, any worshipper that dress seductively to the Redeemed Camp would be arrested. The parents of the arrestees that come forward to bail the offenders would also be arrested even if they dress like a Pope!
Prior to the emergence of the Pentecostal arm of Christendom in the mid-70s, Christians were epitomes of decency. People looking for wife materials were encouraged to go to the church environment to hunt for one. In fact, in the good old days, churches with beautiful ladies had the largest numbers of congregants. And they used to dress well.
But as time went by, the Pentecostal system grew by leaps and bounds. The ratio of orthodox denomination to Pentecostal denomination is two to 10. The orthodox churches can be classified as analogue, while the Pentecostal ones are digital. Digital Christians are also known as new generation congregants. They see themselves as superior to the orthodox Christians… the born-again ones who are also carriers of the Holy Spirit that descended on the Disciples of Jesus Christ on the Day of Pentecost.
I know where the digital Christians got their unrestricted liberty from. Come with me to 2 Corinthians 3:17 which says and I quote: “… where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” As if the Spirit is not in the Orthodox Church. But the same Bible warned us not to use our liberty for an occasion to sin (Gal. 5:13). They also follow up with the clincher that God does not look at our outward appearance but our heart. They forget that the appearance is a reflection of the heart except when you are acting a script from Nollywood.
I have been a dyed-in-the-wool campaigner for the introduction of dress codes for churchgoers, especially the female members in the Pentecostal family. Only two ministries in the Pentecostal milieu are known to have dress codes for their members – Deeper Life Bible Church and Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) where holiness is their mantra. At the MFM, female worshippers are not allowed into the church premises dressed like disco crabs. They are also encouraged to be good ambassadors of the church by their appearances anywhere they go.
But the same cannot be said of other members of the Pentecostal confraternity. I have fellowshipped in many Pentecostal churches. And I had cause to moralise on the way most female members, especially the unmarried ones, dress to the church. Let me recall an unforgettable experience I had in one of the churches in the mid-90s.
The arrangement on the elevated altar was such that the choir members sat facing the congregation. The dress code for the choir girls was white blouses set upon dark skirts that were designed to hover above the knees. For a very long time, I had noticed that some of the short-skirted girls were becoming too careless with the way they sat at the altar. And no one appeared to bother about the spectacle. Not even the pastor!
One Sunday morning, I could not rein in my disgust. So, I nudged a male member who sat next to me and asked whether he could also see the Technicolor cinema playing out at the altar. Some of the choir girls had lowered their guards while the pastor was delivering his long homily, revealing pants of many hues. It was as if some scales fell off the eyes of the member and he burst into laughter at the mention of Technicolor movie. The next thing I saw was that his false tooth flew out of his mouth and disappeared into the “onilegogoro” head gear of a female worshipper sitting two or so pews ahead of us.
After the service, he accosted the lady to inform her that her skyscraper headgear was home to his false tooth. He bared his teeth to show her the gap and explained the circumstances that led to its flight into her custody.
I raised the issue of the free cinema at the meeting of the men’s fellowship of which I was the president. My living witness also attended the meeting and he told them how I caused his false tooth to fly out of his mouth only to disappear into a member’s headgear. They all had a good laugh. I was then mandated along with two other exco members to take up the matter with the pastor. We did. He assured us that he was going to address the dress code issue or reposition the choir. But to our greatest shock, he merely advised the ladies to be more conscious of the way they sat at the altar because “the eyes of the president of the men’s fellowship and his ilk cannot stay in one place.”
A couple of years later, I moved to another church where I had another encounter. One Sunday morning, we were already hymning praises to God when a young lady sauntered into the auditorium and squeezed her way to the pew in front of me. She wore a spaghetti blouse on top of tight-fitting jeans trousers. Her make-ups were extraordinary and the environment was charged with her heavy perfume. She soon keyed into the praise session, vibrating like someone monkeying with live wire. From the way her boobs and bumbum were pistoning, she could not be ignored. Some worshippers were capturing the unfolding drama. And from the way the Adam’s apple of one of them was rolling up and down, I was afraid he might lose his impulse control. But thank God; he never did!
In my own case, I had to be praying hard in my heart for God to deliver me from the evil of pistoning bumbum. As for the temptation, I had already been led into it!
I have never hidden my revulsion at the worldly and seductive dressing of most Christian female worshippers. They are the crowd pullers that often cause their pastors to fall into adultery and fornication. Some pastors’ spouses are also guilty of worldliness.
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) ought to take a cue from the MFM, the Deeper Life and now the RCCG. It is high time the umbrella body came up with dress codes for its affiliate churches. This is not the first time I am making the call. I have done that severally in the past. Most women and girls look forward to appearing for Sunday services not because they want to worship God but to see the latest in fashion and hairstyles with a view to replicating them in the coming Sunday.
Aside from the prosperity mentality that has held the Pentecostal family in chains, the PFN should seek more relevance by waging a war on immoral dressing to the presence of God.
And by the way, is Bishop David Oyedepo of the Winners Chapel, reading me?
