The Sunday News
A LOT has been said about the lifestyles of our brothers and sisters of the cloth, in various articles focusing on their ministry and the lavish lifestyles they lead. Well, this week I too decided to pen an article about their dressing, particularly focusing on the suits they wear. Traditionally suits are garments that bestow respect on the person wearing them compared to a person dressed casually.
Anyway, I have noticed a growing trend of pastors (men and women), from the many churches that have flourished over the years, where, mostly these clerics spot . . . I will plainly put it as unconventional suits, which would attract a swarm of bees from miles away, judging from their absurd bright colours.
There has been a lot of talk and debate in the fashion industry among bloggers about modesty, focusing on the suits the clergy wear.
I do admit the designs are stunning and attractive . . . but that is where the problem is.
I don’t know whether any of you have ever experienced what I am about to delve into, but I am sure if I have, so has a greater number in society.
While seated among the congregation, with the “pastor” preaching from the pulpit, clad in his or her bee attracting suit, with microphone and towel in hand, you will notice that your concentration will one way or the other shift from his or her word to his or her suit.
These suits, I am sure many of you will agree with me, leave many feeling uncomfortable by being attractive.
What I am saying is that some of these suits or rather the way people dress can lead to everyone’s “favourite evil”: LUST!
Let’s be honest for a second, women are always attracted to men in suits and vice versa.
I won’t mention any names here but if you do attend, mostly pentecostal churches then you will know what I am talking about. This type of dressing is very much prevalent in pentecostal churches and I really wonder why it can’t be addressed.
I have personally struggled with this issue for a while now (not lust but dressing) and I must say I would enjoy discussing this topic even at a bigger platform.
I read an article posted by a certain female blogger who admitted to be struggling with lusting for men in suits and had even gone to the extent of satisfying her desired evil by going to church to see various men dressed in suits and obviously, we all know what comes with lust . . . She said in her blog: “I want to be brutally honest about this struggle. As a young heterosexual woman who is trying to keep her thoughts pure and her eyes on Jesus, I have to say . . . everyday, EVERYDAY, is a battle. Every time I pass a man in a well-tailored suit, I try to keep my eyes averted to avoid the evil, lustful thoughts that will surely creep into my head. Sometimes I am successful, while on other times . . . I am in an office building and I find my senses assaulted by a sea of men strutting around in well-tailored suits, smelling of cologne and after-shave and . . .”
This is what I assume goes on in the heads of many women in church hence the rise in cases of pastors reportedly sleeping with someone’s wife or a congregant.
Dressing up for church has somewhat become a fashion extravaganza aimed at destabilising the church or rather a hunting ground for men and women, judging from the way they dress nowadays. I won’t even talk about how the women dress, as I just might also start having lustful thoughts.
In the Bible we are all called to rid our thoughts of lust.
But how is it that we are meant to achieve this if our brothers and sisters in Christ keep turning the church into hunting grounds? Is it asking too much from you to simply be more attentive to what you wear?
“If the purpose of our clothes is to glorify God, how are we doing so by wearing something that obviously causes others to sin in their minds? Yes, it is everyone’s job to control their own eyes but you ALSO have a responsibility to not give them reason to sin. Perhaps, instead of chastising me for not having enough self-control, you could take a good hard look at what’s in your closet and then ask yourself: ‘Is my wardrobe advertising something that is not for sale,”’ said the lady in her blog.
I think I will leave it here for this week and leave room for further discussion on this topic.
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