They wanted all females to stop wearing trousers or shorts of any kind, because one of them – their team leader – had reportedly received instructions from God that women should not wear pants. I am naturally a ‘questioner’; if it does not make sense to me, I will let it fly right over my head.
So, I continued wearing my jeans to the occasional fellowship, as long as it was not to Sunday service, as I watched these women refashion their jeans trousers to skirts (with quite comical results, as you can imagine), and endured my share of ‘the eye’ every time I turned up for a Saturday meeting rocking shorts.
Then, as God is always faithful, He granted the anti-trousers team leader a beautiful marriage, only that it was in the UK. She relocated to London, but when she came a few years later for a visit, my eyes nearly fell out of my head when I saw her wearing trousers!
I never asked her what happened to the divine instructions she received about trousers, but clearly, she had received a life education on the fact that in many places, it is weather, culture and personal preferences that dictate fashion; not any sinister or sinful intentions.
I don’t know what went through the heads of the other members of her former team, who had destroyed their trousers trying to refashion them into skirts.
Here is the thing: when you feel a godly conviction to cut off your hair, or not to paint your nails, or not to wear colourful clothes and wigs, please take that conviction seriously for yourself, but don’t try to create a bandwagon out of other people that may not understand the conversation you had with your God.
At best, pray for them that they too ‘see the light’; otherwise, it is manipulation and self-righteousness when you start demanding that everyone apes your dress sense and fashion style to depict the perfectly holy image.
Our God is literally unfathomable; no one can claim to understand God fully. That is why it is God that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah due to the rampant immorality there, but the same God sanctioned Prophet Hosea’s marriage to an unrepentant and serial adulteress Gomer, just to demonstrate His enduring compassion and forgiveness for humankind!
That is why Pentecostalism is about having a personal relationship with God – not religious dogma. And the Bible tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. So, please stop hounding people out of churches because they do not conform to your diet, fashion choices, lifestyle, etc.
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