The Concourse
By Soney Antai
Just when decent dressing was …
Until individuals became presidents-cum-founders and owners of what most people call churches, you could almost always identify Christian ladies from a distance by their dressing. That’s because they believed in modest dressing, conscious that folks needed to dress as they would like to be addressed. Until capitalists on a binge to satisfy their craze for worldly stardom, greed for Mr Mammon, and the use of the house of worship as a cover for money bathing and sorcery, it was possible to enter a Christian house of worship with your heart bowed that the Sovereign Being after whom that house was named was watching you, and so, you needed to be careful. Those were days you often heard that introspective, awe-inspiring hymn, “The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth be silent before Him”, whenever Christians gathered to worship.
Those were days when being born again was not fashionable, outdoor evangelism was basically observed by the stouthearted, and fruits of the Spirit were the gold standard for Christian living. Pastors didn’t have much secular education and didn’t encourage it, especially at the tertiary level for fear – unfounded though it was – that you could “lose your salvation” in the university. “Take the whole world but give me Jesus; the cross before me the world behind me, no turning back”, was an anthem of sorts.
The born again pastor could hardly finish a sermon without giving an altar call for those wanting to repent from their sins and receive the free and full salvation from Jesus Christ, to move to the front to be led to Christ. He could hardly conclude any message without reminding his congregation that Jesus Christ’s return was imminent and they had to be ready.
It doesn’t mean that these Christians were sinless; it doesn’t mean there was no spot or wrinkle among them, but it does mean that they did not choose sin over saintliness, wickedness over righteousness or debauchery over self-discipline. They were focused on righteous living, but where they fell into sin, they didn’t make excuses or make light of the situation, but repented and rebounded even before others had knowledge of the problem.
But then entered the religion privatisation season in about the late 1980s. Christianity for this epoch and going forward became, “dressing doesn’t matter, Christianity is in the heart.” Of course, its protagonists quoted Scriptures to back up their position. What they failed or refused to acknowledge was the issue of context, which provides the text with the intent of the messenger. They failed or refused to acknowledge the fact that the outside reflects the inside, just as the Word tells us that, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”; or “by their fruits you shall know them.”
This was also the season of the coming of the fake prosperity gospel, when many preachers deployed eloquence, flashy living, and fashionable fads to manipulate people. Women were encouraged to go into church houses with the hairs uncovered, wear whatever makeup they liked, and dress anyhow so long as they were comfortable in those outfits. Pronto, we had a flurry of personal “Ministries” and “Outreaches” named after their founders, with their wives as seconds-in-command, with some of them answering bishops or even archbishops! The era of religious entrepreneurs had arrived and was advancing, and still does. What mattered most for most of these businessmen was how they could twist Scripture to enrich themselves. For most of them, so long as money kept coming into their pockets, their followers could be as licentious as Hollywood cassanovas. Modesty in dressing for women had become old fashioned. The band boys could wear earrings, nose rings, plait hair, be playing drums during prayers and those didn’t matter.
What good relief to see young women on social media advocating decency in dressing for women! This has come, as we say in sports, against the run of play. I am particularly impressed by Chinonso Catherine, a young, fair beautiful lady, advancing the course of Christ in this direction. She has taken to Meta (Facebook) reels to advocate for good character over the female gender’s mere physical attraction. This young woman isn’t hiding her face or entire frame. Her stress is on good character; and you know what? She is natural, wears no bikinis, painting or so-called beauty additives like eagle claws for finger nails. But the better part is that virtually all the netizens in their comments on her outings thumb up her. You would have thought that they would take umbrage at her braggadocio. Sometimes it takes one person with courage to start or defend a course, and oftentimes that comes from the least expected quarters, just like what the Rev Ezekiel Dachomo is doing, calling global attention to the Fulani terror in his Plateau State homeland, while the mega-pastors are busy being politically correct. May the clan of such courageous souls increase!