AN APPRAISAL OF THE CHURCH RESPONSE TO INDECENT DRESSING AMONG CHRISTIANS IN THE LIVING FAITH CHURCH

1.1 Introduction

Indecent dressing is a social problem in our society but it is common and entrenched among our youths. The dressing has lost most of its value in our society. Certain styles of dressing are now serious threats to Christianity and its moral values. Onoyima (2006) laments that Dressing codes and habits are nowadays often treated with disdain. This is a result of many wars universally waged on code and values. The indecent dressing has come to characterize the dress pattern of many youths in Nigeria. There is hardly any city in this country that is not faced with this disgusting problem. The way these youth particularly the female ones dress seductively leaves much to be desired. What the girls call skirts that they wear is just one inch longer than their pants. When they put on such dresses, they struggle to sit down, find it difficult in climbing motorcycles, cross covet as well as pick anything from the ground.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Indecent dressing among Christians has been closely associated with wrong mentality, poor parenting, wrong use of internet, the types of movies our children watch at homes also promote indecent dressing, peer pressure, fading out of our own cultural values and a so-called modernization, and stigmatization and ridicule being meted out to young girls in particular who dress decently and well-covered by their colleagues who only see them as being anti-social, backward and primitive causes such young girls to try to look like their colleagues so as to escape being ostracized, among others. Most parents are worse than our youths who are the replica of the Biblical Jezebel.

Olori (2003) reported that at the University of Abuja rules were made that any dress worn must cover an intimate part of the body, must not expose the breast, stomach, navel, and bare chest, but on this campus students still dress indecently. In some of the areas where this observation was made, it seems that the introduction of a dress code by culture was misinterpreted by the youth, to mean they should dress indecently. This is because what became obvious with youths in these areas after the introduction of this dress code was the alarming and arrant ways that they begin to dress indecently.

One is not however surprised because what is typical of most Nigerian administrators is always a wide gap between policy and formulation and execution. Indecent dressing even though is not accepted as the normality, seems to be gaining ascendancy. One wonders what becomes of the society tomorrow with the caliber of youth that is being trained. Undeniably, these un-african dress patterns among the youths of this generation have generated a lot of concern and worry among the citizenry of the country. Religions institutions as well as institution of learning are not resting on their ores to watch this moral act being perpetuated, but they speak against it. For instance Olori (2003) reported that at the University of Abuja rules were made that any dress lump must cover intimate part of the body, must not expose the breast, stomach navel and bare chest.

The waist of their trousers are lowered and fastened tightly at the middle of the bottom lobes to reveal their boxers (parts) and when they are walking they drag their legs and one of their hands particularly, the left one, cupping their invisible scrotum as if they will fall to the ground if not supported many of them because of how they dressed have at one time or the other become victims of rape, lured into prostitution, used for ritual purpose. Unable to complete their Education or training and also engaged in other ancillary social and moral problems like cultism and lying to mention but these few. Although there are known universally acceptable ways or ways of dressing, dresses are region notwithstanding. They are part of the people’s culture and they define their tribal or ethnic identity. A part from dresses being a means for cultural identity they are for ornamental or aesthetic purposes, for protection of the body against harsh weather condition as well as covering the intimate part of the body.

These purposes are important especially as they form major aspects of a person’s personality. But as important as these purpose are, they have been defeated by the Nigerian youths, their dress pattern are most time anti-African dress pattern inverted. They usually dress in a manner that does not showed especially that of Nigerian encourages modestly in appearance as do the Christian and Islamic religion where the larger population of these youth claim to worshiping God.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Church Response to Indecent Dressing among Christians in the Living Faith Church.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that Christianity in Nigeria is experiencing a decline in morality; due to the moral laxity of our dress code these days is nothing but a show of shameless generation, and lack of value for modesty. Unfortunately, today churches have failed to uphold her ancient landmark. It has lost her valor and right ship of upholding and enforcing righteousness among the brethren.

The major controversy over the issues of dressing and indecent dressing has continued to attract reactions of different people of varied backgrounds, orientation, values and culture internationally. Some see the laws against indecent dressing as the violation of human rights especially the rights of women because the issues of indecent dressing often centered mostly on the female gender, with no form of prejudice male gender are not free. Male gender also has the habit of dressing indecently when their boxers show above their trousers or there is no underwear and yet their trousers could barely hang on to their waists all in the name of a new fashion trend known as sagging.

Most of the churches today are entertaining provocative dressing and making her member feel so comfortable in their worldliness. We can vividly attest to this fact that years ago in orthodox churches, if a lady wears indecent or provocative clothes to the church, she would be sent home to re-dress. Sometimes, she might be referred to sit in the back seat in the church or given some clothes to cover her naked or provocative and seductive exposed body.

Lack of self-confidence is what makes our young people do anything to draw attention to their selves and wearing indecent clothes could be their way of doing that. They forget that for every action, there is a reaction; and that is why we have a series of cases like rape. Most young women have fallen victim to rape because of the provocative dresses they put on. Today Preachers are very careful about the kind of sermons he preaches on the pulpit, so it won’t hurt or make the member feel ashamed, which might cause them to vacate the church.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to appraise the Church Response to Indecent Dressing Among Christians in the Living Faith Church. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the Living Faith Church’s approach to addressing the issue of indecent dressing among its Christian congregants.
2. To explore the practical strategies implemented by the church to ensure compliance with modest dressing standards.
3. To analyze the theological and ecumenical dimensions of adhering to modest dressing within the context of the Living Faith Church.
4. To investigate how the church reconciles the preservation of traditional values with adapting to evolving cultural norms in the context of dress codes.
5. To elucidate the specific guidelines and parameters offered by the Living Faith Church to its members, outlining acceptable dressing within the congregation.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Can youths of churches in 21st century still dress decently to Living Faith Church?
• Does poor parenting actually a factor that is encouraging indecent dressing among youths in churches?
• How does the Living Faith Church respond to the challenge of indecent dressing among its Christian congregants?
• What are the practical measures employed by the church to enforce modesty in dressing?
• What are the broader theological and ecumenical implications of adhering to modest dressing within the Living Faith Church?
• How does the church navigate the evolving cultural norms while upholding the sanctity of sacred spaces?
• What specific parameters and guidelines does the Living Faith Church provide to its congregants for acceptable dressing?

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1.6 Significance of Study

The findings of this study will be of immense importance to Nigerian Law makers, Policy makers, and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) as the study would address indecency and immorality with a sole aim to preserve our cultural norms and values. It will be of immense importance to all the sundry particularly church leaders.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.7 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Appraisal of the Church Response to Indecent Dressing among Christians in the Living Faith Church in Nigeria.

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1.8 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.9 Definition of Terms

Indecent dressing: Indecent dressing can be defined as a deliberate act of exposing some sensitive parts of one’s body.

Lifestyle: This is a set of attitudes, habits or possessions associated with a particular person or group.

Living Faith Bible Church: Living Faith Church Worldwide (also known as Winners’ Chapel) is an international Evangelical charismatic Christian denomination.