A Special Report on
"women being pawns of fashion industries"

"BILLION DOLLAR PAWNS"

A view at the deceptive importance of clothing and personal appearance in today's society.

by Rev. Dr. Diane M. Hoffmann, B.Th., M.Th., Ph.D., Ord./IAOGI, (c.n.c.)


Some years ago, as I drove across the plaza parking lot, I saw two little faces that urged me to write this article.

Little faces whose innocence had been raped by deceptive tools of our generation.

An article in a major national newspaper reported, "At surprisingly early stages in their development, children are making decisions about what to buy, say parents and other observers of children's behavior".

In television advertising, it is said that children usually start to watch TV at eighteen months to two years. Between two and three, they become aware of brand names. The newspaper article continued, “Children are now major consumers.

Advertising geared to children under thirteen is a $500 million-a-year business. Children like clothes 'of a certain kind'. In the past few years, clothing for children has become more varied and style-conscious. It has also become more adult-like”.

It is disturbing to see how “lust” controls our personal appearance in society today. There was a time when clothing was used for practical reasons. In this century, as never before, clothing is used as an open exhibition of status and sex.

It is more prominent on women — because clothes means so much more to women than to men — but, even men nowadays are decking themselves with symbolic jewelry and more riské attire.

A visit to a local shopping mall or downtown street never fails to show the multiplication of teenage boys wearing earrings -- not only in one ear anymore but in both and, not one ring either but often several.

INNOCENCE RAPED

More disturbing yet is the increasing distortion of grown-up clothing on young girls. Younger and younger they are wearing “fashionable” and “designers” adult clothes.

I was at a wedding once, and observed a girl of nine or ten years old. Her hair had been cut in one of the latest styles, something between punk and sophisticate, short and boyish at the back, shaping gradually longer as it crowned the head with sweeping sideways bangs cascading over one eye.

Sheer tights veneered her small legs and a short coordinated skirt hung down her wee body, barely covering the upper part of her immature thighs. A cashmere turtleneck topped off the outfit under her opened, baggy, designer-jean jacket. No doubt, her mother helped in the selections.

Nowadays, we also see a degrading of clothing on young people. For some, the weirder the better. Totally uncoordinated, wearing fowl-worded T-shirts, torn pants, army boots, and rebellious backward caps, they drag their bored feet along the marbled floors of indoor malls. Appearances that would make any mother from previous generations turn over in her grave.

The two little faces I saw that day in the plaza parking lot also displayed these tainted looks:

punkish and seductive hairdoes, oversized earrings; sleeveless shirts hanging down over one shoulder; tight skirts way above the callow knees. Even their speeches and behavior carried that contemptuous air... daring and rude that defy even the most humble adult.

Every day, we can see these young girls in schools, and on the streets of our cities, half dressed in flimsy outfits. As if a special licence is granted in the hot summer months, they wear thin, clinging bathing suits to walk to the public swimming pools; they dot the line-ups of fast food restaurants with long T-shirts hanging over bikinis that make it look as if they forgot to dress the bottom half of the body.

Younger and younger, they wear nail polish, lipstick, make-up, “fashionable” hairdoes extended from their permiscuous TV idols, earrings dangling from the sides of their baby faces, matching necklaces resting on their baby fat skin. Some literally look like miniature versions of “ladies of the evening”.

A young cashier at a local drug store looked as if she had just emerged from an MTV rock video performance. Her lipstick couldn't have been redder and was spread over her mouth in the form of a heart.

I looked closely as I waited for the purchases to be rung in and bagged; the top loops on her small mouth were drawn beyond and above the natural lines of the upper lip from the centre to the left and again the centre to the right. Her head and body attitude moved around hyperactively as she sought the on-looking eyes.

The strangest thing was that it actually looked awful. It looked so unnatural with the red goo streaking upward beyond the lips into tiny rivers of pourous skin. I thought to myself, "What do young guys think of this when they look for girlfriends? Of course, they dont' court like we used to.

I saw a mother with her young daughter shopping in a downtown store one day; the child could not have been more than a dozen years old. The oozing make-up on the mother's face mirrored onto the little girl's: glistening lips and nails, faces like picasso's oil palette.

At the laundromat, I saw oversize apple-green earrings swinging from the tiny ears of a three year old girl. I don't know what goes on in the minds of these mothers; many of them are so obsessed with jewelry that they plant gold earrings and finger rings on three months old babies whose limbs haven't even grown yet! "Oh, how cute" they think, "how pretty!" From the size of earrings some women wear today, you'd almost think that they even grow with the body over the years.

Some have practically become chandeliers by the time they hit 40! I can't even understand why some women think that they must wear earrings...

Once I was having tea with colleagues at work. The young daughter of one of my associates came in after school, sporting a new hairdo. The comment of one adult around the table as, "Oh, new hairdo... wow, wow, looking snazzy!", beckoning an air of naughtiness and seduction.

Another adult, re-inforced the comments and complimented further on how "nice" it looked, everybody joining in harmoniously with the encouragements. The mother silently smiled as she heard the crowd's tattle.

Then, further praises were poured on the thirteen year old school girl for her accomplishment in making her painted nails look like "Vogue's models". The father joked that his daughter now owed him the cost of the hairdo. He explained that when his daughter came out of the beauty salon with this daring haircut he questioned, "What if your mother doesn't like it?" The girl replied, "If she doesn't, I'll pay for it".

We sow deception in the minds of our youngsters. The Bible says that what we sow we will reap.

Muffled from birth in rows upon rows of frilly paraphernalia that attract artificial fusses and compliments, girls grow up putting their trust in these outside ornaments rather than assuming strengths and beliefs within themselves as individuals made in the image of God. Lies that mold their innocent minds into thinking that the only way females can be recognized is within the frameworks of artificial attire.

Researchers and psychologists are still trying to find the basic differences between male and female. We neglect to look at some of the most obvious areas. As I see the way many women dress, I keep asking myself, “Why are clothes and appearance so important to women?” I say women but I don’t exempt men. Many men also live for their looks and the impression they give to others. For men, though, the reasoning and motives are different.

Today, even some men are driven in large numbers to cosmetic surgery for new faces. I guess that would make the men of previous generations wonder in bewilderment. But, I'm talking about the extreme of clothes and apparels here which you see only on women. The enormous array of kinds and types and shapes and colours almost make your head spin...

Psychology says that boys are concerned with power and strength; girls with looks and cuteness. I remember a friend of mine telling me how he kept telling his little daughter "how pretty" she looked every time she wore a "cute" little dress. We don't do that with boys. While young women fuss over the trivia of superficial coverings, they are robbed of the inner values that young men are building up for themselves. Women’s clothing is so much more flamboyant and extravagant.

I too was raised as a “pretty little girl” with frilly dresses. Of course, my generation did not project the adulterated display of clothes and bodies as we see parading today. As I grew up into womanhood, clothes were also important to me. I followed fashion wherever it took society. If fashion said you now wear mini skirts, I wore mini skirts — blindly. It is hard to understand how human beings can become such absolute slaves to invisible manipulators who tell people to take off or put on whatever they capriciously invent.

One time I heard a minister’s wife on radio, sharing some of her memories of how she and her husband began in their ministry. She talked about a member of the congregation telling her that it was not proper for a minister’s wife to wear mini skirts. This was in the sixties - “everybody” wore mini skirts. Most amazingly, the woman “did not know” there was anything wrong with it. She laughs about it now. But, it's not funny. This kind of total blind bondage is frightening. The saddest part of it all is that women are the biggest victims. Men are not vulnerable to such emotional and degrading exploit.

Many women will wear “anything” as long as it is on the racks of a fashion store department from Kresge’s to Creeds’. Some need glitters that would even put the noon sun to shame. First, they get carried away by the color and look, then by the material; then by how “pretty” or “sexy” it will look on them. It doesn’t matter if the thing comes with a sleeve here and a sleeve there, and shoddy points hemlining in zig-zags from thighs to mid-calf, looking as if it got caught in barbed wire. It does not matter if it half dresses them to the point of perpetual freezing in the office. It doesn’t matter if it reduces them to mere dolls.

Many complain about being used as sex objects, yet they parade in the work place with tight slit skirts, “ankle-flattering” high heels that kill them all day long and even permanently damage their spines, and in which they can't even walk properly, lace stockings that look more like mud was splattered over their legs in the slushiest spring snow storm, tight sweaters or low cut tops that give the wrong message if it is true that they don’t mean it to be a sexual invitation to men.

I remember a male acquaintance drooling over the exposure of legs he could see through the flimsy knitted skirt of a woman standing in front of a sun-rayed window. One woman complained about the sexual harrassement of a supervisor in putting his hand on her knee at the office one day. The woman comes to work dolled up as if attending a wedding. Fussing over trendy hairdoes and multi-colored eye shadows, she spends hours of company time doing her nails in the midst of ringing telephones and accumulating invoices. Tight split skirts open up when she swings her chair from her office desk to expose an obviously inviting thigh to all those around her.

She was genuinely upset over the advances of this "dirty old man", but to a man, why else would a woman act this way? What do women carrying on in this manner expect -- however "innocent' they may think, though without excuse?

So concerned that they never smell sweet enough, they splash the Eau de Cologne every half hour thinking the stuff neutralizes the moment it hits the body; yet, more often then not the cumulative scents become stinging and even sometimes nauseating to the drowning noses around them.

I read a book one time written by a well-known Christian preacher and public speaker. In it he discussed several of life's issues affecting society today. In one area dealing with sexual problems, he wrote "sexual lust is very much a part of my make-up. It threatens to overwhelm me and I find that my own willpower is not sufficient to combat it... I am tempted intensely and regularly to yield to sexual gratifications that would destroy me."

I wrote to him and asked what he felt was the core of the problem and how did he think women could help in the situation. He replied and explained that women play games. They tease and seduce up to a point and then, when the man responds, they say "no -- that's as far as you can go". He was not saying that women should go further. He was saying that women should not play these games to begin with.

Suffering to be pretty

Do you realize the trouble and discomfort created by the fussing over hairdoes, make-up, and clothes? There is a saying in my mother tongue that says, “Il faut pâtir pour être jolie” (we must suffer to be pretty).

Back in the 1890's, corsets to produce the "wasp-waist" caused numerous internal problems and many women literally starved to the dictates of fashion. For thousands of years, Chinese women ruined their feet by foot-binding to produce "dainty" feet dictated by fashion and even bound the breast to give a "flat-chested" appearance.

Today, much of the paraphernalia used to clothe women is impractical and often actually painful to wear. Yet many will tolerate these accoûtrements, day after day, just to feed a deception. They come home from work, slumping over a chair in total exhaustion, ripping off those irksome shoes and tight skirts to rush into their "comfy" old slacks and oversized shirts. Then they waste their evenings rolling up hair, polishing nails and flustering over what they’ll wear tomorrow because somebody’s having a going-away luncheon. Guys don’t fuss like that. Why do most women?

I’m not talking about normal grooming now — we all have to take responsibility for looking our best at home and in public. But over-emphasis in this area, makes me ask, “What is it about looks that is so important to so many women?” Understandably, I look back to a time when it was important to me too. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know better. I did it because it was the thing to do, it was part of life (I thought), I had to keep up with the competition, it attracted attention. It had been part of growing up. To many women, the sole satisfaction is ultimately of a plain sexual nature (consciously or unconsciously).

Next time we shop for clothes, or stand in front of the mirror to paint our faces we should make it a point to stop and ask ourselves: What is the ultimate purpose of this item or exercise to me?

What is it supposed to accomplish?

BILLION DOLLAR PAWNS

What a convenience. Women are being used as pawns for the success of multi-billion dollar businesses — all at the cost of women’s security and freedom. Clothes become the assurance and approval stamp of women. Young girl’s innocence and freedom are being raped by lies and deceptions.

More alarming, why are women and mothers drilling it into the young ones following in the female generation? That same newspaper article quoted at the beginning says: “Kids want to look like their big sisters and mothers, brothers and fathers”.

We, adults, are the example. If the mother is consumed with clothes, the daughter will be too. If the mother displays her body through innappropriate, immodest clothing, the daughter won’t know better. "Indeed, the socialization of many children today includes watching their single parents date and act romantic", the article continued.

Those in society enthralling young people are adults. What are we doing to our children? An afternoon television talk show featured a line of children’s clothing that included lingerie. There is a line of perfume for the ten to twelve year-olds. Kids fashion shows are today popular. Even ego is now extracted - en masse - out of their pre-teens, to become the first or the best of whatever the parent wants to fantasize. Look at what's happening today with little girls being used and pushed by their parents into competition -- many end up abducted, molested, raped and even killed.

I often wonder what theMuslim immigrants think when they experience their first Canadian (Western) summer. They must see more flesh then they ever imagined possible. All kinds: skinny, fat, tall, short, pretty, ugly, gross... If they have never seen cellulite, they sure see it here. It is fascinating how some will put on shorts regardless of how they look in them.

I remember a friend who used to worry about wearing shorts in the summer. She was fat and knew it looked awful but she resolved “If they don’t like my thighs, all they have to do is not look at me.” The problem is, we think that “looks” is what should dictate whether we can wear shorts or not. Whether one is gross or beautiful has nothing to do with it. Responsibility, maturity, chastity, purity, example, these are the deciding factors.

“The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:3-5).

No, I’m not saying go back to the middle ages. I’m not saying overdo it and wear the Islamic dress. There is nothing wrong in itself in wearing modest shorts when one is on holidays, it’s summer, you want to be cool. Men do that too. But, when you see shorts so short and pants so tight that women's bodies (and men's) are dehuminized into sexual objects, it is time to re-align our complacent thinking.

It is interesting that, in summer, women seem to take it all off, yet men still wear their full set of clothes — business suits to work, dress suits to social activities. But women, in the name of summer resort to thinner and flimsier, upping hemlines, dropping necklines and cutting sleevelines...

We visited some friends once and all the time that we sat around the table conversing, one of the women, obviously concerned with every re-positioning of herself on the chair, repeatedly picked up the neckline edge of her summery loose low-cut top with one hand, and pulled it upwards at the front and downwards at the back with the other hand, in order to keep covering up her chest area. It would have been so much easier and more comfortable for her to have dressed in something that would have left her free to enjoy the company of her friends without worrying about her inappropriate apparel.

But, now, lately, we're seeing a new low-cut trend sparked by television fashion which is expanding into all walks of society. And women seem to not even be embarrassed about. The necklines are getting lower and lower, showing more and more of the cleavage. And what about the low waist pants that no longer shows midriff but below it! I even see it in Christian girls and women, which just amazes me! What happened to modesty?

I saw a young mother with her baby girl in her arm at a local shopping mall wearing jeans and a top that provocatively exhibited the most intimate parts of a woman’s anatomy. I watched her for a moment thinking, “Why would a mother clothes herself like that, what would be the purpose, the reasoning?” There can only be one answer. I couldn’t help but sadly look onto the future of that baby who will be looking to this maternal model as the foremost carver of her life.

Particularly in this day and age, women ought to be concerned about how we dress. When boys shape their minds, and men pervert theirs, through pornographic magazines, videos and films, to the tune of billions of dollars annually, what do you think they think when they see a woman suggestively dressed and painted?

It’s bad enough that some of them minds will undress even the most modestly clothed female. It’s bad enough that for many men, women are nothing but sex objects to begin with. Let us not enhance it. Men are initially turned on by looks — sorry but that’s human nature, and feminists will not be able to change that. A radio news broadcast reported that a prominent study on this subject showed that 63% of those questionned said that sexy clothing increases sex assaults.

We’ve got to wake up!

I recall one time when a friend of mine came in at a Christian event. She dolled herself up in tailored blue jeans and chic pink blouse with matching pink high heels shoes. Her lips and cheeks reflected the pink and her eyes were complimented with blue shadow. Her medium-long blond-died hair was carefully brushed and teased in cascading curls.

During the course of the evening I introduced her to a male friend of mine who was practically swept off his feet. He commented later to my husband and I on how attractive she was. The following week, we were at the same regular event and this young woman dropped in on her way back from a picnic.

This time, she was not done up but was in her everyday natural countenance -- her sleekness widened by her low heel shoes, her hair entangled by the wind and sand of the long day, and her face stripped of the Revlon palette. She stood there quite average and normal. My male friend was there again that night and innocently addressing her in a questionning manner said, “Are you the same lady I met here last Saturday?” Her response was to jump to apologies for her “grubby” look as she listed the activities of the day she had been through.

She wasn't grubby; the young man truly had not recognized her and wanted to make sure she was the same individual he had met the previous week. To me, of course the situation was in reverse.

I knew her in her natural state. When she came out to the event that Saturday, I was taken aback by the artificial glamor. She did stun all those present who had known her also in her normal look.

The incident also disturbed the peaceful mind of a woman there, whose husband's sexual tendencies towards "made-up" women were intrusively aroused. The point of all this is that, make-up does change a woman greatly and does create an unnecessary alluring and deceptive sexual attraction.

A prominent Christian man once mentioned his sexual struggles when around women. He said that many women perpetrate their charms and seductive spirit on men, arousing a response in them that is dropped at the critical point of the emotional escalade. He finds the fight against the natural urges, brought on by indiscreminate women, difficult. Perhaps this was the same problem that plagued Jimmy Swaggart.

Many women play the game in the safety of a public environment where the gradually heating moment cannot erupt in a violent consequence. When the teasing presses on to its unrestrained natural conclusion, the flirting gives way to a defensive halting of the course of events. In other words, women, don't start something that cannot be finished, outside of marriage. In many of my studies on the subject of differences between men and women in the workplace, the topic of “attractiveness, make-up and clothing” is commonly brought up as a major compelling effect on men, which is said by them to be difficult to overcome or ignore.

Proverbs 7 comes to my mind (King James Version): "My son keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee... Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister and call understanding thy kinswoman: that they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

"For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, and beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.

"And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and subtile of heart. She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

"So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows. Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

"I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

"Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves. For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

"With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

"Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death."

A wise Christian psychologist said, “Women, spend your money on clothes that only your husband will see”. Years ago, a teacher said in my 8th grade class, “Girls, remember this: One woman can make a hundred men fall but one hundred men cannot make one woman fall”.

But where is this kind of wise teaching anymore today? As women, we have an awsome responsibility!

If you think this is hard, let me tell you what God says:

“Moreover the Lord saith, because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wonton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:

"Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings and nose jewels, the changeable suits of aparel and the mantles, and the wimples and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils.

"And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink: and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackloth; and burning instead of beauty.”

(Isaiah 3:16-26) (Please see paraphrased versions for explanations of obsolete words used in the King James Version).

Need I say more? But before you despair thinking that God is some Khomeni-type that has judged beyond reconciliation, let me read you some more portions of Scripture:

“O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.” (Psalm 136).

“Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

"And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, by great army which I send among you. And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.” (Joel 2:23-29).

The Living God is a God of restoration and reconciliation, of love and of understanding. His mercy endureth forever.

Christian Responsibility

I have difficulty understanding Christian women especially who make clothing and appearance objects of attraction and emphasis. I have difficulty understanding women who know the Lord, dress as the heathen, “walking and mincing”, some of them in a daze, as they obviously relish in the basking of the on-looking eyes. In some churches, it is almost as if one is attending a fashion show or a Mary Kay party. Many women of course don’t do it for sexual appeal, they simply do it out of ignorance and deceipt. But the teaching should come from the Church.

I remember attending a Christian leadership training course where the group sat in a circle facing each other to discuss the subjects and training materials. Opposite me was a young woman, her feet barely reaching the floor because of her short stature. She wore a sleeveless, low cut jersey knit top. Her straight skirt kept creeping upwards under the pressure of her fifteen pounds over-weight, baring her round knees and thighs. For the whole time of the session, she regularly re-arranged her seating position, pulling down hard on her skirt to try and cover the exposed limbs. A good example of a Christian "leader"?

When we were just young in the Lord, my husband and I were invited to dinner at the home of new Chistian friends. The woman of the house was a frivolous petite, fairly attractive, mother of three.

She sat on the sofa across her invited guests, fluttering about in her conversation, and carelessly crossing and un-crossing her legs to the enjoyment of peering mates and the resentfulness of their offended wives, and to the obvious embarrassement of her conservative husband. They had been Christians for several years; to us, as baby Christians, her behaviour was confusing.

I recall another case in a church where a woman went forward during an altar call for prayer needs. She bent down to kneel and her obese condition forced her dress up at the back to bare a most awkward and embarrassing sight to the congregation. A very poor image for women. The simple solution to this is wisdom to dress appropriately.

At another time, a woman was invited to come to a large church to minister in songs on a Sunday morning. She was all dolled up in her puffy red hair and wore a blue dress that carried rows of large frills at the front running diagonally from the right hip to the left shoulder. The back of the dress was inversely plain, which is usually the case with women’s dresses. As she trotted up the stairs unto the large posh podium, the obese flesh and cellulite rolled and bulged under the clingy polyester. I felt embarrassed for her and for all women as she turned around to face the congregation, exposing the plump backsides to a row of pastors and lay ministers for the rest of her "ministering" time.

It does not cost more to buy a dress a size larger. Less attention should be given to frills and sensationalism and more care should be spent to finding clothes of heavier material or properly lined, and providing appropriate undergarments to support dresses made of thinner fabrics.

On television, one Sunday morning, I saw a woman preacher tear around the sanctuary platform in Holy Ghost power. She could preach! She had a good message. But my heart was in pieces over the image she projected. She was a petite brunette, mature in age but made up to a youngish look. Her wrinkling face was covered with lots of black and blue eye make-up and her permed hair was teased and puffed in an up-to-date worldly style. She had on a little royal blue dress, trimmed at the colar and short sleeve edges with a wide gold embroidered, glittering band. As she paced urgently across the red carpeted platform in her matching gold high heel shoes, her body postures occasionally accentuated a slim, shapely form under the tight garment.

Her sermon crecendo swept her emotionally to the edge of the platform where she stood high above the closely seated audience of male pastors and other members. Her tight short skirt momentarily crept up her dark-stocking-clad legs to a few inches above the knees as she stayed, briefly, semi-crouched under the built-up atmosphere of the evangelistic power.

I prayed, "Lord, something isn't right!" Why?" "Why?" "Why?" I kept asking. "Why do women have such a textile problem? Especially when going preaching?" I'm trying to picture the morning before leaving home to go to the church. There must be a time of fussing if one has to be concerned about picking a "cute" dress and matching gold shoes with high heels to go and preach the Word of God -- instead of an ordinary, normal, loose, conservative, neutral colored suit and plain pumps, for example.

Well, they say, "I have to wear high heels because I'm short." Listen, if it's from God, an inch an a half of body height one way or the other wont' make or break your message. Actually -- excuse-me -- it will break it one way. Extra-ordinary adornment is very distracting to the listeners.

Especially in ministry. Even in the secular world, when one trains as a trainor, any professional leadership emphasizes the taking off of glitters and distracting shapes and sizes of clothes and accessories. A seminar leader -- or a public speaker -- must be as plain as possible. Men don't have this problem, because they always dress plain and normal; some may go a little beyond and add fancy ties, and shiny cuff-links and shoes but that enhances their grooming not overkills. They do not have endless assortment of bows and bangles and beads and hairdos all over homo sepiens.

No wonder church leadership hesitates to have women in pastoral positions and boards, or invite them to speak in their churches. Unfortunately, this makes it hard for mature women. "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:42).

I called on churches some years ago, presenting an employment assistance program that I had designed to help people find jobs. One day I entered a large church office and was almost shocked when I met the "church administrator" with whom I had the appointment. Before me stood a movie star! A beautiful flawless tall blond woman rose up to greet me. She had on a sensationally fitted and shapely black dress, trimmed with lacy edges that was cut wide and low between the right and left shoulders down to the edges of her richly breasted anatomy. I thought gain, "Lord, why?"

Paul thought he had a problem in his time; he'd have a fit today.

"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works." (1 Timothy 2:9,10)

No wonder in ancient times women were to cover themselves from head to toe. Some men sects believe that woman is evil. Well, I can sympathise with them -- sometimes it seems that women just don't have any control over adornment. I read a biographical book from a highly prominent evangelistic team. In it, the woman partner said that her husband has an integral part of all the choice of clothing that finds its way to her body.

Although I fully agree with her explanation that this is a good precaution emphasizing the Christian responsibility, my immediate thought was "Can't a woman choose ordinary clothing on her own?".

Her statement is frighteningly disturbing. As I see her on their weekly television programs, dolled up to the "edge", I can see that if the patriarchal hand wasn't there, the line could easily be pushed beyond the safety limits. In watching some of the other televangelists' wives, it is awsome to see the "incapability" of choice displayed in this area. I often see more "fashion shows" on Christian

television than in my secular business life!

Knowing God means that we know the origin of clothing. It began as a covering for sin. The fall of our first parents in the Garden of Eden distorted the nakedness of man and woman. An animal had to be sacrificed in order to provide cover for that shamefulness (Genesis 3:21). There is a reason why we wear clothes. It is because of sin; there is absolutely no pride in this domestic function. We should wear them with humble hearts only, as we remember the awful result of turning against God, our Creator. But, like Cain and his city dwellers, we incessantly replace the inner restlessness with artificial satisfactions.

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

Earlier in the article I said that I had grown out of this enslavement. Yes, indeed — I met the One who is everything. The One who satisfies our every longing. I may seem to be hard, but I do understand. I was there once. Women who do not know the Lord do not realize what they are missing. Neither did I, before I met the “Way, the Life and the Truth”. When He came into my life, He woke me up, cleaned me up and wised me up!

Actually, women are not pawns of the fashion, jewelry and cosmetic industry but PAWNS OF SATAN. We are blinded by the “prince of this world”. The fashion industry is one of the primary tools the devil uses to get to human beings and keep them in his grip. Ever since Genesis 3:15, Satan has had a passionate hatred for women. This is why we see so much animosity between men and women (misunderstanding, chauvinism, sex abuse, homosexuality, marriage breakups, and today, violent crimes, etc.) Oh! how deceived we are! Jesus said that the enemy has come only to “steal, kill and to destroy.”

But Christ Jesus has come that we “might have life and have it more abundantly”. He has come to take away the key from Satan. He is the liberator of man, woman and child. He has come down from glory to die of the most shameful and awful death a man could experience on this planet.

And He is God!

Why did He give His life? So that we might rise above worldly deceptions. So that we might be resurrected with Him in His resurrection. So that we might be free. Free to be ourselves. Free to receive “peace not like the world gives, but peace that passeth understanding” and “joy unspeakable and full of glory”, (John 14:27, Philippians 4:7, 1 Peter 1:8).

That we might have a holy “fear of God” that gives us “wisdom from heaven”.

Our Creator — yours and mine — made it all possible, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

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