What About Women Wearing Pants?
We might as well raise this question, "What about women wearing pants?" First of all let me say,
nobody has ever asked me that question. But if a person came up to me and said, "I want to know
what you think. I'm going to wear pants or I'm going to wear a mini skirt." I would probably say, "Go
ahead and do as you please," because that is what they will do anyway. The only justification that
I have heard for wearing pants is that they are better and more modest than a mini skirt. But,
brother, that is not the only alternative! We don't have to be reduced to either of those two things!
If a conscientious, wholesome, godly Christian woman--a person who wants to maintain the best
possible influence--asked me if she could wear pants, I would say, "No, don't wear them." There
are too many things that should concern you. I don't believe you can do that route if you really
study these things for yourself. I don't believe your prayerful attitude in approaching God about
this matter will let you put them on and wear them without a doubt in your mind. That doubt is
bound to be there, Romans 14:22, 23.
I have some other objections. Pants reflect the unisex movement that now exists in our world. If
you think I have just conjured this up, look it up in Compton's Encyclopedia Yearbook. They had it
under no less than the heading, "The Pantsuit - Hemline Controversy" and that is on page 249.
Listen to what it says, "Paris Coutourier Jacque Escorel states that the identification of the sexes
in terms of clothes will become a thing of the past." That is current. He is talking about NOW. He
goes on to explain that he designed an identical tunic and pants for father and mother and child
and labeled them unisex clothing. He said, "We will erase the lines that exist between male and
female." Hand in hand with this again is the age old problem of homosexuality. It is a huge
problem today. These people are saying that is their goal. Those goals are an abomination in the
sight of God. Men with long hair and jewelry and woman with short hair and pants just don't fit the
picture I get when I read and study my Bible.
Another reason I am opposed to pants is because they reflect the influence of the woman's
radical liberation movement. This movement highly objects to any distinction between a man and
a woman. They are very dedicated to the proposition of erasing masculine and feminine roles.
They reject the fact that woman was made to be a helper for man; they reject that the woman is
the weaker sex; they reject that a woman is to be "discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good,
obedient to their own husbands," Titus 2:5. I propose that the so-called liberation movement isn't
a thing in the world but an extension of a movement that began during the Second World War
when women put on slacks, took a cigarette in one hand, a cocktail in the other and began using
curses and obscenities. I think this should bother us. It bothers me for such people to stand and
flagrantly cry, "I'm free. I'm liberated in mind, body and spirit. I've come a long way!" They sure
have! They've come a long way! I believe Christian women should want to avoid any appearance
of sympathy with that kind of thing.
Pants encourage a situation that we cannot control. In the area in which I live there are jobs that
you, as a woman wearing pants, could not hold. You would not be allowed to teach in some
schools. I wanted to know the school board's reason for this. They said they did not want their
teachers looking like a bunch of men. There is another school in our area that does not allow its
girls to wear pants to school. Their reason? They said, "We cannot handle or control the situation.
No way." Let me tell you what they mean if you feel I'm being too rigid and too straight laced about
the whole thing. Once you allow this in your home and your life (and it's up to you) I guarantee,
you will live to see people wearing any and every thing that may be called "pants." It began with
pantsuits which could be fairly decent looking, but it didn't last long. You will live to see things
being worn that will make you despise the day you ever started. You are going to deal with things
like, "What shape are you talking about? How tight can they be, sir? Could we cut these pants off
and wear them as shorts?" Now, deal with that one! Then we are going to wrestle with this
question, "If pants constitute modest apparel, we can wear them to worship, can't we?"
Furthermore, we are going to deal with immodest posture and immodest habits. We are going to
deal with a coarser, more boisterous, less feminine disposition. I've seen it happen. Why dress in
such a manner that thousands in t-he religious world among the Amish, Mennonites and other
"plain sects" as they are called, would not recognize you as a Christian. This is something that
has long bothered me. I am willing for people to dress better than we dress. I am willing for them to
have longer cars than we have. But I am not willing for them to live better lives than we live. This
bothers me. There are thousands of these people who would reject you and say, "You are not a
Christian."
Satan is very crafty. For instance, on the subject of dancing, about the time you convince
someone that the intimate embrace on the dance floor is not right, what does Satan do? He
comes up with a dance that doesn't involve any embrace at all! Of course, he doesn't want you to
discuss the indecent movements, he just wants to move your mind to something else. When you
apply this to the indecent exposure of a mini-fashion, then he comes up with pants. As a Christian
individual, please hold off just a little bit and take a look before you grab the latest fashion that
comes along. Take a look at it and see what Satan is leading you to next. We are dealing with a
mastermind, the genius of this world.
"Let your moderation be known to all men," Phil 4:5. Here is a passage which brings us back
where we need to be. Remember, this is our manifesto—"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a
spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ....But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;
that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had
not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers
and pilgrims, abstain from flesly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation
honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your
good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." I Peter 2:5 and 9-12.
