The pastor believed that because the world keeps changing, there might be the need to review certain standards, especially those that do not really matter for the gospel. 3 His premise is the book of Galatians (5:1-14) where Paul makes it clear that the death of Jesus freed us from bondage to the laws of the Old Testament (OT). Pastor Seyi Adekunle of Winners' Chapel was of the opinion that Deut 22:5 does not apply to contemporary times. In the course of the research mentioned earlier this writer interviewed some pastors of churches which welcome the practice as well as some of their female members who use trousers in and out of church. It is therefore not surprising that when the practice of women wearing trousers to the church started in Nigeria in the 1990s among some neo-pentecostals, the proponents faced much criticism. Hence, the same text is usually quoted against women who wear trousers, not even to the church but as part of their casual dressing. Most early African Christians readily accepted the injunction in Deut 22:5 that women should not put on what pertains to men and vice versa as applying to all ages and cultures. To this end, the issue of whether women should wear trousers or not was not one of the challenges the early missionaries had to contend with. In Africa the practice of women wearing trousers is relatively new and unusual hence the practice of wearing them to the church naturally aroused curiosity when it started because it is at the same time un-African. Finally, a textual approach is used to ascertain its possible original meaning.Ģ THE CONTROVERSY ON WEARING OF TROUSERS BY WOMEN 2 This is followed by a historical-critical examination of the text in relation to the Deuteronomistic Source (D) and Deuteronomic Code. The essay begins with a report of the defense of the proponents of the practice as contained in a research which the author conducted recently. The aim of this article is not to accept or reject female wearing of trousers but to examine Deut 22:5 to determine its possible intended meaning with a view to ascertaining whether or not its common application to this subject is correct. It is therefore common these days to see many female members of these denominations not only wearing trousers as part of their casual dressing but, in fact, going to church in them on Sundays. In recent times, however, there has been a challenge to this interpretation, particularly among some neo-pentecostal churches who claim that the text is being misapplied. In Nigeria, as in other African countries, this text had been given a literal interpretation by all mainline churches since the advent of Christianity in Africa. Reading the text literally, Deut 22:5 appears to condemn cross-dressing, that is, males wearing female clothes and vice versa.
The present study therefore critically examines the Deuteronomic text vis-á-vis this controversy with a view to ascertaining what relevance it has for wearing of trousers by women in contemporary Africa, particularly Nigeria.
While the majority of the mainline churches still teach that women are not allowed to wear trousers, some of the neo-pentecostals claim that the text is being misapplied hence many of their female members wear trousers even to church on Sundays. The research 1 which this writer conducted recently reveals that one major controversy among churches in Nigeria is on wearing of trousers by women, particularly female Christians. The prohibition of cross-dressing in Deuteronomy 22:5 as a basis for the controversy among churches in Nigeria on female wearing of trousers
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