My brother in-law, the husband of my eldest sister had this 3D mixed media wall art custom made for us. A labor of love indeed since he also had one made for my brother who has three members in his household and my other sister who happens to have five. The wall art was made to represent each family member. The tunics are crafted from “bagol” (bah-gol) which is mainly fragmented coconut shell and stainless steel for their heads and arms. It’s a pretty unorthodox combination but that is the beauty of art.
My husband’s main critique of this piece was, “How come I’m wearing a dress?” Lol. It’s quite funny really but it’s a tunic and some men still wear floor length tunics especially in the Middle East and Indonesia so it’s not traipsing in the cross-dressing territory, which by the way is a sin as stated in Deuteronomy 22:5,
“A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.”
I bet not a lot of Christians even know this. I mean, if there are people who clearly ignore the statement that “no homosexual” will enter the kingdom of heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-11), how much more cross-dressing which is considered as a practical joke to some? Remember Mrs. Doubtfire? I wasn’t saved at the time so I can tell you some things are definitely funny especially when you are ignorant of the biblical passage referring to this. To look at this lightly would equate to calling God delusional. If it is detestable to God, it IS a serious thing.
It’s one thing when some woman wears menswear inspired clothing but specially designed for women with feminine details. It looks quite natural since it’s designed for them, but if we pay close attention to men who don women’s clothing, they tend to exaggerate everything from the way they do their hair to their make-up and there is definitely nothing natural about it. And with that, we should take the cue that cross-dressing is anything but normal.
There are countries like Fiji and Samoa for instance who recognize the Fa’afafine, a cultural identity of cross-dressers. I’m curious if these people even know about the biblical passage in Deuteronomy. Maybe they do but they just want to live that way because it ‘feels right’ for them since it’s culturally acceptable. There are a lot of Fa’afafines in the Philippines as well; they call them “Bading” (buh-ding). The country identifies over 90% of its population as Christians by association through Catholicism, not Evangelicals since Catholics are advised to steer clear from those who are “Born Again.” One thing I can say with absolute certainty is… most of these people are completely oblivious of the verse.
My husband and I were watching Taboo on Natgeo about Fa’afafines awhile back. I said to my husband, “I wonder what God thinks about these people.” Akatharsia; I know this greek word because it was literally given to me in a dream. I was awoken by the repetitive utterance of the word, “Akatharsia, Akatharsia, Akatharsia…” (ak-ath-ar-see’-ah) to the point that it literally made a ringing sensation in my ears. I immediately looked it up online when I got up and misspelled it by a letter with a c instead of a k having typed how it sounded to me. It means uncleanness in a moral sense: the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living. My dream was a direct answer to my casual pondering to God the night before. I can say that was one of the most awesome experience that I had with God, being awoken by a word I had no prior knowledge of.
If you know someone who lives this kind of lifestyle, the best thing you can do is love the person by at least showing them the verse in Deuteronomy. If they receive you, then glory in the fact that you have done your part in covering a multitude of sins (James 5:20), but should they reject it, they have not rejected you but God who considers the entire practice as akatharsia.
On the mark, Caeli – Lord bless you.
Hello Maria and Thank You 🙂 for your kind words
:0)