No, I haven’t yet found a Biblical defense for using Pert’s Plus. I’m talking about what the Bible says about hair length.
This may be a surprise to you, but listen to what Paul says in 1 Cor. 11:14-15.
Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
What do we do with this teaching? In my fundamentalist upbringing, we had hair rules, and for us guys: hair check. If our hair was getting anywhere near our shirt collar or ear lobes, we would be in trouble. Demerits and/or detention would come in a hurry!
It’s easy to discount such standards as tomfoolery. Along with the head covering that 1 Cor. 11 refers to, we can easily contextualize this command as appropriate for Corinthians only. But are we doing justice to Paul’s appeal to “nature” here?
This is the question that a bunch of reforming fundamentalists and I have been addressing in one of our forum topics over at our new group site: Transformed by Grace. The discussion has avoided hard and fast extra Biblical rules, and has been quite profitable. Let me share one small quote, out of several I gave in the discussion. This is from Tom Schreiner in the book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Crossway):
Paul’s point, then, is that how men and women wear their hair is a significant indication of whether they are abiding by the created order. Of course, what constitutes long hair is often debated–what is appropriately masculine or feminine in hairstyle may vary widely from culture to culture.
I agree. On this point, I concluded with the following:
I do think women’s hair should be generally long, and men’s generally short. There is some room for varying styles and cultural fashions, but I do think today many of the short, short hairstyles worn by women are both non-attractive, and not glorifying to God.
What do you think? Does the Bible deal with our hair care? What about hairstyles today, is everything neutral or a-moral? Should a Christian look to the Bible before they run to a hairdresser? Please join the discussion in the comments here, or visit the Transformed by Grace forum on the question.
One last point: the Biblical view of a distinction between the genders being reinforced by our dress is also taught in Deut. 22:5. I dealt with that passage (often misused to condemn all women who wear pants) in an earlier post.
Truly this is a matter of intent….if you are intending to deceive then it is sin. Clothes or hairstyles on their own merit have no evil attached.
How can others ‘see’ your intent?
The most teaching I have heard about hair length is from bald men. I just read the Elisha story to my kids last night. 🙂
Schreiner’s quote seems to fairly represent the norm among the Reformed on how to apply Paul’s remarks about hair length relatvie to men and women. The strength of this view is that it does not apply it according to 1950’s standards, as the stricter fundamentalists often do, but the weakness of the view (or is it our personal weakness?) may be that, barring legalistic standards, the issue sort of gets forgotten and pretty much anything goes. However, I must say that I haven’t personally seen too many cases of egregious disregard of the Pauline standard among committed Christians. A few baby Christians, maybe, but not those who’ve been involved for years.
Granted, I went to a fairly moderate IFB school, so I didn’t run the risk of demerit for my hair length, which in my teen years did extend below my collar, and being fairly thick, I was a stereotypical, blow-dryed child of the ’80’s. It wasn’t long before I went to Baptist Bible College (Springfield, MO) that I cut the length for the first time. However, life in that small college town made it hard for me in my young married life to have enough money get haircuts as regularly as I may have ought to, so it didn’t take long for my hair to start creeping back down my collar. One day in the college library, my pastor pulled me aside and cautiously, kindly and gently asked me (he made it clear he didn’t want to offend me) if I’d mind if his wife gave me a haircut. I gladly accepted. If I wasn’t a college student, he likely would have never said a word about it. I didn’t start running with the IFBx types until about 3 years later back home in Texas.
Thanks for the story, John. Good comments all.