"Beards are sin!" False doctrine?

[derAlte]

I've been around a few decades and have heard all sorts of reasons why a man should not have a beard...i.e. that male facial hair is actually male makeup, that one is identifying oneself with liberal clergyman, or the hippy movement, etc. In my judgment (that and 5 cents will get you a cup of coffee at Wall Drug in South Dakota) it is simply not intellectually honest to proclaim male facial hair a sin. There isn't a lick of scripture against it. The clincher for me is the fact that the Lord Jesus himself, whom we sing that we want to be like, had a beard. End of story. He is the ultimate arbiter of what is sin and what is not. If He did it, it must not be wrong.

Do I have a beard? No. I don't like having a bushy face. I don't think my Friend cares that I stay clean shaven. I don't condemn anyone who has facial hair. If someone grows a beard just rile up those in authority, it isn't the hair that's the problem, its the heart. We live in a world full of cantankerous and ornery people who would grow a beard just to get a rise. I'm not sure being right on facial hair and out of unity with the body is worth it.

We have ministers in our UPCI district that have facial hair and they are accepted by most who have realized that God is not about to write "Ichabod" over the life of a guy just because he has some hair on his face.

I heard that a preacher in another state sent his son out to start a branch work. The son, after pastoring this branch work for awhile decided to grow a beard. As far as I know, the son still pastors the branch work but when he returns to his dad's church, he is only allowed to run the sound booth because of his beard. This sounds awfully silly to me. I'm not sure the son's attitude was right by growing it but it seems strange that he can pastor out in the field but his ministry is not acknowledged in the home church because of some hair on his face.