Quote:
Originally Posted by coksiw
It is about the image of the church leadership and the importance of the message they carry. Business do the same and we don’t judge them. I am sure they won’t let the person representing the company in a meeting dress in pink with a S shaved in their head. It is about moderation and being appropriate to the occasion. Even business have some sense of what can give a bad impression and what is excessive and clear vanity or pride in look.
Why do you think the Lord commanded that to Israel? Just curious of your insight.
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Businesses don't give two hoots about pride or vanity, they demand the look of their employees be appropriate to their particular industry.
But the church isn't a secular business. Well, the real church, anyway. Not sure about all those non profit orgs that call themselves churches.
God commanded His sons not to get rid of their beards because doing such basically amounted to effeminacy. Pagan cultures had their "woke" elements just like we do today, all "progressive" and trying to harmonise the "softer side" of male character, etc. Beardless young men were in pagan culture were often seen as surrogates for women without unwanted side effects (like pregnancy and marriage). The beard is a distinctively masculine trait, like a lion's mane (literally and biologically). What kind of people are naturally clean shaven? Women and children, basically. So God wants His sons to look and act like men. This actually connects to
Deut 22:5.
Romans and Greeks, while often known for their beards, were also known for the beardless look, which was connected to the Greco-Roman idolization of virility and youthfulness. This is partly why the cleanshaven look was adopted by various emperors, which in turn filtered down to the military. When catholicism rose to the fore, the western (Roman) priestly ideal was that of an unmarried, childless, and cleanshaven man, largely because the Roman catholic clergy were a bunch of satanic perverts as they still are today.
That clean shaven look persisted in Western Europe through the Reformation and Enlightenment (along with panty hose, wigs, and facial makeup for men) and has been with the US ever since. Although during the 1800s beards were never looked as unseemly, by the early 20th century the clean shaven military and clerical executive look had become the main fashion. So then the clean shaven male look is actually a worldly fashion that has been persisting.
The hippy thing in the 60s (and the beatnick thing in the 50s) wasn't really about facial hair per se, but unkempt and unwashed appearance being used as a political and cultural statement of rebellion against tradition and culture. The use of t-shirts as regular outerwear was part and parcel to that (originating in 50s teen rebel and biker culture brought home by WW2 vets), as prior to all that cultural rebellion no self respecting man would be caught dead in public without a button down shirt and at least a vest or jacket.
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