Quote:
Originally Posted by James Griffin
No WRITTEN rule.
Interestingly enough I have been told DB is or has authored a position piece stating its ok after all. (About 1500 years late) Although even if true I wouldn't expect to see a plethora of bearded pastors anytime soon.
To be honest it would probably trigger another "Tulsa" last straw incident.
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If this is your truth, I feel sorry for you. Even though I have attended UPC churches where facial hair was proscribed in the by-laws and written platform standards, and observed the "carrot and cudgel" approach to get a new convert to shave his beard (he couldn't be an usher until he complied), every pastor I have discussed this with has explained that it is cultural; beards are biblical; and it may change in the future.
I sincerely doubt that a mass exodus would occur over preserving a peculiarity that is an indirect consequence of a strict yet subjective interpretation of one scripture, when derivation of principle from a multitude of other scriptures yields the opposite conclusion. Your "movement" would consist of the illiterate and the stubborn.
One could plausibly make the argument that any groundswell of unswerving devotion that exists for this rule has probably already left the building and is on the bus for Tulsa.
But if it makes you, as a facial-hair-cultivator, feel more daring, dashing, swashbuckling, and cutting-edge to think this, go right ahead.
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