by 00DAD 84 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I had a beard for some years with no hassel from the elders whatever.
One sister however asked me if my wife found it pricklish.
I told her 'only on her belly'. She never spoke to me for years after that.
George
PS Walt Disney have recently allowed their employees to have a beard
What I find hilarious and ironic is when my mom talks about Disney and their beards. When asked why they changed the policy, she scoffed and said "they finally caught up with 2012. Come on!" I had to laugh at the ironic statement by my die-hard JW mother.
It varies a bit from cong to cong. Where I grew up beards were as big no-no. But I remember a young sis getting engaged to a bro from another cong who had a beard. Everyone got really judgmental and assumed he was 'barely in the troof', turned out he was a MS and had no idea what the fuss was about. They got married and decided to live near his cong, no surprise!
There's another cong nearby and everytime I've visited in the past I've noticed the WT reader, all the mic handlers and sound box man have goatees, no one bats an eyelid. Some of the elders have big moustaches.
In my cong where they're really strict about beards there's a bro in his 20s who has autism & OCD and would only shave on the first day of the month. So you can imagine how he looked by the end of the month. Last time I saw him it looked like he'd given up shaving all together and he had an enormous bushy beard, like Russel's but ginger and with a short haircut. I love that the elders can't say anything because of his illnesses. I don't think he has any 'priviledges' but he does LOADS of door-knocking. I have nothing against beards but this guy really doesn't suit it, he honestly looks like a serial killer or something, must terrify householders. Hilarious!
I believe the most recent mention of facial hair is in the "Benefit from Theocratic Ministry Education" book. In chapter 15 it says this:
"For men, a neat personal appearance may include being clean-shaven. In areas where mustaches are widely viewed as dignified, any who wear these should keep them neatly trimmed."
So although technically not a rule, it's basically a very strong suggestion that facial hair other than mustaches are frowned upon.
They've gotta make them all (da dubbies) look alike, think alike, talk alike, act alike, screw alike......... well you get the Picture
I know of an MS sometime ago who grew a very neat beard. the neck and beneath the jaw line were clean shaven, the beard was trimmed quite short as was his Hair. i'm not a fan of beards personally. but even i thought it looked quite good and really suited him. anyway he was given strong counsel and told unless he shaved it off he would not be Used in the congregation, they were not going for deletion, just wouldn't Use him.
all this with not 1 scriptural reason.
Pharisees.
marked
Van Amburgh's mustache would have gotten him a back room meeting in my town. I know I got chastised for mine being wider than my mouth, and being longer than the top of my upper lip. I guess a "Hitler" 'stache would have been appropriate?
Papua New Guinea (a country in which I recently lived for a total of eight years, and thus had ample opportunity in which to observe 1. what is local custom, and 2. what the WTS stand was.)
according to the WT$ local customs are to be ignored by anyone who is a "christian", as quoted in the 09/15/2013 WT:
But does this mean that as long as long as there is no clearly stated law from God, we can just follow the ways and standards that we are brought up with and that are common in our area? There are at least two important reason why that is not so for Christians.
Emphasis mine. It has nothing to do with customs, or what people perceive that jw's preach at. It is all about CONTROL. How many hoops can we make you jump through? How high can we get you to jump? How much of what makes an individual unique can we stifle in the interest of uniformity and sameness?
