Facial Hair?

by HereIgo 13 Replies latest jw experiences

  • neat blue dog
    neat blue dog

    Pathetic. All of it. Sometimes I just wanna blurt out everything on my mind, but I can't. I'm in.

  • HereIgo
    HereIgo

    @neatbluedog, ive been there also, eventually, I just ended up telling elders how i felt because I couldnt take it anymore. Bad idea, or maybe not? 😂

  • Onager
    Onager

    Word on the street is that it started during the Rutherford takeover of the organisation. Rutherford was clean shaven but old Charles T. had a beaut of a beard and a lot of the brothers also had beards. In order to make a clean break with the old guard the Judge banned beards.

    Wait, instead of rambling on in my own idiosyncratic way, here's the actual quote I'm thinking of from JWFacts.com:

    However, the tide against beards had already started with Rutherford, Watchtower’s second leader. Rutherford’s clean-shaven appearance and imposition upon other brothers was a way to distance the religion from Russell’s leadership. Many did not accept Rutherford as Watchtower's rightful second leader, and Rutherford took insult with brothers sporting beards in imitation of Russell. This is explained in the book 30 Years a Watchtower Slave, recounting an experience from 1925.

    “An amusing incident took place at the time of the Judge's visit. The Director of our German branch, as had many before him, had grown a large beard, patterned after Charles T. Russell`s beard. The Judge did not want anything at all to remain which might remind him of Russell - not even the cultivation of a beard. So, sitting at the table for dinner one night within my earshot, the Director asked the Judge for one more large rotary press. The Judge said nothing for a while, merely ate. So, suddenly he looked up, his eyes pinned severely on the Director`s huge beard and said, “I will buy you the press if you take that thing off,” pointing to the beard. It surely shocked the Director`s sensibilities, but he meekly heeded the warning and soon shamefacedly appeared minus the beard.” 30 Years a Watchtower Slave Schnell pp.51-52
  • truth_b_known
    truth_b_known

    Like so many of the practices of the organization, the only scriptural basis for this prohibition is paraphrased this way - "Be obedient to appointed men, even when they are wrong or make things up. That's loyalty to Jehovah."

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