Around ten years ago, I grew a beard while my parents were away for a week, and I decided to keep it. The elders said that I couldn?t remain on the Theocratic Ministry School TM unless I shaved it off. I felt that this was an affront to my personal dignity. I was even more pissed off because a brother in the other congregation had a goatee and was still allowed to give talks in the school.
I was considering legal action, and I actually paid one of the biggest law firms in the city to do a lengthy opinion letter and send copies to the congregation secretary, my dad, and the Canadian Bethel! It cost me near a thousand dollars. (I was working as a legal secretary at the time with another law firm, and my job involved typing opinion letters, so I thought I would have a lawyer do one done for me.)
As a result, one of the top brass at the Bethel phoned the local elders and advised them to allow me to be on the school with my beard. My dad said it was a victory!
(About a year after that, I decided to shave it off for my own reasons. I was regularly walking a dog living at the house where we had the Book Study TM , and I rather enjoyed when it licked my face with its warm tongue, so I wanted to feel it more on my skin. But that?s just me.)
?SAHS