Completely bald heads are banned at Bethel. Bro Losch made comments about it and since then young black brothers have to have a bit of stubble on top. When they leave bethel they go back to the bald look.
Does a brother have to explain if he cuts his hair bald?
by JH 25 Replies latest jw friends
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Nathan Natas
"Jehovah your God loveth a good comb-over." - 1 Barberinos 3:16
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prophecor
Completely bald heads are banned at Bethel.
That doesn't make any sense!!!
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lonelysheep
Bald is sexy.
Their rule is just as as dumb as the beardless one. -
prophecor
Their rule is just as as dumb as the beardless one.
Two complete opposites, same extremist stupid rule, I agree LS.
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Confession
Wow... It's only now, after seeing this thread, that I remember how bizarre this subject seemed to me. How it just seemed so wrong--even as I was serving as an elder.
I never really paid close attention to such a thing. But a good friend of mine, a white guy, used to keep his hair reallllly short. Not bald, but just a bit more than stubble. Prior to becoming a JW, he'd been in a metal band and used to have very long hair. It was incredibly thick, and he found it refreshing just to buzz it down. As it began to grow, he seemed to develop a nasty case of dandruff. So the shorter it was, the better overall for him. And while I used to kid him about his buzz cuts, I never gave a single thought to it's being "inappropriate."
Then I came to discover there were some in the congregation who began talking about it. One loudmouth sister used to say, behind his back, how strange she thought he looked with such a cut. Then my closest friend and fellow elder began chirping, so I asked him how he felt about it. Understand this elder friend was a black man.
"Well I don't mind if Mark wants to keep his hair short, but sometimes he cuts it TOO short. Last night at the meeting, when he took his hat off, his head was ALL WHITE!!" he said with a scrunched-up, disgusted look on his face.
I called him on this. I asked why he didn't have anything to say about the number of black brothers who had precisely the same haircut--if not shorter. He made plain that this was not "the same thing." He felt, very simply, that it was okay for blacks--but not for whites, because white guys' heads were "all white!"
I once said, "Well, what would you say if I told you that the other night, Jerry (a black M.S.) took his hat off, and his head was ALL BLACK!!!?" It just seemed such a completely indefensible position to me. He went on to explain how, in the 70s, as a servant in the congregation he received much pressure not to have any facial hair. He expressed that facial hair was almost a requirement for black men at that time.
"So I have to go around looking like an idiot!" he said. For me this did not improve his logic whatsoever. Bottom LIne: these men are OUT OF HAND if they think they can make these kinds of arbitrary rules--whether they involve racist double standards or not.
At my last congregation, I began to notice that our P.O., a black brother, began growing just the teensy-weensiest hint of stubble, just below his lower lip. Certainly fine with me. But I admit I used to wonder if he'd have anything to say about a white brother doing the same thing, and what might happen as a result of it.
