beards not a rule but!!! (page 3)

wanderlustguy

Had a couple of elders by here today...didn't shave...

Pay no attention to the red eyes here...I had a...arum...cold...and I was sad...and ummmm yea.

deeskis

nice pic, but I can see the devil's light shining in your eyes!......oops that's the pooch not you!

cute puppy.

so how did the elders meeting go???

I remember my uncle being in an awful workplace accident when he got badly burned, and he wasn't able to shave due to scars on his face. I remember my family defending his reasons for having a beard at that time, not an official complaint, but I know eyebrows were raised.

truly pathetic

Elsewhere

OMG! Your dog has a Laser Eye!!!

bonnzo

its ok to have the kind of "beard" that grows over the lip, just not under it.. scriptural proof is found at acts 8:37 in the NWT.

jwfacts

Beards are one of the unwritten rules, except for the following quote:
Watchtower 1968 May 1 pp.286-288
In recent years in many lands a beard or long hair on a man attracts immediate notice and may, in the minds of the majority, classify such a person undesirably with extremists or as rebels against society. God’s ministers want to avoid making any impression that would take attention away from their ministry or hinder anyone from listening to the truth.
The other way the WTS refers to beards is in a string of life experience articles where the bearded man converts and explains why he shaved.

Reefton Jack

You also used to frequently hear about an incident in the Field Service, which involved a "brother" who did have a beard:

- Allegedly, someone cut this "brother" off - insisting that they "did not want to get involved in a student rebellion" .

The inference from this was that if you had a beard, people would automatically assume that you were a "rebellious student." (Never mind that if you take the trouble to look around a university campus, the students don't look too much different than anyone else the same age!)

Interestingly, 30 years ago, this rule was relaxed somewhat in some congregations in Australia for a time - myself and several others retained as Ministerial Servants, while growing a full beard.

The rationale at that point was that such matters were up to the individual's conscience.

Of course, that quickly went out the window when the Borg realised that they could not maintain their absolute control over everyone; if people were free to follow the dictates of their consciences.

Jack.

Confession

Ah yes... I'll never forget trying to research this one. My earliest memory was when our family moved to a new congregation and my dad was appointed Presiding Overseer. There were three males who had moustaches. Then my dad gave a talk. All three shaved them off. I was only about 8 years old so I don't remember much about it.

Later when I was an elder, I tried to research it for a friend in my congregation. I'll be damned if I could find anything on it that explicitly stated you couldn't wear one. And yet (again) we knew it was a sort of rule. Just another bizarre and unexplained "flashpoint" that I allowed to drift away.

In my last congregation, our P.O., a black brother, grew a teeny tiny soul patch. I remember wanting to ask him about it, but never did. I once got into a bit of an argument with a black elder friend of mine. He was bothered by one of our Ministerial Servants (who was white.) This MS used to shave his hair very close to the scalp. Not completely shaven, but with just a bit of stubble. Very thick hair; big dandruff problem. This was best for him.

So my black elder friend says to me, with stark horror...

"Did you see Mack the other night? He took off his hat and his head WAS ALL WHITE!!!"

I tell him it wasn't "all white." He just liked to keep his hair very short and, as such, you could see some of his scalp underneath the hair. I told him it was just like three or four other black brothers--who shaved their heads even more, a couple of whom were Ministerial Servants too. But this, apparently, was different.

He went on to explain how there was a different culture among blacks. Plus it was okay for blacks because they had darker scalps, and a white scalp just looks terrible. He remembered how, especially in the 70s, all the black brothers around were at least wearing moustaches, but because of the conservative congregation he was in, he "...had to go around looking like a fool!"

His point was clear: It's okay for blacks, but not okay for whites. Sound racist at all to you? If not, try reversing the statement and trying to apply it to anything else: It's okay for whites, but not okay for blacks.

Poztate

they have it because they are starched, white collar, conservative bible sales men. it makes sense when you think about it.
ts

Bible (book) salesmen are what they are.As such in my old congo they got all pissy about beards,facial hair of any kind (except on sisters) WHITE shirts only...No pastels and an approved tie for platform work. Are they a high control group or cult Well of course not...

Why do you even ask such a silly question....

A Paduan

I think it's a great unwritten rule - it means there's at least a section of society (bearded) that odds are can be generally trusted without going through the Spanish inquisition first.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

but we are “not making it a rule”, just don’t wear a beard”

Yeh, and 'it isn't a religion' either.

James Free

re: If Jesus arrived in a kingdom hall with a beard would they deny him priviliges...

I asked this once. The response was that Jesus would be willing to shave off his beard because he never wanted to cause offence and always adhered to the Jewish Law even though he did not have to. The arguement is that it's not about a beard, it's about attitude and obedience.

The 'unwritten' law was not freely published because the arguements are too weak. But it IS WRITTEN in the guidlines given to district overseers regarding who can be used on the platform. It is a rule. As anyone with experience in the Org. can tell you, NOTHING gets past the GB. If they didn't want this rule it would stop in a week.

It's like the 1975 fiasco. The GB was careful not to state that Armageddon was a sure bet in that year, just in case it backfired. Instead they hinted and hinted and hinted. Later of course they blamed everyone else but themselves for the false interpretation of prophesy in their usual humble way. But in this Org. NOTHING gets said without their approval.

I kick myself everyday for allowing these lying pharisees to control my life for so many years. I may be free of them now, but it took many years until I could accept the blindingly obvious, that they are not God's Org.

beards not a rule but!!!

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