Coldsteel,
Youtube videos do
make the beard policy look ridiculous. In fact, Youtube videos can make
anything and everything under the sun look ridiculous.
Technically, there
is no such thing as beard policy. There is no written
policy or rule with the JW’s that you will be disfellowshipped for wearing the
beard. Yes, you are discouraged to wear one, you may lose your privileges, etc,
but won’t be disfellowshipped.
Why do religions have such
policies? To understand this, first you need to remember that all religions in
this world are technically like corporate organizations with written and
unwritten rules of conduct. You will have such policies in all religions. Some
disallow beards, some force circumcision, some want special garments to be
worn, some encourage flagellation, etc. Each religion follows rules from their
holy books and frames new ones which they feel needs to be adhered to either gain
new followers or to create an environment of decency for existing followers.
In south India, there is a temple which doesn’t
allow menstruating females to come in, and there is a religious festival where men are asked to wear full black clothes and not go near women
during this 41 day period.
Does religion
have a monopoly over making policies? No. In many corporate organizations,
there is a formal dress policy where employees who are into client facing jobs
are not allowed to wear casuals during client interactions. In my organization,
casual clothing is not allowed during the weekdays. People may like wearing
long hair or pony tails, but many multinational companies disallow that. Even
though they may not kick you out, but they won’t allow such people to represent
the company in client meetings. So if you work in an organization, you either
follow those rules or you get out. There are countries who allow beards in the military
while some who don’t. Policies are everywhere.
You have rules
on this forum too, which have been excellently set up to avoid un-civil people
to ruin discussions. People may feel that they have a right to be annoying.
People may feel that discussing pornography and sexual activities are not
taboo. But you are not allowed to do that on this forum, and we are thankful
for that. If you don’t agree, don’t join or be ready to be banned.
What about
stumbling? A person can pretty much stumble over any point of personal
preference. Jesus did wear a beard, but also wore seamless fringed robes and jewish sandals. Russell too kept a beard, but without a mustache and wore glasses much
lower on his nose bridge and also chose to have a celibate marriage. These were
personal preferences. There nothing that indicates that Russell was imitating
Jesus in keeping his beard, because if he was, he would have also kept a
mustache. Hence there is no point in wearing a beard by using an argument that
Jesus and Russell had one.
Like corporate
organizations, religious organizations have complete authority to make rules
and change them. Since belonging to a religion is a voluntary choice, a person
either lives with those rules or he gets out of it. Post which, he either moves on
in life or keeps cribbing about his ex-religion’s policies.
