"I begged him to just be patient and serve without a goatee for just 12 months to see if if things settled down as I didn't want to lose a good brother and friend over his small beard.
"He agreed to give it 12 months.
"He rang me within a week to the old elder had rung him up and apologised profusely, saying he was wrong, he could serve with his beard.. this was around 2013 so this issue must have been bubbling up for years."
The level of micromanagement is ridiculous. I didn't realise until reading through these "beard new light" threads that the beard thing was mainly an "unwritten rule". It was so pervasive in exJW conversations that I thought that there must be a pretty comprehensive paper trail in the literature about it. The imagery certainly gave the impression; Jesus had the barest of neatly trimmed beards and a very short, conservative haircut. Heck, there's even one old image of Jesus in a WT, without a beard at all!
I suppose one less club to beat the sheep about the head with is a mercy, albeit a small one.