Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

General Christian Theology
Valerie
Posts: 5309
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:59 am
Location: Medina OH
Affiliation: non-denominational

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Valerie »

Josh wrote:
Valerie wrote:
Josh wrote:Most Old Order Mennonites do not have beards.
Thank you. So at what point in Anabaptist history, do you know, did it become a prevailing practice to be clean shaven? Do you know the history of what led to this? I am curious how this took place-
A better question is to ask when Anabaptists became so obsessed with things like beards, beard lengths, shaving of moustaches, and so on. It isn't present in any writings in the 1500s.
Yes but during that time period, didn't all men wear beards? I think you may have it backwards, at some point, men became obsessed with and requiring 'shaving'- Men were made to have beards & mustaches, God's design, I am not sure why the implication that it was all of a sudden an obsession I think it is the other way around?
0 x
User avatar
Josh
Posts: 23828
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 6:23 pm
Location: 1000' ASL
Affiliation: The church of God

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Josh »

Valerie,

Do you think woman shouldn't shave armpits, legs, etc either?

How about men trimming nose and ear hair?
0 x
Valerie
Posts: 5309
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:59 am
Location: Medina OH
Affiliation: non-denominational

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Valerie »

Josh wrote:Valerie,

Do you think woman shouldn't shave armpits, legs, etc either?

How about men trimming nose and ear hair?
I believe that God designed men to grow a beard & mustache for a reason, and for women to not grow it for a reason- and in appearance, it makes the genders very distinguished facially-
I don't know how God feels about women shaving the areas you suggest, perhaps not- many cultures, women do not.
BUT you cannot see those areas so it would have nothing to do with confusing the genders.
I am just calling out the fact that you thought that all of a sudden some became obsessed with growing beards. Actually, it started being a requirement, to shave them- why???
0 x
Neto
Posts: 4580
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 5:43 pm
Location: Holmes County, Ohio
Affiliation: Gospel Haven

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Neto »

Valerie wrote:
Josh wrote:Valerie,

Do you think woman shouldn't shave armpits, legs, etc either?

How about men trimming nose and ear hair?
I believe that God designed men to grow a beard & mustache for a reason, and for women to not grow it for a reason- and in appearance, it makes the genders very distinguished facially-
I don't know how God feels about women shaving the areas you suggest, perhaps not- many cultures, women do not.
BUT you cannot see those areas so it would have nothing to do with confusing the genders.
I am just calling out the fact that you thought that all of a sudden some became obsessed with growing beards. Actually, it started being a requirement, to shave them- why???
If one uses the logic that women (generally) cannot grow beards while men do naturally as the reason for men to wear beards, then why should men cut their hair short? It grows quite long naturally. (I'm not necessarily arguing with your conclusions, just questioning how you get there.) (Oh, and ear & nose hair, and long eyebrows, for that matter, are a vexation men must deal with as they age. It is a natural part of aging, but not exactly welcome.)
0 x
Congregation: Gospel Haven Mennonite Fellowship, Benton, Ohio (Holmes Co.) a split from Beachy-Amish Mennonite.
Personal heritage & general theological viewpoint: conservative Mennonite Brethren.
Valerie
Posts: 5309
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:59 am
Location: Medina OH
Affiliation: non-denominational

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Valerie »

Neto wrote:
Valerie wrote:
Josh wrote:Valerie,

Do you think woman shouldn't shave armpits, legs, etc either?

How about men trimming nose and ear hair?
I believe that God designed men to grow a beard & mustache for a reason, and for women to not grow it for a reason- and in appearance, it makes the genders very distinguished facially-
I don't know how God feels about women shaving the areas you suggest, perhaps not- many cultures, women do not.
BUT you cannot see those areas so it would have nothing to do with confusing the genders.
I am just calling out the fact that you thought that all of a sudden some became obsessed with growing beards. Actually, it started being a requirement, to shave them- why???
If one uses the logic that women (generally) cannot grow beards while men do naturally as the reason for men to wear beards, then why should men cut their hair short? It grows quite long naturally. (I'm not necessarily arguing with your conclusions, just questioning how you get there.) (Oh, and ear & nose hair, and long eyebrows, for that matter, are a vexation men must deal with as they age. It is a natural part of aging, but not exactly welcome.)
I am not sure why God designed our hair to continuously grow- I do not believe that women are to grow their hair forever and ever without cutting it at all.
Apostle Paul said it was a shame for men to have long hair (although there were exceptions to this Biblically) and for a woman to have short hair. This seems to imply a gender difference, and a woman's hair is her glory, and covering- so the Bible explains that.
God designed men to have beards and mustaches & He told His elect, the Jews not to groom their beards a certain way in Leviticus- I am not certain why- however, doesn't it make sense that since it was these same Jews that started the Church, as the Jewish women wore veils, so did the Christian women- as the Jewish men wore beards & mustaches (God's command) so did the New Testament Christians.

I can understand Christians carrying this on through the centuries, but I do not understand why it became a requirement to shave- was this simply to distinguish from the Amish who believe they should wear beards? I know you said you wear a beard Neto, what do you think of this article? http://www.revelation.co/2013/05/12/wha ... ow-beards/
0 x
RZehr
Posts: 7029
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2016 12:42 am
Affiliation: Cons. Mennonite

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by RZehr »

I think the requirement to shave was a product of its time, and not a product of searching the scriptures for teaching about facial hair.

I think at that time shaving and being clean shaven was the norm for N American society, and rebels or whatever grew beards. Conservative Americans were clean shaven.
And I'm guessing that this time period coincided with a conservative revival in certain Mennonite groups and/or areas. To these conservative people, facial hair was something the few nonconformist of society practiced and were identified by. Therefore, these groups felt that to have a beard sent a signal that they did not want to be identified with. So they ruled beards out.

Times & society changed but the rule didn't.

I didn't do any research on this subject, just sitting in a chair here, but I bet I'm not too far off.
0 x
Valerie
Posts: 5309
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:59 am
Location: Medina OH
Affiliation: non-denominational

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Valerie »

RZehr wrote:I think the requirement to shave was a product of its time, and not a product of searching the scriptures for teaching about facial hair.

I think at that time shaving and being clean shaven was the norm for N American society, and rebels or whatever grew beards. Conservative Americans were clean shaven.
And I'm guessing that this time period coincided with a conservative revival in certain Mennonite groups and/or areas. To these conservative people, facial hair was something the few nonconformist of society practiced and were identified by. Therefore, these groups felt that to have a beard sent a signal that they did not want to be identified with. So they ruled beards out.

Times & society changed but the rule didn't.

I didn't do any research on this subject, just sitting in a chair here, but I bet I'm not too far off.
If this is the case, that led to churches 'requiring' clean shaven faces, then to me it almost implies that instead of focusing on what God says, to focusing on watching what the world does and then adjusting ourselves accordingly- maybe I'm drawing the wrong conclusion- I find this whole situation perplexing-
0 x
User avatar
Josh
Posts: 23828
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 6:23 pm
Location: 1000' ASL
Affiliation: The church of God

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Josh »

Valerie,

That's why I disagree with the Wesleyan Holiness / Pentecostal / Revivalist movement, as it focused a lot on what men wanted but didn't focus too much on what Jesus or the Bible tells us.
0 x
Valerie
Posts: 5309
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:59 am
Location: Medina OH
Affiliation: non-denominational

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Valerie »

Josh wrote:Valerie,

That's why I disagree with the Wesleyan Holiness / Pentecostal / Revivalist movement, as it focused a lot on what men wanted but didn't focus too much on what Jesus or the Bible tells us.
I'm simply amazed at times at the amount of research and studying you have done, actually I admire that very much, I would that Christians everywhere would research- and learn-
Had we have done our homework on so many things, we probably would have stayed away from the Pentecostal movement to begin with- but indeed, from Scripture, we believe in the Gifts of the Spirit, and so it is difficult to deny them, actually unscriptural to deny them- however discerning the gifts is a whole different topic altogether. We live in strange times-

Couldn't it be, Josh, that those groups were using Scripture as their foundational beliefs and doctrines? this is really a bunny trail-
0 x
Neto
Posts: 4580
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 5:43 pm
Location: Holmes County, Ohio
Affiliation: Gospel Haven

Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Neto »

RZehr wrote:I think the requirement to shave was a product of its time, and not a product of searching the scriptures for teaching about facial hair.

I think at that time shaving and being clean shaven was the norm for N American society, and rebels or whatever grew beards. Conservative Americans were clean shaven.
And I'm guessing that this time period coincided with a conservative revival in certain Mennonite groups and/or areas. To these conservative people, facial hair was something the few nonconformist of society practiced and were identified by. Therefore, these groups felt that to have a beard sent a signal that they did not want to be identified with. So they ruled beards out.

Times & society changed but the rule didn't.

I didn't do any research on this subject, just sitting in a chair here, but I bet I'm not too far off.
It would be interesting to know why the Old Colony Mennonites didn't approve of beards, but it was already that way before beards became a symbol of rebellion in some Western sub-cultures. In Russia, there had been a beard tax instituted by the government, to try to bring the culture into line with European practice at the time. (Russia was sorely "backward" culturally.
This would have been in the middle 1800's, as I recall.) The few pictures we have of my ancestors (mostly my great-grandfathers, some great-great-grandfathers) show them with full beards, but not terribly long, either. The next generation, or even pictures taken after some years in the States, show that the trend to being clean-shaven had been completed.
0 x
Congregation: Gospel Haven Mennonite Fellowship, Benton, Ohio (Holmes Co.) a split from Beachy-Amish Mennonite.
Personal heritage & general theological viewpoint: conservative Mennonite Brethren.
Post Reply