IS IT REALLY A SHAME TO HAVE LONG HAIR?

As you can tell from this photo, I looked like a typical teenager back in the early seventies. Though I refused to compromise my Christian beliefs, I wore my hair much the same as my peers.

Thanks to Bible teachers like John MacArthur, I now know that Scripture doesn't condemn shoulder-length locks like mine. If it did, men such as Samson would have been in deep trouble.

In my upcoming How I Was Razed memoir, I wrote about the older generation's obsession with my hairstyle, among other things. Here is an excerpt showing how I would have benefited back then from proper biblical instruction.

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

Terry likewise confronted me after one service. "Did you know that it's a sin to have long hair?" Before I could object, he opened his Bible and read from 1 Corinthians 11:14-15. "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering."

"I hate short hair. I had enough of that at Jericho. Besides that, everybody at school wears it long. I don't want to get more teasing than I already get."

"You shouldn't care what the others think. Why don't you dare to be a Daniel, like we sang in church today?"

"Oh yeah? How come Jesus has long hair in all the pictures we see of him?"

"That's just the artist's idea. Besides that, remember what I just read to you? A woman's long hair is her glory, but it's a shame for a man to have long hair."

I sighed and thought, "Here we go again. They just keep on hassling me about my hair."

If I had known my scriptures better, I would have quoted verse sixteen which explains, "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God." i learned much later that Paul wrote of cultural matters and not eternal verities.

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

How I Was Razed is the testimony of the way I was mislead by a cult church, how I turned my back on God after I felt he perennially failed to heal my eyes, and how he graciously brought me to my senses.

My previous books are now available for purchase online by clicking here. You may click here to e-mail me directly as well.