• Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Facial Hair

O

OnlyaSinner

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
InTheLight said:
I apologize for mis-reading the OP. The OP said, "here is another BJU type question" but never actually named BJU as the culprit from the 70's and 80's that said it was sinful for men to wear beards. I just assumed that was the entity in question.
Click to expand...

Not a problem and thanks for demonstrating humility. For all I know, BJU was strongly opposed to facial hair in the 1970s, due to the lifestyles of many who grew beards in the 1960s. Kind of silly in hindsight, which is always 20-20.

I dabbled with growing facial hair while at forestry summer camp 40+ years back, but found that beards and blackflies don't mix. (Actually, they mix too well, to the advantage of the bloodthirsty little beasts.) Did come home with a muzzy, which lasted four years, until I got tired of having ice cubes hanging below my nose for much of the winter.
 
M

Marooncat79

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
A couple of stories

One of the worse sermons I ever heard was by Jack Hyles and he was screaming that Jesus did not have a beard, he had sideburns. I cant remember if it was the same sermon or not but he also had a sermon entitled "long hair"

A friend of mine grew up in Alaska- his parents were missionaries to the Aleuts there. A pastor from the lower 48 came and preached a sermon against women wearing pants- in Alaska-everyone should wear pants there!! The congregation basically laughed at him and he lost a great opportunity to share Gods Word due to being so misguided-they basically shut him out
 
J

Jkdbuck76

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
TadQueasy said:
Thanks goodness they are becoming fewer. Completely ridiculous idea. Almost as dumb as the pastor that I know who was asked to preach at a church. He showed up in a shirt and tie, yet the shirt was not white. He was asked to change into a white shirt before preaching. And even crazier they had a selection of white shirts in a back room that he could select from. Sad.
Click to expand...

Sounds like he visited T_ny H_tson's church. There is a vid of his "preaching" online and he talks about how white shirts are required for preaching. smh
 
W

wpe3bql

Member
In my OP, I wrote that the "Facial Hair" issue was a BJU-type issue.

Lest I be misinterpreted and/or misunderstood, I have no real problem with a school establishing whatever standards they deem as "proper." It's their school, and they have this right to do so.

Moreover, BJU was not the only school that had what today we might consider rather ill-conceived standards; rather, it was probably because it was the most well-known "fundamentalist" school that had such standards as these that we brand such standards as "BJU-ish" ones.

As was indicated in one of the posts, it would seem that BJU has chosen to modify some of the standards that it once had. IMHO, I consider that to be a positive thing.

Moreover, I do not wish to cast any dispersion on the quality of education that a person either got "back then" or gets today from BJU. IMHO, BJU is one of the better post-secondary institutions in the USA.

Also, I believe the resources that BJU Press offers are probably the best that are available for conservative Bible believers today.

When I taught HS-level classes in both history and economics back some 20+ years ago in a Christian school, I found their textbooks and related teacher guides to be far superior than what was offered by other Christian school publishers.

So, please do not think I'm some kind of "anti-BJU person." I'm not.
 
A

annsni

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
BJU Press homeschooling materials are wonderful. I've used them for the last 10 years!

As for facial hair, whatever. ;) Seriously, to me, facial hair really isn't something to worry about but I do understand that it is an issue for some. I just don't get it.
 
HankD

HankD

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I have a full beard. Have had it for over 40 years.
Didn't have it in Bible College so it wasn't an issue then (but it would have been).

Only one missionary who visited our local church was outraged by my beard.
No one else seems to care. Other men in our local church have "facial hair".

HankD
 
righteousdude2

righteousdude2

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
wpe3bql said:
OK, here's another BJU-type question:

Facial hair on men.

Back in the 1970's -1980's many IFB churches preached "hot and heavy" about how sinful it is for Christian adult males to have any kind of facial hair (beards, mustaches, & even "extended side burns"). Some probably went so far as to indicate that if a Christian adult male did display facial hair, "He'll have to 'answer for it' at the bema seat of Christ!!"

According to this viewpoint, Charles Haddon Spurgeon "lost rewards."

Although not all of our POTUS were "born-again, Bible-thumping, KJVO advocates," about 20 of them had "ungodly facial hair." And at least 4-5 of our first POTUS's may have had "long hair," but they hid it under their powdered whigs.

Moreover, Isaiah 50:6 says of the LORD GOD, "I gave ....my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair." That'd pretty hard to do if the LORD GOD were "clean-shaven," wouldn't it?

So, is it therefore a SIN for a Christian adult male to display any/all forms of facial hair?

Personally, I don't "display much facial hair," but that may be partly due to the fact that I spent about 34% of my life in the military.

What's your opinion/view on Christian adult males displaying "facial hair"?

All I want is your opinion(s), nothing more or less.

Oh yes, let's not split hairs over this! :laugh:
Click to expand...

My ex, didn't appreciate an unshaven face. And she hated beards that much more! Well, I grew a beard back in the days, and never cut it off since than. I didn't do it to despise her, I just feel comfortable in a beard, and it is hear to stay!

Thus, she learned to live with it, but eventually left me for a clean shaven guy!

Now I have a wife of 35 plus years, and she loves the beard and never wants it gone!

PLUS - It goes a long way to cover the wrinkles and the turkey neck. Try it, you may like it! :smilewinkgrin: :thumbs:
 
John of Japan

John of Japan

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
wpe3bql said:
OK, here's another BJU-type question:

Facial hair on men.

Back in the 1970's -1980's many IFB churches preached "hot and heavy" about how sinful it is for Christian adult males to have any kind of facial hair (beards, mustaches, & even "extended side burns"). Some probably went so far as to indicate that if a Christian adult male did display facial hair, "He'll have to 'answer for it' at the bema seat of Christ!!"
Click to expand...
To the best of my memory, in my 60 some years as an independent Baptist I never heard anyone preach a sermon on facial hair or mention it in a sermon. In my two years at BJU (1970-1972) and years at Tennessee Temple and Maranatha, I likewise never heard a word about it. I have heard preachers speak against long hair on men, but never facial hair.

IFB colleges typically do not allow facial hair on students with some exceptions, notably if they had it before coming to college. But the Bible is never given as a reason. Right or wrong, it's simply a matter of student discipline.
 
Deacon

Deacon

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
John of Japan said:
To the best of my memory, in my 60 some years as an independent Baptist I never heard anyone preach a sermon on facial hair or mention it in a sermon. In my two years at BJU (1970-1972) and years at Tennessee Temple and Maranatha, I likewise never heard a word about it. I have heard preachers speak against long hair on men, but never facial hair.

IFB colleges typically do not allow facial hair on students with some exceptions, notably if they had it before coming to college. But the Bible is never given as a reason. Right or wrong, it's simply a matter of student discipline.
Click to expand...
I've heard thousands of sermons; unfortunately the ones I remember best are usually the worst ones.

A former pastor gave a sermon on the evils of facial hair; the primary point I remember was that it scratched the spouse and therefore dishonored her.
We had a full bearded gentleman in the membership - I don't think he was convinced. - - - oddly enough, years later the pastor (now a Baptist professor) grew a beard and has one to this day.

I've got a short goatee - my wife is quite gray and enjoys the aged look my graying goatee gives me since my hair is full and brown.

Rob
 
W

wpe3bql

Member
I could be wrong, but I believe that at least one reason for (especially in some IFB circles) some folks being 'agin facial hair on adult males might have been a reaction to what the male "hippies" were doing with their not only their facial hair, but also the hair growing on the tops of their heads.

I suppose it was sort of a "guilt by association" reaction, i.e., if an adult male had any kind of facial hair (beards, moustaches, goatees, extended sideburns, or hair that fell beyond the eyelashes in the front or "touched the collar" of his ["white"! :smilewinkgrin:] shirt), then he was a "hippie" or at least was sympathetic with them.

One example was at one Bible college who had this type of rule. However, there was in its student body a retired IFB preacher (& WW2 vet) who had (shudder) a gray moustache. How to treat this seeming "violation"? Well, the president did make this exception: You could keep the moustache as long as you had it for at least 25 years before you enrolled in the Bible college!! :thumbsup:
 
InTheLight

InTheLight

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
wpe3bql said:
I could be wrong, but I believe that at least one reason for (especially in some IFB circles) some folks being 'agin facial hair on adult males might have been a reaction to what the male "hippies" were doing with their not only their facial hair, but also the hair growing on the tops of their heads.

I suppose it was sort of a "guilt by association" reaction, i.e., if an adult male had any kind of facial hair (beards, moustaches, goatees, extended sideburns, or hair that fell beyond the eyelashes in the front or "touched the collar" of his ["white"! :smilewinkgrin:] shirt), then he was a "hippie" or at least was sympathetic with them.
Click to expand...

Well, yes. This sort of thing falls under the broad category of being "worldly". Long hair on Christian boys and men in the 70's was "worldly". Mustaches and beards on Christians were "worldly". Funny how when the worldly style became short hair on men and no mustaches there was no outcry about Christian men with short hair being like the world.
 
W

wpe3bql

Member
I believe that "anti-long hair" crowd probably used I Corinthians 11:14 as their "proof text":

"Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?"

I guess they conveniently overlooked I Corinthians 11:16:

"But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top