new thread
Well, I first introduce myself: I'm Will, a 19 yrs old french student.Been growing my hair since december 2002, and when I first had negative comments (quite a minority though) I tried to find out why these people were wrong... I'm gonna start with my first story: I have a buddy whose parents are sort of "overreligious" (if this exists). He told me his parents did not like to see him hanging out with me, the guy who let his hair grow and looks like evil. So I decided to prove his mother she was wrong thanks to a simple logic system :
catholic-->Jesus-->Long-hair-->evil?? !!!
Sounds easy, but I swear that's enough to get rid of unpleasant parents....
Another time, I'll tell you why soldiers should have long hair!
Keep on struggling!
Insults are nothing!
The religious argument is fraught with contradictions. The images of Jesus on the cross are images created by renaissance artists - of a caucasian renaissance man. Jesus was a first century Jew. The Roman influenced culture during the first century preferred short hair. See where this is going? Straight to St Pauls's letter to the Corinthians...
Samson was a Nazarite. Nazarites refused to cut their hair.
Contradictions, contradictions...
I definitely agree with you, contradictions are an important part of religions, what makes them sometimes unfortunately misunderstood. Misunderstood like many long-haired guys to get back to the point :=)
Jesus want to look like a Roman?
There are also theories that Jesus had a long braid down his back...
nobody knows for sure...but I believe our French friend was
only talking about all the popular pictures of Jesus with long hair...
and yet no one thinks of him as being 'bad'...
I think you miss my point - that what we know about the fashions of the time suggests that he probably wore his hair in the style of those times - i.e. short and that we cannot take the renaissance image as definitive. Of course, we will never really know for sure (and does it matter anyway). My main argument is that using the bible as a source of reference is fraught with difficutlies because of all the contradictions.
My advice, therefore, was not to go down that route...
one thing IS for sure... he was not a SkinHead®
Strange...whether too long...OR too short...
and people may look at you funny!
This is doubtless true... ;-)
Not to confront you mark, but short hair in Roman times was only for elite people. Centurions, emperors and rich people.
The Empire was huge and that kind of fashion didn't really affect people from the oppresed provinces, like the one Jesus lived in, so I say they would do the contrary of what their enemies and oppressors did.
The idea of depicting Jesus with short hair is only an attack on traditional catholic beliefs. A lot of people want to discredit the Vatican and invent a lot of crap. Take Stigmata for instance, all Stigmata is a load of crap. This isn't a religious debate, but its enough proof to show that a lot of shit and false things are said about all this. Jesus did have long hair, and Paul's letter reflect a personal opinion of a man of God that didn't feel very confy with it, or something. Fundamentalist Christians have to cover up their lies, because they contradict each other. So to support the Paul's statement as they understand it, they have to give Jesus a haircut... what a shame.
It's getting a bit off topic, I know, but my comment was that there is a tremendous amount of contradiction - and I was trying to make the point that given the contradictions, it is not a good starting point for justification. Indded, it's best to leave religion well out of it.
Having said that, the Roman empire covered most of Europe and parts of Africa over a period of several hundred years. Inevitably their culture would creep into the occupied peoples - it certainly did in Britain. The Celts embraced their way of life and continued it after they left. Indeed, such was its influence over the oppressed peoples that the last emporers weren't even Roman and the centre of the empire was Constantinople. Given time, oppressed nations will inevitably absorb the culture of the occupying force and a similar osmosis will creep the other way.
The middle eastern peoples have been wearing their hair short for a long time...longer than western europeans. The traditional catholic beliefs derive from European ideals and roots - not Jewish ones.
You're quite right, of course. There is a great deal of propaganda that has spread over the centuries. And in your last paragraph you echo my original point. However, you don't know whether Jesus wore his hair long any more than I do...unless you were around during the first century. ;-)
Delta Force lets you have long hair. Delta is also the army's elite counter terroist unit. See, you must be elite to have long hair :)