new thread
I'm totally for long hair in men if they want it, but I found some sites that try to use the Bible as justification for men keeping it short. I thought I'd show you all what our competiton is, and perhaps it can promote a discussion on the issue. Now I know people already have counter arguments on the Corinthians chapters in the Bible, but I haven't seen another thread like this (I did check; if I missed it somewhere, I apologize), so let's start a thread on this issue. I'm not trying to incite the wrath of the entire forum on these websites, but rather, see constructive arguments against them, all fitted nicely into one thread.
The first link is for the site of an overzealous pastor who responds to a man's email. While I'm not too sure about the man's claim that God *told* him his long hair was okay, just look at the pastor's reponse. He also makes a nasty comment about homosexuals: http://www.llano.net/baptist/longhaironmen.htm
The next link is of a man quoting Corinthians and using it as the basis for the entire article. He is trying to say how Satanic, feminine, and rebellious it is for men to have long hair. I am a Christian and his article offends me, so if there are other Christians here, read at your own risk:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/7895/longhar.html
Off-topic: BTW, thank you guys. Everytime I get the whim to cut my hair (sometimes it overwhelms my desire to grow it), I only have to come here; all my doubts are erased, and my resolve is strengthened once more.
1. Since when do most gays wear LONG hair? Isn't it just the OPPOSITE?!
2. Long hair responsible for breaking up marriage, family & home?
...hummm...do you think that it's real Love or a strong marriage? Think again!
3. Long hair on a man isn't 'natural'? ummmmmm...then why
does Nature insist on making it grow down to your arse or longer when left alone?
Where's Mr. ScissorHands?
I usually ignore what the new testament says since it tends to be filled with total s***. Basing something regarding long hair because St. Peter said so... wasn't he bald... ok. Old Testament clearly states that a man should cut his hair only once per year. It is part of a man's nature to have long hair.
I've come across a couple of similar sites before - the middle America baptists are particularly vociferous.
St Paul's letter to the Corinthians was just his opinion and he's been dead this past 2000 years - so I generally ignore them. Their opinion is not important.
Religious fundamentalism is evil - pure and simple.
The only freaks are the control freaks who would twist their chosen religion to try and control others.
Some of these Anti-long hair sites remind me of one of the Devil's Beatitudes: "Blessed are the trouble-makers, for they shall be called the children of the devil."
Lucky for me that I am not religous. There are many perceptions and interpretations of each event that took place oh, so many years ago. The only thing that interests me about religion is the number of religions that exist today and each one has slightly modified versions of what went down then. Man is known for telling tales and can only imagine how much the tale has changed in over 2000 years. So let them preech, it is obvious they have nothing better to do with their time.
...I simply dismiss what these nuts are saying. Even if I were still religious, I'd still be questioning these articles on their narrow-minded beliefs.
I think that statement does all the speaking for itself.
These archaic views used to make me angry, now they're just depressing.
theres peoples areguments against hair are just so STUPID and IGNORANT that i can't even put into words how i feel about them
by the way i AM a Christian, and regardless of what people may claim it does NOT say that long hair is a sin in the bible, there is stuff about it, but people who read it that way tend to QUOTE one verse without the surounding text making it appear as how they want it to
the thing in corinthians, by the way is talking about local customs, that's all, it's not talking about comandments or anything like that
also something to use against them when arguing:
it it's pretty likely that Jesus himself DOES have long hair even though people want to argue it dosent say that, it dosent say it exactly in those words BUT it does describe John the baptist as having long hair,beard and unkept apperance, and it also says that Jesus and John looked so much alike that people would confuse them
John the baptist had long hair,beard and unkept apperance...
and since Jesus was his COUSIN and only 6 months apart in age...
they were sometimes confused one with the other...
Also, even if people are not religious...
Just for the record: Paul never said it was a SIN nor a commandment...
And isn't it VERY IRONIC that Jesus is depicted with long hair...
and if you see a picture of him without the hair he sort of becomes
UNrecognizable...
Amen &
Good Luck
He probably looked pretty wild after 40 days in the desert.... ;-)
Hey, you found those pages! I thought they might make a pretty good standup routine.
Imagine Rodney Dangerfield's voice: "I get no respect. All I do is go up to people and tell them they're evil and they look at me like I'm crazy!"
And the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus said it ok to have long hair. I guess I'll believe in them. They're more fun.
The transcribed and re-written twisted history from events 2000 years ago or more shall never effect the actions in my life TODAY. Why should they? I don't live in the past. Or perhaps we should still burn witches at the stake. Or nail people to two peices of wood. How barbaric was that ?
This is an excellent reply. Some christians take biblical texts so seriously. To me the bible's like a novel...I consider it to be mostly fiction from the stone age. All word of mouth, probably much distorted over time. What truly happened back then?? We'll never know.
I don't consider myself a buddist, but I tend to believe more in that kind of philosophy... The law of karma, reincarnation...makes more sense to me. Less dogmatic. Mark Ellott will certainly agree with me on that. We think alike when it come to this subject.
Here a scan I took of the cover of a book I have on buhddhism & general philosophy. It is the best book I have ever read on this topic. It is still in print. Anyone want to find out more, e-mail me.
PS: Notice the yogi's nice long hair Born;1893 Died:1952
Perceptive....
Refer to this site for a biblical look at men growing long hair:
http://www.elite.net/~ebedyah/PastorsSite/otherareas/longhair.htm
Try this site for another (short) rebuttal on the Bible issue: http://www.postfun.com/pfp/tracts/rtb/hair.html
I guess some people believe we should do what the Bible says and apply it to our society today but how many people actually commit the act of "Eye for an eye"?
You could take a line of people and ask them the same question and probably get a different answer from each one about parts of the Bible. Each person has their own interpretation of most of the versus of the Bible.
If you study Revelations closely, most of it is written in symbols. I do believe Revelations is more related to our modern days but other parts of the Bible is too but mainly when the New Testament and Old Testaments were written.
If men are not allowed to have long hair according to the Bible, why did Sampson have long har and why was it his strength?
Well, that is my opinion on this subject.
did I miss something? I mean how can someone say the bible says men should have short hair when jesus(one of the main people in it btw) had long hair? ok now Im confused, and samsons the other example, I thought long hair on men was the common style of the times too.
There are people out there who argue if Jesus had long hair or not. Most pictures I have seen of him depicts him with at least shoulder length hair and even the movies show him that way.
But the truth is that nobody today really knows how long his hair really was.
I was watching one of the nighttime news shows (Dateline, 20/20, etc.) and they had a story about how Jewish men looked at that time. They took an old skull believed to be from the time Jesus walked on earth and put clay and everything on it.
The way it turned out is not the way Jesus looks in all of the pictures and movies you see!
I think the only way we are ever going to know what he really looks like is when we meet him face to face.
But until then we should just hope that Jesus accepts long hair no matter who it is on.
but doesnt the shroud of turin kinda show what he looked like? I think it showed him with the hair.
No, just another fanciful artist's rendering. In brief:
http://www.infidels.org/secular_web/feature/1998/shroud.html
The Discovery channel did an interesting in-depth look at what Jesus most likely would have looked like if he had really existed with the express goal of being as accurate as possible.
Here is what they came up with:
I dont know, the image of a long haired jesus has been around so long, it had to have come from somewhere. I mean why would they make him have long hair if he didnt have it? oh well, lets just say he did have it, and that works out in our(longhairs) favor:) end of story
The oldest pictures of Jesus depict him with short hair.
The Shroud of Turin has an image of a guy with at least longish hair, whoever he is.
Paul was a Roman, and Romans were prejudiced against long hair.
Oh well, I am an atheist anyway, but it's hard to see from where I sit how the words of a Roman writing much later have any weight. What is Corinthians doing in the Bible anyway?
The story never ends.
Here, I made another self-explaining version that you can feel free to spread around.
Jesus accepts the inner man, not the outward appearance, so I don't believe we have anything to worry about when it comes to how we look. We need to keep how we look in the inner soul, such as our attitudes and personalities, in check more than the way we look. Anything more than that is futal arguments. (and no, guys, we can't run around naked in public either! LOL!)
well i AM a religious (although i hate the use of that word....i prefer to say that i am a Christian) who graduated from a BAPTIST seminary with two master's degrees....and i have NO issues with long hair...never have, never will.
you can use the Bible to justify or condemn just about anything...the important thing is to look at it in the context it was written, and apply it in light of today.
while articles like this get me really angry, i just have to ignore them and realize that sadly, the Bible was used at one time to even justify slavery...so if you want to grow your hair, do so, and enjoy it!
mjtoo
I too am a person of faith and a Christian. However, it seems that whenever religion gets mixed up with hair styles, you get a free-for-all. Maybe its because hair is one way of expression, and some see a different message in it than the wearer intends. At any rate, when St. Paul was talking about long hair, he was arguing from social convention of the time (1 Cor 11:16), and social convention of that time has little to do with the long hair controversy today. For Paul, short hair was certainly not the military or buzz cuts that make a statement today, all men then probably wore their hair a bit longer than conservatives would accept today. I think he was arguing against excessive vanity in regard to hair, which religious traditions are consistently uncomfortable with.
I don't think Paul was addressing the same question as today. At any rate, he himself indicated that he was talking only about conventions of style at that time (1 Corinthians 11,16). By "short hair" he certainly did not mean the military or buzz cuts some men get today, the average male haircut was longer than today, but Paul was probably talking of "adorned" hair - religion is generally uncomfortable with excessive vanity. The attack on long hair by Bible literalists is today's political agenda, not scripture.
I think people who have no better explanation than quoting the bible seriously need a clue. they're just affraid of difference and can't find any other way to tell people to stick with short hair like everybody.
isn't their god supposed to be wonderful and forgetful and to love people? why on earth should he care about their hair length?!
i think these people can be safely ignored until they can come up with a valid point.