Every week, without fail, I will get at least one email from an Evangelical who mistakes me for a Christian. I don’t know how this happens. My bio is on the top of every page and at the bottom of every post. It says:
Bruce Gerencser, 65, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 44 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
I know that some Evangelicals are lazy readers, lacking basic curiosity. (Please see Curiosity, A Missing Evangelical Trait.) When I read a new site, I always check out the bio page. I want to know more about the author, especially his or her background.
Several days ago, I received the following email from a Southern Baptist man:
I attend an SBC church and have been surprised lately to see a man who is admittedly a new Christian and former rock musician, come into the church, become a deacon in a short period of time, and then started wearing pony tails, hair clips, man buns, while he sings whatever emotionally filled song he can find. He was allowed to baptize recently and was obviously nervous doing so with him not even mentioning the name of Jesus Christ while he was doing so. I am very concerned and the pastor does not even care in spite of mentioning scripture regarding him being a novice and not qualifying to be a deacon as well as the I Corinthians scripture about long hair and men. The pastor states he believes in the inerrancy of scripture, but is fine with this going on stating that he thinks this guy may change with time. It is so discouraging to see such compromise. The church’s school dress code is in conflict with the man who is a leader in the church which hosts the school where my child attends. I don’t understand the complacency on this when we have a society bent on blurring the lines between men and women.
Think about all the things that are going on in the world today, yet this man is concerned with:
- A ponytail-wearing, bun-wearing former rock musician who is now a Christian and sings emotionally filled songs in church; who said the wrong words when baptizing someone
- A pastor who isn’t concerned about this affront to God and the Bible
- The aforementioned man violates the church’s dress code (I had a hard time deciphering what he wrote on this issue)
- The letter writer’s child attends the church’s Christian school, and allowing this man to wear his hair in an “obviously” female style is a sin and sets a bad example for church members and school students
The real issue is that the letter writer thinks it is a sin for a man to have long hair. I wonder if he thinks the same about women wearing short hair? The Bible condemns both. (Please see Is it a Sin for Men to Have Long Hair?) Of all the things to be worried about today: inflation, rising interest rates, the mid-term election, the threat of civil war or nuclear war, or a host of other serious problems facing not only the United States but the world, this man is worried about a longhaired man he doesn’t like singing songs in church.
Welcome to the world of Baptist Fundamentalism.
I sent the letter writer a one-sentence response: you do know I’m an atheist, right? I received no response from him.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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As a general rule, most men in America have much shorter hair then most women. I think the only reason for this is 1 Corinthians. The tradition is so engraved, that even atheist men go get a short haircut without asking why this is the standard. As far as I can tell, it is all based on what an ancient tentmaker wrote long ago.
First, this person who wrote to you shows lack of critical thinking skills in that they didn’t even READ your bio before contacting you. Second, I think this person is jealous of the long-haired musician and is looking for a comrade in condemnation by approaching you. Third, this person is terrified that their kids won’t want to look sufficiently masculine or feminine and might “become gay” (gasp and clutch pearls).
Fundies certainly do get bent out of shape about useless dumb-ass shit.
I just spent a few days visiting friends who live in the Bible Belt. On our drive from the airport I was amazed to see a different church, usually Baptist, every mile along the way. I wondered why there would be the need for so many churches in such a small area but then remembered how trivial differences in doctrine can cause division in the unified body of believers. Long hair on men? Not in my church. Come next door to my short hair church
My entire experience with fundies is they worry about the most ridiculous minutia. I had long hair back in my church going days and I know my mother caught flack from the other uptight hypocrite hens about the length of my hair. Mother was always on me to get a haircut. While I am no fan of the manbun, I think many men look quite good with long hair.
In John Gunther’s book “Death be Not Proud” the author describes his son’s battle with brain cancer. the young man mentions that among his concerns about the brain surgery was that his head would be shaved. his school did not permit the students to have crew cuts. (the son died in 1947, when the crew cut was standard in the military and many of the recently discharged men still kept their hair that short.) Maybe he was trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy, but that indicates that the fuss is not new. We have some writings from the time when Rome ruled in Palestine; the writers commented that the men in Palestine often had long hair; Roman carvings from that era show short hair on the Romans. If the descriptions in the Roman writings are accurate the comments in the Bible were from Romans, not Palestinians. (Perhaps Palestinians is not the best term to use, but that is one way to differentiate the local population of what is now Israel from the Roman empire) Age may not increase wisdom, but it can increase the number of things we remember.
Roman hair style was used by IFB preachers to justify their rants on short hair. Roman men wore short hair, Jesus was a dutiful Roman citizen, thus Jesus had short hair. Jack Hyles believed Roman law required men to cut their hair every 30 days. Another “proof” that Jesus had short hair.
Early Christians faced strong opposition and persecution from the Roman authorities. It makes little sense to me that they would adopt Roman standards and customs. Did other people in the Roman empire also adopt Roman customs and mind-sets? the Latin language certainly influenced what became Spanish, French and several other languages, but how much did the customs of the local people change?