Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
1 Corinthians 11:13 (NIV)

I spent one semester at a fundamentalist Bible college. The legalistic culture and its effects were a surreal experience in so many ways. I have so many stories from those few months. The saving grace was that I had a friend who shared the experience and we didn’t live on campus, so we got to escape the crazy after class each day and return to the normality of our own homes.

One of the things I learned in my fundamentalist sojourn was that legalistic systems pick their hills to die on when it comes to rule following. At the school we were attending, one of those hills was the length of hair that men were required to maintain. It had to be short. This was defined as a man’s hair couldn’t touch the collar of your dress shirt. A coat and tie were required attire in class for men. Women had to wear skirts or dresses with a hem that was below the knee. These rules had to be perpetually justified and reinforced, so it was always interesting when a lecture would randomly stray into a defense of one of the schools rules.

We were in a class called Biblical Hermeneutics (e.g. How to interpret the Biblical text) one day when the professor launched into a defense of the short hair rule. One of the defenses for the rule comes from today’s chapter: “Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair it is to her glory?”

Today’s chapter is filled with instructions that Paul gave to the church regarding head coverings and hair. The passage fuels life practices in different believer groups to this day. When you see a group of Amish or Mennonite women with their hair pulled up under a bonnet, the practice comes directly from following Paul’s instructions in today’s chapter.

Of course, one of the other lessons I learned from my months in a fundamentalist and legalistic system is that they also pick and choose which rules to be legalistic about and which to ignore. Our school was rabid about men having short hair, but they completely ignored Paul’s instructions in today’s chapter about women wearing head coverings. Likewise, I find it fascinating that Paul ends this same letter to the Corinthians by telling them directly to “greet one another with a holy kiss.” In fact, Paul gives this same instruction in four different letters! Not once did my professor kiss me!!

As I was meditating on this passage this morning and all of the layers of cultural and religious context, I could help but notice that Paul clearly tells the Corinthian believers, “Judge for yourselves.”

Thanks, Paul. I think I will.

There was recently an article in the Wall Street Journal about the resurgence of young women in the Catholic church choosing to wear traditional veils when they attend mass. It was interesting to hear their reasoning and I think it’s awesome that they are finding spiritual lessons in the practice as they judge for themselves. At the same time, I once knew a follower of Jesus who had hair that was so long it went all the way down to his butt. He had a friend who went to prison and he promised his friend he would pray for him every day and would not cut his hair until his friend was released. Now that’s a cool expression of love for a friend and I’m glad he judged for himself to do it.

In both of these instances, sincere followers of Jesus have made different choices for different reasons. Each of them are making their choice from a place of spiritual growth and increasing maturity. Neither of them is doing it because a legalistic religious system is demanding it from them and threatening them with negative consequences if they disobey.

In the quiet this morning, I’m actually thankful for my experiences at that Bible College. It taught me so many valuable lessons about what being a follower of Jesus is and isn’t. It exposed me to fundamentalist legalism and allowed me to see it and personally examine it from the inside. And it continues to remind me of St. Augustine’s wisdom:

In the essentials, unity.
In the non-essentials, liberty.
In all things, charity.

I sometimes fantasize about being able to go back into those classes with all the knowledge and life experience I now have. When my professor was waxing eloquent about how Paul directly says that long hair is a disgrace on a man. I’d ask him to flip to the end and read 1 Corinthians 16:20 where it says just as directly to greet one another with a holy kiss.

“Pucker-up, Professor!”

Or perhaps we should all, with spiritual maturity, learn to judge for ourselves about these things.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.