It was hard to imagine that if I didn't stop wearing Bonne Bell lip gloss, I would single-handedly prevent Jesus from returning and my family from being saved.
When I was 19 and a sophomore at Indiana University, I returned home one weekend and went to church with my parents to discover that the church's founder, Herbert Armstrong, decided that the reason Jesus hadn't returned was that women were wearing makeup. "Makeup is an abomination. Throw it out!" the minister screamed in a blistering sermon. "If you let makeup come between you and God," the minister continued, "then you will not make it into the kingdom! Women, it's because of you that Jesus cannot return."
His words were incomprehensible, despite being blunt and clear. It was hard to imagine that if I didn't stop wearing Bonne Bell lip gloss, I would single-handedly prevent Jesus from returning and my family from being saved.
In adolescence, I discovered the power of makeup to draw my fair features into definition. Mascara delineated my eyes. Eyebrow pencil and lipstick offered pops of color to my pale face. I'd been fed up with the church's attitude toward women and their subservient roles growing up, but when I argued against it, my father explained that God created a role for everything in the universe, including men and women.
See full article here: How Wearing Makeup Helped Me Recover From a Religious Cult
18 comments:
Yet another story about how the idiocy of Herbert Armstrong completely impacted a life.
"It was up to the church members to pray enough, tithe enough, and be obedient enough to ensure that Jesus would return."
""If you let makeup come between you and God," the minister continued, "then you will not make it into the kingdom! Women, it's because of you that Jesus cannot return."
What an arrogant, pretentious, misogynist statement. What a lie! Apparently, the power of a little lip gloss keeps Jesus from coming back. What stupidity. There was absolutely no truth in that statement. Herb had a problem with makeup, and used the Lord to manipulate women to his will.
"It's because of you" is something Herb said over and over again - nothing was ever his fault. This is the true legacy of a narcissistic bully.
Ha! I remember a ministurd or two taking that same stance. It was a
strange bit of reasoning even then.
Interesting that her journey leads her to become a 'devote Jewish woman'.
Another example of the church lying through its teeth in order to control its members. Just like a school yard bully. It's bully morality that defined minister behavior rather than biblical teachings.
HWA and company tended to view their opinions and views on this or that to be "revealed truth" Of course, HWA was notorious for doing and then undoing and then doing again. That was my first hint we're not talking truth here but mere opinion from on high. It was the on high thing that made it seem more important or relevant than, in fact, it was. Over time, after having learned this about many of HWA or even Tkach's pronouncements that the best rule for me to follow was "Ask (HQ) and you shall not have. Do not ask and all things are possible." I will spare you the myriad of examples and times I practiced this and thus no regrets to this day.
How many times did HWA change his mind? Pentecost? Makeup? D&R? It does not seem to be nearly as many as some people make it out to be.
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HWA was a product of his generation. Make up was bad. Masturbation can cause mental and physical illness, even death. One of his problems is he couldn't separate his opinions from Scripture. He would use the Bible like a drunk uses a lamp post, for support rather than illumination.
How many times did HWA change his mind?
After a long delay, Pentecost and D&R were changed once, in 1974. There were some things, such as accreditation, that he did toss back and forth.
The Makeup rule, that started in the 1950s, was changed in the early 1970s, but then HWA said he never changed it and blamed others for doing so. He claimed that removal of the makeup rule was one of Satan's deceptions that got the church "off track".
Bob Thiel, who claims to have set the "Philadelphia standard", argues that this rule no longer applies.
The Sytlistics had a song that applies here and the history of the COG...
"Makeup to Breakup , thats all we do! ...First you love us , then you hate us, thats a game for fools!"
Nobody wore watches in Biblical times. Just like makeup delaying events, maybe watches are the real cause of delay. The watch theory has just as much validity as the makeup theory.
HWA was a product of his generation.
Yeah, some people in those days said just having a deck of cards was a sin. So was dancing. I guess you could say our beloved Herb was a liberal. He was even ahead of his time ... feeling up his own daughter.
I can't fathom anyone being so fanatical that they would even consider lip gloss to be makeup. What the heck are you supposed to do for chapped lips in the winter?
I've got a theory. HWA was said to have banned make up because he didn't like that his daughters wore it to excess. I believe that they probably did this because he made them feel so cheap. So he caused the effect, and then banned it.
In the '70s, church ladies in Pasadena got into Jafra natural skincare products. There were Jafra parties where lotions and bodywashes were sold. It was a way of evening out skin texture and clarity without the dreaded lipstick, rouge, eye shadow, and powder.
BB
8.25 PM
Why stomp on the topic being discussed by bringing up Herbs incest? It's happened too often.
ANON: 10:32
Because, it was HWAs sexual hangups that caused the makeup ban. He considered makeup "whoredom", and because of his own early sexual history with prostitutes during his business forays, found makeup to be a seducer and temptation.
His incest and other sexual hangups shows that he had poor control in that area, and as he did in many things in the church, blamed others for it! (ie, his wife dying was because the brethren weren't giving enough etc). In effect, he blamed his lack of self control on sexuality on the women, not on his own lust.
Connie,
Your explanation is fine. You have woven Herbs incest into the topic. But 8.25 PM did not do this. Incest is disgusting, and to needlessly bring it up when a lighter topic is being discussed is inappropriate.
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