Fifty years ago, (Hoooly Long Haired Lions!), when I was 18, Garner Ted Armstrong went Bat Sh%# Crazy in the middle of a sermon in the AC Gym and screamed, "If you don't like it here, get out!" It was a real quiet moment in the gym and a what's buggin' him moment. He went back to the sermon.
The following Monday, Richard Plache came and got me out of Freshman Bible class and said, "Mr. Ted Armstrong wants to see you." It was a quiet elevator ride up to the 4th heaven in the Hall of Administration....
When I got into his office, there he was in the flesh. I had never met him but had listened to him on the radio as a teen with my transistor radio. It would of been an great moment, but I sensed this was not going to be a great moment.
He had his hands behind his head and his feet on his desk. Uh oh....defense mode. The first words GTA ever said to me in this world were, "Why do you hate me?" I said, "Why would I hate you? I just got here at AC. I have admired you on the radio for years." He said, "Do you know I was talking to YOU in the sermon Sabbath?" Ugh...well, I did notice he was staring over my way when he went nuts. I assured him that all was well and I really had no idea why he would feel that way. (It took a decade for me to figure what the real problem was that day. I was dating the same student he was. He feared I knew too much and my look to him that Sabbath proved it.) Any way...he then told me, assured I knew nothing much, said..."Well your hair is too long and you are to get a haircut. It covers your forehead and the forehead is the seat of the intellect."
Sure fine, what? Everything in me wanted to ask if the frontal bones also blocked the intellect, but I wasn't ready for that move yet. So I submitted to a Church of God haircut for men. It looked no different before the cut than it does to this day save for the brown being replaced by silver but I wanted to stay in college, God's College and be the minister I went there to be. He also told me not to think to come there to be a minister, but I didn't tell him what I was thinking on that one.
Speaking of Hair...
2 Peter 3:16
"He (Paul) writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."
While not actually written by Peter, but rather a later Church father type addressing issues far beyond Paul's actual lifetime, even they found Paul hard to understand at times.
2 Peter 3:16
"He (Paul) writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."
While not actually written by Peter, but rather a later Church father type addressing issues far beyond Paul's actual lifetime, even they found Paul hard to understand at times.
The Pressing Problem of Long Haired Men and Bald Women/Or The Pressing Problem of Women Uncovered Heads
Which?
I Corinthians 11:
1Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
Meaning: Now do what I tell you because I hallucinated this from Christ since I never met any real earthly Jesus who offered an opinion on this vital matter.
2Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
Meaning: Thank you for being some of the few people who like me or how I think. Do what I told you, as I told you and how I told you to do it
3But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
Meaning: This is what I believe and the reason I place women in the que where I do.
4Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
Meaning: Unsure yet. Maybe men aren't to cover heads with a hat , some Middle Eastern traditional garb when praying, or have long hair. It may even mean the man dishonors God, his "head"
5But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
Meaning: Unsure yet. Maybe not wearing a scarf or traditional Middle Eastern garb over the head or have short hair. It may also mean she dishonors her husband or men, who are her "head".
6For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
Meaning: Because if she is uncovered somehow in a way not yet sure of his meaning, she may as well be shaved bald, so cover up. Paul was an "all or nothing" type of guy evidently with little room in the middle for compromise.
7For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
Meaning: Indeed, men should have their heads visible and not covered either with some kind of traditional Middle Eastern garb or with long hair
8For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
Meaning: Paul reflects the ignorance of his times. Men do come from women both in birth and genetically as a female template prior to birth which is why men have nipples. But let's skip a longer explanation here.
9Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
Meaning: Paul read this in the Genesis story and again with no knowledge of the reality of where human beings actually come from and how modern humans evolved
10For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
Meaning: This is a bit tougher to discern what Paul meant but I'd say it means "Look...Angels look up to God and since women are a bit lower than men and angels, they should look up to their men as Lord, as long as they do well. Make sense?
11Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
Meaning: But there is some equality between the two if both are in the church.
12For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
Meaning: Yeah, that's it. I know I said women came from men and not men from women a bit earlier, in the big picture and especially in the church, God made us all somewhat equal
13Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
Meaning: C'mon folks, see it my way. Ok, don't let me confuse you even though I just did. You decide if it is appropriate for a woman to pray unto God without a cover on her head or with short hair since my meaning is not yet clear.
14Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
Meaning: Um..actually no. What are you talking about?
Nature tells me what?
Nature tells me what"
Nature tells me what?
Um...sure. Real shamer
15But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
Meaning: Men like long haired women and nature makes that clear.
Female Lioness with long hair as we learn from nature.
16But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
Meaning: But if you want to argue about it or don't see my point, then that's just the way it is in the Church and according to my commands. So , (and this is my opinion on whether it is covering or hair), no long haired men and we better see no bald or pixie cut women in the Church.
