{"id":5435,"date":"2026-05-14T08:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5435"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:53:10","slug":"the-razors-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/14\/the-razors-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Razor’s Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>

You name the issue, and various groups of Christians have probably disagreed.

Theological quarrels have erupted over stained glass vs. clear windows, organs vs. pianos, wine vs. Welch\u2019s, and the King James Version vs. everything else.

Church leaders have even threatened to banish each other over beards.

During Christianity\u2019s earliest centuries, grooming policies represented one of the clearest proofs that East and West were going in different directions. Eastern Orthodox clergy wore full beards \u2013 a traditional sign of spiritual devotion. Roman Catholic priests were clean shaven \u2013 a public way of saying, \u201cDon\u2019t ever confuse us with those guys.\u201d

The war over whiskers kicked into high gear, however, during the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s.

Leading Protestant luminaries such as John Calvin, Martin Luther, and John Knox let their facial hair grow long, knowing full well that beards represented an act of defiance against Rome.

Pope Paul IV (1555-1559) pushed back, declaring that external appearance reflected internal conformity. Beards became a battleground.

The pope (who had formerly helped lead the Inquisition) insisted that clerical beards suggested sympathy with Protestant heretics. Shaving became a spiritual discipline. Reluctant monks were ordered to comply. Rebels who refused to purchase Gillette Mach 3\u2019s were threatened with excommunication. That meant losing both vocation and salvation.

The irony, of course, is that first century Jewish males all wore full beards. Jesus and his apostles would not have been exceptions.

After the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), facial hair finally ceased to be a theological issue. The ban was banned. Although most American priests continue to shave as a nod to tradition, Catholic clergy in Africa and Latin America, in particular, have been relieved that the supernatural is no longer needlessly entangled with the superficial. \u00a0\u00a0

So, who was actually right all those years during the battle of the beards?

Without exception, the various sides \u2013 East and West, Catholics and Protestants \u2013 believed they were honoring God. And all the sides were fairly certain that the other sides were outrageously wrong.

The Bible has something to say about that.

When the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the young church at Rome, the battle amongst believers concerned beef, not beards. Some Christians thought it was good and right to eat meat, even if it had been offered to idols. Others were horrified at the very thought.

Paul declared in Romans 14:3, \u201cThe person who eats everything must not look down on the person who does not, and the person who does not eat everything must not condemn the person who does.\u201d\u00a0Why?\u00a0\u201cFor God has accepted him.\u201d

Paul is saying that whatever is on your dinner table isn\u2019t going to make or break your relationship with God.\u00a0

Two verses later, he adds this: \u201cOne person considers one day more sacred than another; another person considers every day alike.\u00a0Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.\u201d\u00a0

One of the Bible\u2019s best-kept secrets is its teaching that there are a number of issues \u2013 issues that are not central to Christian theology or ethics \u2013 where I can think one thing, and you can think just the opposite, and we can both be right and blessed by God.\u00a0<\/em>

We can both be right about whether secular tunes should be \u201cin\u201d or \u201cout\u201d at worship.\u00a0We can take genuinely different approaches to \u201cgood parenting,\u201d and both end up raising healthy kids.\u00a0We can come to different conclusions about interpreting Genesis, which political party more accurately represents God\u2019s desires, and whether or not every business should join Chick-Fil-A and close its doors on Sunday.

So what do we do when we have such disagreements?\u00a0We choose to do what God does:\u00a0We accept each other<\/em>.

As we noted in a recent reflection, the word \u201caccept\u201d comes from the Latin words ad capere<\/em>, which means, \u201cto take to oneself.\u201d\u00a0Strange as it may seem, offering acceptance to another human being is actually a form of receiving.\u00a0

If I accept you, it doesn\u2019t mean that I agree with all of your opinions about every subject.\u00a0It does mean that I welcome you into my circle of care and concern. I take you and your interests \u2013 even though you think differently \u2013 to myself.\u00a0

All too often, that spirit is hard to find.

Christian circles can be tainted by a winner-takes-all mentality.\u00a0God wants me to come out on top because God has assured me that I am right.\u00a0And that means it\u2019s time for you to get in line with the truth \u2013 which means coming around to my way of seeing things.

Paul, to his everlasting credit, is having none of it.\u00a0

He wraps things up in Romans 14:13: \u201cTherefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another.\u00a0Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother or sister\u2019s way.\u201d

It\u2019s time to ditch the I\u2019m-right-and-I-know-it attitude when it comes to non-essential matters.

Like the Christians in Rome, we can discover that next Sunday morning\u2019s preacher may be bearded \u2013 or not<\/em> \u2013 and it can still end up being a great sermon.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here You name the issue, and various groups of Christians have probably disagreed. Theological quarrels have erupted over stained glass vs. clear windows, organs vs. pianos, wine vs. Welch\u2019s, and the King James Version vs. everything else. Church leaders have even threatened to banish each other over beards. During Christianity\u2019s earliest centuries,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[505],"class_list":["post-5435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-non-essentials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5437,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5435\/revisions\/5437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}