Preaching Opinion

The pew was hard and there was no room for my knees, but so far, the message had been right on the money. A dozen of my girls were scattered around the sanctuary, some listening, some snoozing. The pastor was speaking on the family and marriage. He invited husbands and wives to sit side by side and emphasized that one's first priority and ministry were toward one's own family. He transitioned into the topic of homosexuality and the sadness of our changing situation. Countries around the world are sanctioning same-sex marriage and allowing adoption within this 'alternative' context. My head was nodding in agreement but soon cocked to the side when he asked, "Brothers, do you know what the root of homosexuality is? Why it is becoming such an issue these days?" People were glancing at their neighbors and I threw a few backward looks towards my girls. Returning my attention to the front, I heard the pastor answer his own question as if it were the most obvious conclusion in the world, "Unisex!" "Yes, brothers," he continued, "Unisex clothing and men who wear their hair long!" He went on to say how even a slight shag on a man contributed to the problem of homosexuality. His next verbal burst of bunk began with this question, "Brothers, which gender wears their hair parted in the middle?" Congregants everywhere were whispering amongst themselves and my eyebrows almost arched above my head when he declared, "Women. Men should not part their hair in the middle." He went on to point out all the women present who styled there hair as such. Little golden stars get glued behind the names of women who keep their hair long and perfectly parted.

As I sat there with my ear-lobe length hair and the majority of my strands parted to the left, I realized that their would be no sticker for me this night. I wondered if I should be confessing my trespass of too little locks on the right side of my head. Instead, I stood up, gathered my girls, and left. This was not the gospel, but a pious preacher who thought the pulpit gave him the right to spout erroneous personal opinion.

God knows the number of hairs on my head. Whether they are long or short, parted to the left or parted to the right, does not add or take away from the perfect, unconditional love that he has for me. "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1. And those are his words, not mine.