hypothetical situation
I’m curious as to what you, dear reader, would do if you were in this situation (however unlikely it might be that you would be in the situation.
Let’s say you are at a non-accredited (that is, not for credit in a recognized degree program) Bible school abroad, in a country where you do not speak the language. You are enjoying the experience and one weekend you, and a fellow student, go to a salon where you pay over $150 and sit in a chair for many hours in order to have your hair arranged in the dreadlocked style.
You return to the Bible school campus and are told by Leadership that you have a choice to make: you can stay home from upcoming “outreach” trips to nearby churches which are sometimes conservative, or you can go on the outreach, after cutting off your dreadlocks.
What do you do?
September 17th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
i would enjoy the relaxing time staying on campus while the rest of the poor suckers on the field trip get to visit churches where things like hairstyle matter.
September 18th, 2006 at 4:34 am
I second with Dylan.
September 18th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
I third Dylan.
September 18th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
What they said.
September 18th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
Indeed, indeed.
Sounds like some folks at the Bible college could really stand a re-education on who the *^%& Jesus was, anyway.
September 19th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Yeah, agreed. What’s up with that?
October 9th, 2006 at 7:37 am
It really depends. I have no issue with dreads, tats, piercings of all varieties, etc. However, having travelled around the world, I recognize that this is often not simply an issue of morality (as some conservative Christians might suggest it is), but one of cultural appropriateness. That being said, any “school” as you have decribed should have made this abundantly clear from the very beginning. If they were not told until it was too late, the school should own their share of the problem.
In the end, if I was given the choice as a school leader, I would make room for the person to still be involved (then again, if I have a team in another country I would probably be unlikely to spend much time in churches, especially ones that would have an issue with such small details).
What scares me about this scenario is that it could very well be describing the organization I am a part of. Doh!
Peace,
Jamie