Friday, July 10, 2009

The command is universal but we have to maintain separateness

The ordinance that requires women to cover our heads is not specifically for Christians, although it has been spelled out accurately only by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. Throughout history many peoples have intuited God's law in themselves and required that women cover their heads, and Islam and Judaism in particular have required it. They are right to do this and really, they put Christans to shame because we have abandoned the practice, although their reasons for it are not our reasons. Modesty is usually their reason, but modesty is at best a peripheral issue as Paul discusses the head covering in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. The central issue is the hierarchy of headship, which requires the display of the male head as the image of Christ, who is of course not recognized as God in Judaism and Islam, and the covering of the female head as the glory of man which must not compete with the glory of Christ.
1Co 11:7 For 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.
We can't join forces with these other groups, and I think it is a mistake to link with them in spirit at all as some Christians seem to be doing. We can acknowledge their rightness by God's standard of male headship, but we can't join with them in any general way. This includes Catholics who also cover or are now learning to cover.

It's important that we keep the gospel testimony pure and separate from all other frames of reference.

I think Christian women who learn to cover now should be seeking a style of covering that sets us apart from these other groups.

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