Questions

BellaTheBlueJay said:

Hello everyone! I need some questions answered about Christianity.

1. Is it bad for women/girls to cut their hair?
2. Is it ok to have piercings
3. Is it ok to wear accessories with a cross (Earings, necklace, etc.)?
4. Is it considered OK if you're overweight? (I apologize if this question was offensive, I am overweight myself and after reading some bible quotes like Proverbs 23:20-21, and Proverbs 23:2... I'm worried..)


I noticed its only about appearance, but I'm curious so please answer if you know. =)

God bless,
Bella.

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Bella, Welcome to this Forum. All these issues are concerning the Old Testament Law or the culture of that day, thousands of years ago. Because none of us then or now can fulfill those Laws Christ is the fulfillment of that Law. My hope is that you will read Jesus recorded conversations to women. He never spoke of their
hair, piercings, accessories, weight etc. He spoke directly to their souls, hearts, hunger, need, isolation, loneliness, sin, redemption. He revealed what you lack, is what He would fulfill in you. Christ focuses on your need of Him to become part of His Family for eternity.

BellaTheBlueJay said:

Hello everyone! I need some questions answered about Christianity.

1. Is it bad for women/girls to cut their hair?
2. Is it ok to have piercings
3. Is it ok to wear accessories with a cross (Earings, necklace, etc.)?
4. Is it considered OK if you're overweight? (I apologize if this question was offensive, I am overweight myself and after reading some bible quotes like Proverbs 23:20-21, and Proverbs 23:2... I'm worried..)


I noticed its only about appearance, but I'm curious so please answer if you know. =)

God bless,
Bella.

Click to expand...

From an Orthodox Christian perspective, that is to say, that of many of the persecuted Christians in Syria, Iraq, Egypt and so on, I would answer:

1. No, although cutting it into a Mohawk might cause some dismay.
2. Hypothetically no, but practically, most Orthodox women seem to have them.
3. Yes. In fact, we wear baptismal crosses as a matter of course. Priests wear pectoral crosses.
4. Being overweight is fine; manynof our clergy are a bit rotund. We do fast in accordance with ancient traditions if we are in good health, by typically not eating meat on Wednesdays and Fridays, and observing a modified diet in Lent, for instance.

BellaTheBlueJay said:

Hello everyone! I need some questions answered about Christianity.

1. Is it bad for women/girls to cut their hair?
2. Is it ok to have piercings
3. Is it ok to wear accessories with a cross (Earings, necklace, etc.)?
4. Is it considered OK if you're overweight? (I apologize if this question was offensive, I am overweight myself and after reading some bible quotes like Proverbs 23:20-21, and Proverbs 23:2... I'm worried..)

Click to expand...

Hi, Bella.
1. No.
2. Yes, but there may be a religious issue if it becomes severe like those people who are really into 'body modification.'
3. Certainly.
4. Yes. The only issue is that we generally think that our bodies, being created by God, ought to be respected, so if it's what the medical profession would call morbidly obese such that one's life is endangered, there could be an issue.

I'm sure that none of these extreme possibilities is what you were asking about, but just "for the record"....

1. Is it bad for women/girls to cut their hair?
No.

2. Is it ok to have piercings
Yes, but as a cultural/generational thing, the older crowd generally does not appreciate piercings outside of women having traditional ear piercings. Those who try to make the argument that Christianity itself teaches against other piercings conflate Christianity with what used to be mainstream secular culture.

3. Is it ok to wear accessories with a cross (Earings, necklace, etc.)?
Yes, it's fine.

4. Is it considered OK if you're overweight? (I apologize if this question was offensive, I am overweight myself and after reading some bible quotes like Proverbs 23:20-21, and Proverbs 23:2... I'm worried..)
People don't really consider that in and of itself sinful. Should you take good care of your body? Yes, but that's only part of what it means for the body to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. The physical scars that persecuted Christians bear are also part of that. It's also wrong to judge a person's character based on mere appearances. That 300 pound man you see (for instance) might have a physical disability that prevents him from working out, might have food allergies that prevent him from eating non-fattening foods, or he might have been 400 pounds last year. You never know.
Proverbs 23:1-3 really needs to be read as a unit, don't isolate verses one or two from verse 3. What the author is saying has to do with the "generous" host rather than the person who likes to eat.
Proverbs 23:20-21 talk about the snare that excessive food and drink pose, and it is correct - if you become an alcoholic, that will bankrupt you and destroy your life. Same if you eat compulsively, all that food has to be paid for and the morbidly obese suffer a litany of health problems that people in a normal (not even healthy) weight range do not have. This passage isn't intended to be a hammer to shame people in those situations, it's intended to warn people who are not in those situations to not go there.

BellaTheBlueJay said:

Hello everyone! I need some questions answered about Christianity.

1. Is it bad for women/girls to cut their hair?
2. Is it ok to have piercings
3. Is it ok to wear accessories with a cross (Earings, necklace, etc.)?
4. Is it considered OK if you're overweight? (I apologize if this question was offensive, I am overweight myself and after reading some bible quotes like Proverbs 23:20-21, and Proverbs 23:2... I'm worried..)


I noticed its only about appearance, but I'm curious so please answer if you know. =)

God bless,
Bella.

Click to expand...

1) No, it's not bad for women to cut their hair.
2) Yes, it's okay to have piercings.
3) Yes, it's okay to wear accessories with a cross.
4) Yes, it's okay to be overweight.

You might find some Christians disagreeing with this, but they tend to be outliers rather than the mainstream. The answers I gave is what the overwhelming majority of Christians from every major Christian church or denomination would also agree with. So understand that if anyone says women can't cut their hair, or that piercings or jewelry is wrong, or that being overweight is wrong it does not represent the Christian mainstream.

-CryptoLutheran

If I might add:

While I never attended churches that taught these things, my grandmother (mother's side) did. My grandmother grew up in a highly legalistic and conservative denomination, I want to say the church called themselves Apostolic though beyond that I don't know which denomination it was. In any event, my grandmother was forbidden from wearing makeup, jewelry, cutting her hair, playing card games, attending sporting events, going to the movie theater or watching plays. She was even forbidden from drinking root beer because it had the word "beer" in it. My grandmother also struggled with her weight, especially as an adult. My grandmother's sister--my great aunt--would regularly harass my grandmother about her weight (and I'm not talking about as children, I'm talking about seeing this when I would stay at my grandmother's house after school growing up). Because in the church they grew up in being overweight was damnable (literally). My great aunt regularly tried to insist that my grandmother wasn't a Christian and couldn't go to heaven because she was "too fat for heaven".

So let's put it this way: Any church that teaches these sorts of things is simply a bad church, the only appropriate response to churches like this is to run as far and as fast as possible. Such a church isn't so much a church as a place for abuse.

-CryptoLutheran

BellaTheBlueJay said:

Hello everyone! I need some questions answered about Christianity.

1. Is it bad for women/girls to cut their hair?
2. Is it ok to have piercings
3. Is it ok to wear accessories with a cross (Earings, necklace, etc.)?
4. Is it considered OK if you're overweight? (I apologize if this question was offensive, I am overweight myself and after reading some bible quotes like Proverbs 23:20-21, and Proverbs 23:2... I'm worried..)


I noticed its only about appearance, but I'm curious so please answer if you know. =)

God bless,
Bella.

Click to expand...

Bella,

1,2, and 3 are left up to your conscience as God directs., if you feel a reservation about doing any of these, then don't and wait till such a time that God MAY give you the go-ahead. If he doesn't, then don't do them .

Being overweight (as I am too by 20 lbs) , is not ok from a health standpoint which is why im excersising regularly to try n get the pounds down a bit. In our American society, drastically overweight people are associated with slougthfulness, laziness, and a don't care attitude ; so it will hurt employment chances , generally your chance of having a significant other , possible high blood pressure and other medical issues.....I believe God has given us a physical body to treat responsibly and thatts what we see in the Bible. Regards, Dave.

Albion said:

Hi, Bella.
1. No.
2. Yes, but there may be a religious issue if it becomes severe like those people who are really into 'body modification.'
3. Certainly.
4. Yes. The only issue is that we generally think that our bodies, being created by God, ought to be respected, so if it's what the medical profession would call morbidly obese such that one's life is endangered, there could be an issue.

I'm sure that none of these extreme possibilities is what you were asking about, but just "for the record"....

Click to expand...

Very good answer @Albion