Conversations about the Head Veiling
(What the wrong side doesn’t want you to know)
While Lucas was getting comfortable, Mary turned back around to look at Naomi. “Did you know that we just finished with a weekend of meetings two weeks ago?”
Naomi squirmed a little. Surely she is not planning on inviting us? We don’t need any pressure from her to join the Mennonites. But she said out loud, “Yes I did. You told me you were having some before the trip. What kind of meetings were they? Revival meetings?”
Mary noticed the squirm. “I wasn’t planning on inviting you. It’s not that at all. What was said at the meetings is what’s important. It might be something you would be interested in. The meetings were not really revival meetings, though we have felt more revival from them than some revival meetings. They were a weekend of teaching. Our bishop wanted to get in a minister to do a series.”
“A teaching on what?” Naomi decided that it was safe to ask.
“On the
head-veiling,” Mary told her. “Remember our
“Oh really.” Naomi was interested now, but then she asked just to be sure, “It wasn’t some teaching giving another one of those supposed educated reasons not to wear it, was it?”
“No, not at all,” Mary assured her. “The teaching was very much for it. That is what I wanted to tell you about. It might give you some, shall we say, theological basis for the reason you stayed Amish instead of going with Josh.”
“That sounds good,” Naomi said, “but how can you do a whole weekend of teaching on the head-veiling? You just wear it. It is not that complicated.”
“Did I hear
something about Josh in
“You just imagined it,” Mary told him.
Naomi chuckled, “She’s only giving me reasons of why I was right in coming back to you.”
“You don’t need anymore,” he told her. “I was plenty reason enough.”
“Just ignore him,” Naomi said, grinning. She still loved his confident ways. “Now to get back to what you were saying. You were not surprised at a whole week-end of teaching on this subject?”
“I was at first,” Mary said. “When it was first announced at church, I thought this was going to be really boring, just doctrine and such. Like we needed teaching on the head-veiling, let alone a weekend, but I was very surprised.”
“Really,” Naomi said. “So what did this minister have to say?”
Mary paused for a moment. “He started out by saying that the head-veiling is not just a Mennonite or Amish issue. It is an issue of power, a worldwide subject in fact. The question is, will we walk in the spiritual power of God, or in some other power? The head-veiling is a gateway through which we go in expressing those intentions. It was all kind of new to me, being that I grew up thinking only the Amish and the Mennonites even deal with the subject. I mean, we are about the only ones who wear it, at least in my experience. So I guess, why should we not think so?”
“So,” Naomi sounded surprised, “what is this thing about power?”
“Well, Corinthians says that ‘she ought to have power on her head.’ That is the central point of Paul’s teachings on the head-veiling. He is talking about the position the church, which the woman represents, ought to be in and the power that goes along with that position.”
“I thought the woman was supposed to be in subjection to the man, and that is what the head-veiling means.”
“That’s where we have missed the point,” Mary continued. “Being in subjection to the man is already where God has placed us whether we take that position or not. We can either rebel against God’s place for us or accept it.”
Naomi was exasperated. “That is what I just said.”
“No you didn’t. What you just said was that we make ourselves subject to the man by wearing the head-veiling. That is not true. It is like the tall hill we have at home, the one close to our house. That hill is there whether I climb on top of it or not. I do not make the hill by climbing on top of it. I can just see a lot better from up there. In the same way we as women do not make the hill of subjection just by climbing up on it. We just access the view or, in this case, the power up there.”
“It still sounds like the same thing to me.”
“Well, it isn’t. We have been led to believe that simply wearing the veil is the end of the matter, as if we were making the high hill or a low hill to some people’s way of looking at it and so fulfilling some religious duty. Instead, we should see it for what it really is, a position of faith on which God will pour out his blessing.”
Naomi said nothing for a little bit and then continued, “If this is not just an Amish or Mennonite practice, but an issue of power, are there other Christians in the world who have discovered it?”
“There are,” Mary said, “although a list of Christian churches who still wear the head-veiling was not what this minister mentioned. The big issue to him was the number of non-Christian people who know of the principles behind the head-veiling.”
“Non-Christian people who wear the head-veiling?” Naomi was unbelieving.
“Yes, that, and the reasons why they do it.” Mary paused. “See, if God makes a place of power for his people to walk in, then it makes sense that the devil would want it the other way.”
“Where are these people that do this?” Naomi wanted to know.
Mary cleared her
throat. “For example in
“But you are talking about men when you say witch doctors. I thought women wear the head-veiling?” Naomi asked.
“That’s right,” Mary said quickly. “The women wear the head-veiling and in taking God’s position find power. On the other hand the men are to uncover themselves and in so doing represent giving Jesus his rightful place in the church. The head-veiling is not just a woman’s matter. It involves giving both Christ and the Church their proper place. Christ uncovered and the Church covered. This is all backwards to the world’s eyes, but to us it ought to be plain.”
“So,” Naomi said, “when the witchdoctors and jungle dancers worship evil spirits, those are usually men, and they cover their heads. Are you saying they do it because it is important to Satan that Jesus not be represented as uncovered? I always thought when looking at those pictures that it was just a custom or something.”
“It is much more
than a custom. We just miss it. It may
be a custom to them, but behind the custom is a reason. It is that a man
covering his head means something. Another example along the witch doctor line
is the ‘Hidden Kingdom of Mustang.’ The
“Then, of course, there are the Muslim, Catholic, and Jewish religions. Those three together cover a great part of the world. All three of them have the men cover their heads in religious service and if they are really devout, most of the time when in public.”
Lucas, who had been listening in on the conversation, turned around in the driver’s seat for a quick look back, then spoke backwards the best he could with his eyes on the road. “I was really impressed with the teachings on the representative roles of the head covering. These roles that the head covering plays are so important that the false religions pay great attention to them.”
“What are those roles?” Mark wanted to know, also joining the conversation.
Lucas thought for a moment, then continued, “Corinthians teaches that the man’s head is Christ, and that the woman’s head is the man. So then man’s physical head represents his spiritual head, Christ. In the same way the woman’s physical head represents her spiritual head, which is the man or in a larger sense all of mankind who are in the church, which also includes herself. What he or she then chooses to do with their physical head represents what is being done with their spiritual head.”
“Like covering or uncovering it,” Naomi commented.
“Well, in my case,” Mary spoke up, “It means that what I do with my head represents first of all the state that I see or want Lucas and even myself to be in. Not that I can force anyone to be something by wearing a veil, but I can show my intentions and desires. It also represents how I am going to go about to accomplish this. Will I try to accomplish my goals by my own strength or will I cover my own wisdom and wiles, placing my faith in God and his power? The scriptures say that if I take up God’s position then I will also have his power.”
“That takes a lot of faith,” Naomi said.
Mary continued. “What do I want us as believers to be? Do I care about all the evils out there in the world? If I do care, what power is there available to do anything about it? For example, when I cover up something like a dish of food, I am trying to both protect it from the elements and to save it for the right person or persons. In the same way, we as believers can either be covered or uncovered. If we are covered we are being protected from many things of the world and hidden away for Christ alone. This is the power we as women have. It is the men’s job to represent the uncovering of Christ, but it is our job to represent the covering of those believers that make up our Church. Not that we can guarantee all things will be done perfectly, but there is enough power in our caring that it scares the devil into not wanting us to do it. If we don’t care and uncover ourselves, then the men may care, but there is really little they can do about it.”
Lucas cleared his throat. “This is where we as Mennonites and Amish have a major difference with Evangelical Protestants. On the issue of uncovering Christ there is much agreement, but on covering the believers there is not. We listen to their sermons at times and find that we agree on a lot of things. It is when we get around them and see how they live that we have problems.”
“That does put things in a little different light,” Naomi said. “I always thought that the head covering was just something we did. One of the preachers once said that the veiling is a sign of our submission to our husbands. It sounds like it is much more than that. If this is true then we as women are very involved in the state of the church.”
“Yea,” Mary said softly. “We are. Sure, wearing a head-veiling for us women is in a sense acknowledging that our husband is our head, but he is our head in God’s eyes whether we submit to it or not. Our role is intended to be much more active than that. We are to represent our desire for mankind’s spiritual state.”
“What about the Muslim women—why do they wear veils?” Naomi wanted to know. “They are not Christians.”
“That is a good point,” Mary said. “Muslim women with their large veils try to use this God-instituted power for their own purposes and not for what it was intended for. It involves a woman taking not a position of faith, but a position of works in which she tries by her own strength to reach what God gives freely. Instead of using the veil for representative purposes they use it for their own protection. Of course it doesn’t work.”
“How do they do that?” Naomi asked.
Mary continued, “Before I answer that, imagine yourself as a Muslim woman surrounded by men who cover their heads and do not follow Jesus Christ. They have no controlling influence inside them of the Holy Spirit’s power to, for example, control their lust. Neither is their culture influenced by any Christian teachings in their laws, like our laws are on underage sex or incest. It is a completely different culture than what we have. What those women are doing is covering themselves for protection. Not that such self-made-plans really work, but the alternative is too much for them. I know that their religion also requires it, but the women are more than willing to do it. You and I would probably feel the same way if our men were like theirs. It is also why their coverings are so large. Usually when you find men covering their heads for religious purposes you find the women wearing large veils. They are really trying in their own strength to do something about the state of evil around them.”
“Okay,” Naomi said. “What about our culture though? Why do so few women wear the head-veiling? Don’t they feel the need for protection? Not everyone here is a Christian.”
“Our culture,” Mary said, “is to some extent a victim of its own success. It is under a Christian influence, or has been in the past. Consequently, not very many men cover their heads in the Western cultures. Not that they are all Christians, but it does mean something. We also have laws which protect women and they are enforced. In that atmosphere women are no longer as afraid. They find it easier to both abandon their spiritual responsibility and also their fear of sexual assault. It is only in Western cultures that woman can get away with walking half naked down the public street with their hair completely uncovered. If they tried that in some cultures they would not get away with it. The men would either express their sexual passion in a strong enough way so as to force a covering for the women, or the women would take coverings out of fear. Western women are really quite spoiled. They demand all the Christian protections while rejecting the Christian morals that give those protections.”
There was a pause
for several minutes as they watched the
Mark was the first to break the silence. “What is our part to play as men? If the women represent the covered believer, what do we men represent?”
Lucas responded without hesitation. “Our physical heads represent our spiritual head, Christ, and whether he is covered or uncovered.”
“So we can cover or uncover Christ simply by covering or uncovering our heads?” Mark wanted to know.
“It’s not that we can make it happen by a physical act of covering and uncovering our heads, but we can express our desire. We can act in a representative way,” Lucas said.
“What’s so important about that?” Mark wanted to know. “Who really cares how we represent something? Who says it means anything?”
“That’s just it,” Lucas answered. “We think maybe it does not mean that much, but why are all these people worldwide covering their heads? Why would Satan go to the trouble of teaching so many men to cover their heads if it means nothing? It must be important somehow.”
“I never thought of it like that,” Mark concurred.
“What is so important about this issue,” Lucas continued, “that makes Muslims, Jews, Catholics, and witchdoctors all be in agreement with each other? Once you see it, the full universal scope of this subject can be understood.
“It is really worldwide. Just as the message of Jesus Christ has gone into all the world, so this issue of men covering their heads has gone everywhere. God has uncovered Jesus Christ to the world and wants his people to live and represent that. Satan on the other hand does not submit to this uncovering, but seeks to cover Christ both in reality and in representation. I really see how this must be an important issue for such diverse religions to agree on one subject. The Jews, of course, don’t believe that Christ has come yet; so for them he would be still unrevealed. The Muslims don’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God, only a good prophet. There would be no problem for them to cover Him. The Catholics are a little harder to understand. They profess to believe in Jesus Christ, but once you really look at what Catholic life is like with all their traditions and church ritual it does make sense. Christ is really covered under all the stuff. Some of their people find him, but it is largely without much help from the church. Then the witchdoctors, of course, are into Satan worship so that makes perfect sense.
“What all this has in common is that Christ is not uncovered. Like Mary was saying earlier about her food. We need to uncover Christ. This is the New Testament era. He is not someone we need to be ashamed or afraid of. We don’t have to protect him. We do not have to hide him. He is now and for everyone. We are to uncover him before the eyes of the world without reservation or hesitation. In the Old Testament Christ was still in a covered state. He had not come yet or been revealed. God allowed men to have long hair, like Samson for example. War was allowed because the strength and glory of man was on display. The righteous were mighty men in those days. One, Benaiah, climbed into a pit and killed a lion on a snowy day. Abishai, the brother of Joab, killed 300 men with his spear. These men were armed with bows and could use both the right and left hand in hurling stones and shooting arrows. They were stout of limb and swift of foot. God allowed all this because Christ had not yet been uncovered to the world.”
“That’s really something,” Mark said. “So that is why a man is not to cover his head anymore or to have long hair.”
“Yes,” Lucas said, “both of them cover his head.”
“Surely it doesn’t mean that a man can’t wear a hat?” Mark wondered.
“Of course not,” Lucas agreed. “We don’t have to be unreasonable. Headgear worn for protection, weather-related and such, is understood by everyone to be what it is. No one understands it to be making a statement. It is only when we wear it as part of our dress code that it becomes a problem. That is making a statement.”
“Do you think we, as Amish, wear it too much?” Mark glanced down at his hat lying beside the front passenger’s seat.
“You really want me to answer that?” Lucas asked out of the side of his mouth.
Mark shrugged his shoulders. “Not really, I guess. The answer looks pretty obvious. I try to be careful about wearing a hat in inappropriate places, but you know how it is. Our people get really nervous when they see us without a hat on.”
Mary, who had been listening, jumped into the train of thought. “You men can talk about not wearing the hat as a part of the dress code, but the same holds true for the women, only on the other side of it. Our coverings ought to be part of our dress code, not just a weather-related garment. Whenever we go out, in order to be fully dressed, a woman ought to have both long hair and a covering.”
“Why is that?” Mark wanted to know. “The long hair thing.”
“It is because God gave us each a natural covering that bears testimony to the spiritual covering or responsibility that we all have. When a woman begins cutting off her long hair in any major way she begins to also break down her inclination to wear a head covering, because her natural long hair is a spiritual witness that tells her to wear a veil,” Mary told him.
“You’re going to have to explain that a little better to me,” Mark told her.
“God has written the spiritual laws into the natural. If left to itself, both a man or a woman will grow long hair. That long hair bears testimony. A man’s long hair is repulsive to everyone, if one is honest, sending out a message that it needs to be cut off. This teaches the spiritual lesson that a man is to unveil his head.
“A woman’s long hair on the other hand is attractive, sending out a message that it is appropriate for a woman to be covered. This then teaches the spiritual lesson that a woman is to veil her head. It is amazing how this lesson is right there in the long hair. A woman’s long hair speaks loudly that it, itself, needs to be covered. Even in our culture, ‘letting down her hair’ is the expression of willful loose morals. It goes against our natural inclinations to uncover our hair in public. Sure woman can learn it, I guess, but God put the other desire there first. As Corinthians says, to paraphrase in my own words, ‘Do not even our natural instincts tell us that long hair on a man is shameful? But on a woman it is a glory, because this covering of long hair is given to her to teach us that a woman ought to be covered.’”
They
sat in silence listening to the click-click-click of the interstate, each deep
in thought. Mary, from her front row seat, was watching the signs going by: “
Naomi chuckled, “Yea, I think we better stop. We have children with us.”
The click-click-click of the tires slowed down as Lucas got into the exit lane of the rest area. “This subject has been a real life changer for us,” he said as he pulled into a parking slot close to the main rest stop housing. “It has Mary and me thinking about a lot of things.”
Chapter Seven –
They pulled out on to the entrance ramp of the interstate a short time later. Lucas turned on his left signal and said “thank you” under his breath as the semi-trailer behind him pulled over into the passing lane. The car behind the semi-trailer followed suit, giving the van ample room to enter the interstate.
“Surprising busy traffic for this time of the day,” he commented.
“Probably the
closeness to
“You’re probably
right. Which makes me glad we aren’t tackling
Mary reached down for the map beside her seat and opening it took a quick glance. “Look’s right. Where do you think we will spend the night?”
“I don’t know for
sure, but
Lucas turned slightly around on his seat careful to keep his eyes on the road. “Like I was saying,” he said to Mark and Naomi, “these teachings have really had an impact on our lives. It was sobering to hear the power we lose when we walk away from biblical teaching.”
Mark was definitely interested. “How do we lose this power?” he asked.
Lucas continued, “The head-veiling is a gateway issue. It is where we choose to walk away from the power of God to something else. It could even be likened to a doorway.”
“What do you mean by a doorway?” Naomi wanted to know.
Lucas turned
himself a little around on the seat, back towards the road. “I am getting my
eyes off my driving,” he said as explanation then continued. “From what I
learned, a doorway means just that. It is an object or a place that serves as
the entry and exit point. It could be
just a common doorway in your house that leads either out of or into the
structure. It could be something like the St. Louis Gateway Arch we just saw
yesterday, built as they said, ‘ to commemorate the westward expansion of the
“So you really believe that we lose the power of God when we disobey these principles?” Naomi asked him.
“Yes, I have come to believe that,” he told her. “The Spirit of Christ will not long be in a church if we as men cover our heads; neither will we be very godly in our everyday lives if the women uncover their heads.”
“And you learned this from these teachings?” Naomi asked Lucas.
“Yes, and I guess I already knew it in some ways,” he answered.
Naomi looked at Mary. “And you feel the same way.”
She said, “Yes.”
“So what causes us to walk away from these godly positions that God would have for us?” Mark wanted to know.
Lucas was glad to continue. “What we learned is that believers today are faced with a call similar to what the citizens of the middle part of the 19th century experienced. Only now it is spiritual in nature. Back then a man by the name of John Soule gave it a name. He said, ‘Go West Young Man.’ Now it is ‘Go Liberal Young Person.’ We do not face, as men, the pressure to wear the head covering as much as our women face the pressure to uncover their heads. It is sobering to note the position Western Culture is in with its uncovered women. It is sliding ever deeper into immorality, and what is the main threat now facing it? The Muslim Jihad, led by men with covered heads. A big point Islam makes to its own people is the depravity of the Western culture on public display. Their case is of course that they can do a better job on the subject with a covered Christ than we can do with an uncovered Christ.”
“You really think so,” Naomi said, more in comment than question.
“Yes,” Lucas said. “Once we looked at it for ourselves we could see it clearly, both in our own lives and in the lives of others around us. There is this pull, almost unconsciously, to drift into the world and its power. The doorway our people go through has a lot to do with the head-veiling. To have more fun, more of life, more liberty, more of everything we just think must be out there. That is, the promise is there, if we just forsake our position of trust in God and quit covering ourselves.
“Most churches don’t notice it, because they no longer wear the head-veiling. Yet much of this drift really started among all the churches about the same time that guy was talking about going out west. Back then, the mainline churches still had the practice of veiling the woman’s head. As late as the 1960s the Encyclopedia Britannica carried a picture of a woman and her daughter standing in front of the Declaration of Independence with full-sized coverings on.
“Until the early
twentieth century most women in
“Once we saw all this in its context, then it became as plain as day. The general culture then, and we as Amish and Mennonite people today, go liberal through the doorway of the head-veiling. It is a literal thing, but it represents the forsaking of a spiritual position of power in God for a position of power with the world.”
“That’s quite a mouthful,” Mark said.
“Yes it is,” Lucas added, “but I learned a quote from C.S. Lewis during these meetings that I believe to be true. It is this: ‘The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.’”
“How do you go through this door?” Naomi wanted to know.
“Well, you just lose the head-veiling,” Mary answered her. “You get rid of it. But first, I guess, you have to forsake the spiritual principles behind it, or maybe you just never learned them in the first place.”
“That could be true too,” Lucas said, “but however it’s done, it really seems like this is the door that controls the comings and goings of people as much as the entrance into a house does. If you want to accept the world’s way of doing things, you have to lose the head-veiling.”
“So how do people lose the head-veiling?” Naomi wanted to know. “It might be good information to know.”
Mary looked at Lucas. “Well, we can’t speak for anyone else, but the first of the two ways this teacher talked about really hit close to our own experience.”
“Oh,” Naomi said, looking sharply at Mary. “What was that?”
Mary ignored the look, running her hand across her head-veiling. “The first one is the ever-smaller veils. I know that I was doing it too, but we are going to make some changes.”
She looked at Lucas who nodded his head, then continued. “Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have given this guy a second hearing, figuring he was just some old ‘fuddy-duddy’ Mennonite that didn’t know what he was talking about. But after I listened I agreed with him. The first problem he brought up was with seeing the head-veiling as a symbol.”
Naomi nodded her head. “I have heard that too. How did this affect you? I am not sure how that translates into smaller head coverings.”
“It’s like this,” Mary continued. “If the head covering is just a symbol, which to me meant that it doesn’t mean a whole lot, then what does it matter? It could be any size. I am ashamed to say it, but this allowed for a lot of things. It’s like you can have it both ways. You can still be wearing your head coverings and you can do other things.”
Naomi knew she should keep her mouth shut, but it was too much after all the things she had seen her sister doing. So she said it: “Things like letting your hair hang in public with that little thing on top that no one can see. Cutting your hair at shoulder length. Fixing it all up.”
“Now hold it,” Mary told her, but she did not get angry. “I know what you are saying is true, but it all seemed so logical. If it doesn’t matter, then it doesn’t matter. Just wear this little sign on your head and you can still do your own thing.”
“So what changed your mind?” Naomi wanted to know.
“This teacher pointed out that we have lost the meaning of symbolism. It now means something to us that it was never meant to mean. He said a symbol in its true meaning is really representation. There is meaning to it. I went home and looked it up myself. It was there in the dictionary as plain as day. Symbol means, ‘a material object representing something, often something immaterial.’”
Naomi thought for a little bit. “So if the head covering represents a covering, then it has to actually cover?”
“See,” Mary said, “it’s plain as day. That’s why we want to make some changes. It’s like we face a choice now. We can either obey God’s word or rebel against it, but we can’t have it both ways.”
Outside the highway markers went by, but they were not reading them. It was Lucas who broke the silence. “This guy also gave a second reason. It was not that familiar to us, although I had heard of it. That of wearing the head-veiling only on Sundays.”
“So is that a big thing then? Wearing it only on Sundays?” Mark asked.
“It is to some, I guess,” Lucas said, “but we had never heard that much about it.”
“What is the reasoning behind it?” Mark wanted to know.
“Surely you’re not planning on wearing it only on Sundays?” Lucas asked him chuckling. “You’re Amish after all.”
“Of course not, but I’m interested.” Mark responded.
“The teaching,” Lucas said, “comes from believing that the first part of I Corinthians eleven is talking about a church service. Yet, reading the rest of the chapter easily refutes this. In verse eighteen, I think, the context clearly changes to a church service. If there is a need to change the context to a church service at verse eighteen, then there could not have been a church service before that. The Revised Standard translation for verse eighteen says something about, ‘in the first place, when you assemble as a church,’ which is pretty clear to understand. On the other hand, the Living Bible, which is just a paraphrase instead of a translation, muddles the verse all up by saying that ‘everyone keeps telling me about the arguing that goes on in these meetings,’ as if the meeting had been in progress for the whole chapter. Clearly this leaves out the first part of the verse about the meeting just starting. I guess that’s why we should not take paraphrases like the Living Bible as being of much value.”
“That all sounds reasonable,” Mark said. “Are there any more reasons not to take the first part of Corinthians eleven as a church service?”
“There are,” Lucas said. “If the first part of chapter eleven is a church service, then verse five would be in direct contradiction with chapter fourteen of the same book. In verse thirty-four of chapter fourteen the apostle says that the women should keep silent in the churches. Obviously you cannot keep silent and prophesy at the same time.”
“Okay,” Mark said, “I follow that.”
“Another thing,” Lucas continued, “is this thinking that the head-veiling is to be worn only when praying or prophesying. That tends to tie it to Sunday-only wear. While prayer and prophesying are the apostle’s main points, kind of like the strong points in a sermon, there are no indications that he meant for it to be restricted to only those two points. On the contrary there are plenty of places where the apostle himself applied these principles outside of prayer and prophesying.”
“Oh, yea,” Mark said, “I had never heard of that.”
“He did,” Lucas said. “He talked about cutting the hair off if you don’t want to cover it. If you cut your hair off that’s for all the time. Well, I guess until it grows back. Praying and prophesying are not for all the time. He also freely went into the natural meaning of long hair on both the man and the woman. None of this is related to prayer and prophesying.”
“Okay, I’m following,” Mark said.
“What this Sunday-only thing does is to open the door just a little bit,” Lucas continued. “It allows for a slow opening instead of a sudden opening, but it still opens the door. A lot of the mainline churches went through this. The Church of England, as an example, first dropped to a Sunday-only policy before losing it completely. Also the Catholic Church went through a similar thing for its lay members.”
“You don’t have to convince me,” Mark said. “It makes sense.”
“So when are you supposed to wear the head-veiling?” Naomi wanted to know.
“First of all,” Lucas responded, “you wear it when there is prayer or prophesying. This is pretty commonly understood. Then the other major place is whenever the woman goes into a public place or around strangers. It should simply be a part of her dress. This has been the historical understanding of these scriptures for many years among Christians. Beyond that, wherever she needs to represent her position of walking in the Power of God.”
“That sounds right to me,” Naomi said.
“Do
you realize,” Lucas abruptly changed the subject, “that we have driven all the
way through downtown
“Well, it has been an interesting subject,” Mark commented. “So what happens when someone goes through this doorway?”
“You mean if they lose the head-veiling?” Mary asked.
“Yes,” Mark responded.
“Well,” Lucas said, “the results are pretty much the same for everyone. If a woman begins to uncover her head, she will soon begin to uncover the rest of her body. It is like the law of diminishing returns. The more of yourself that you rely on for power the less power there is, so the more of yourself has to be used.”
“Not only that,” Mary added, “if you uncover the hair there is soon a compulsion to fix it up. Makeup follows right along with it. I can tell you that from experience. A large enough head-veiling that covers the glory of your hair just does not seem to go along with all that.”
“What is the glory of your hair?” Naomi asked.
“It is hard to explain,” Mary said. “You can’t draw a line exactly here or there, but a woman knows when enough hair is being exposed to show it off. We don’t have to be unreasonable about it and cover up every strand.”
“So that is what irritates me,” Naomi said. “Every time I see a girl wearing a head covering, and swishing and swinging her hair around on the front in loops or whatever they do.”
Mary chuckled. “Yes, that is what is wrong with it.”
“But back to what I was saying,” Lucas said. “This issue of nudity. I don’t mean being truly naked of course, though one wonders sometimes with what is on the streets, but rather I mean the taking off of proper clothing. When a woman publicly uncovers her head it soon leads to more uncovering of the body. The truth is that it would simply be impossible to disrobe to the degree that people do today if the wearing of a head covering by the women had not been done away with first.”
“You really think so?” Mark asked.
“Yes, I do,” Lucas said.
“So why are you blaming the women for all of this?” Naomi wanted to know.
“It’s not that I am blaming them for everything,” Lucas protested.
“Yes, you are.” Naomi said.
“No, I’m not. I mean, I know men should be responsible. Even Adam didn’t have to eat the apple, but that’s not the only problem. We cannot keep Eve from eating the apple. That is her choice, and if she does eat then that is out of our control. The woman does have a specific role to fill which a man cannot fill. Corinthians says the man is not without the woman.”
“Well,” Naomi said, “that is true.”
“Women have no idea,” Lucas continued, “how much pressure they are putting on the Western culture. It simply cannot continue for long. They are demanding a lot from the men. I know it doesn’t happen in our circles, but I read about it in the paper. The girls flirt with the boys, go out on dates drinking, and then when something happens they sue for rape. They expect to be able to do anything, and the men are supposed to do nothing. That’s what we have now, is it not? Men who aren’t men? Look at the latest definition of an acceptable man. Tell me if it looks like a man anymore.”
“Okay, not too many details,” Mary said. “You have made your point, and I agree with you. Women have a role and responsibility to play. We are the ones who can set the tone for the moral conscience of the culture itself. It has always been so. Women are the civilizing segment of society. Some have done it in the past by marching against whatever evil they saw, but the Christian woman’s power has always come from God when she has taken her high place prepared for her. I just don’t know why this generation of women has forgotten it.”
“I think I do,” Naomi said. “They don’t want to remember it.”
“Can we stop soon?” said a voice from the back seat.
Naomi turned around to look at the boys and then asked Lucas, “Did you hear that? We had better stop at a rest area.”
“Coming
up,” Lucas said. “We are just on the other side of
Naomi turned back around to the boys. “We will stop in a little bit. Okay?”
True to what Lucas said, the rest stop sign came up two minutes later. They pulled in and then were soon on the road again. Mark restarted the conversation.
“It didn’t sound, Lucas, like you were done telling us about what all is involved with the removal of clothing.”
“That’s right. It’s quite an in-depth subject,” Lucas responded. “The subject of clothing goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It was there that God first clothed Adam and Eve after they fell into sin.”
“That would be the furs instead of the fig leaves,” Mark commented.
“Of course, you know the story,” Lucas said. “But we see there how man already had his own ideas about clothing. God did not accept those ideas. Neither is today’s idea accepted that we can go around partly naked. Clothing was an issue in the garden, important enough for God to be personally involved. That has not changed today. God still cares a lot about how His people dress.”
“Why do you think God made them clothing to wear?” Mark asked.
“That’s a big question of course,” Lucas said. “First, we can know that it was for their own good. Beyond that, God did not really say why He did it. Perhaps, though, we can make some good guesses by what happens when we do not cover ourselves with clothing.”
“And what would that be?” Naomi asked.
“The wearing of clothing is closely tied to the establishment of individual identity, or the establishment of a group identity as in the wearing of uniforms.”
“What does that mean?” Mark asked.
“It means that I or you see ourselves more clearly as a separate individual from everyone else when we wear clothing than when we do not. It is in fact an involuntary conclusion.”
“Well, that’s strange,” Mark said. “I thought that was why people were taking their clothing off, to be their own person, you know.”
“That’s what the world tells you,” Lucas said, “but it’s not true. God placed clothing on mankind to protect us from the results of sin. One of those protections is that clothing has the effect of giving us our own little world. We need that world in which to resist sin and make our own choices. Without it we have a harder time thinking straight and making up our own minds.”
“Is there any evidence of this?” Mark asked. “I mean, has this been observed somewhere?”
“It has,” Lucas said. “There is the case of how the Germans used the Jews when they were taking them to the death camps. Just before herding the trainload of Jews into those horrible gas chambers, they made everyone take off all their clothing. In this way they never had a revolt or stampede away from the gas chamber doors. Naked people just don’t think for themselves. They become part of a mass. It is of course not hard to see how this reaction affects our culture when so many people go around partly unclothed. It is breaking down inhibitions and the ability to make individual choices.
“Another example is of this weird photographer who specializes in taking mass nude photography. He travels around the world staging these events, which he then photographs. Many of the participants, in talking about this experience, express their surprise at how they became a part of the group and no longer felt like an individual during the photo shoot. That is the effect that taking off your clothing has.
“It is easy to see how Satan would want to use this for his own purposes. He can more easily control people if they are unclothed. Idol worship in the Old Testament was often associated with nakedness. When Moses came down from the Mount with the Ten Commandments he found the Children of Israel dancing before the golden calf. Exodus says they were naked.
“If you look at our own culture, it is in an identity crisis. The public schools have to run self-esteem classes. Even the Christians are talking at great length about self-esteem. What they all are really talking about, though, is not a lack of self-esteem but a lack of any concept of self at all. I remember a song from the old days, when I did some things I shouldn’t have. The Oak Ridge Boys used to sing about looking into many waters and seeing no reflection. That is what the Oak Ridge Boys were talking about, this loss of identity in our culture.”
“I never thought of it that way,” Naomi said. “Sounds kind of serious.”
“We decided on a test,” Mary said quietly. “Lucas and I did our own little test to see if this was true or not. Does wearing clothing make things matter more? So one evening when we got into a heavy disagreement about planning something for the next day, he was really upset about it. So I said to Lucas, ‘Time for the experiment.’”
“I was not, you were,” Lucas said.
Mary ignored him. “So, since it was bedtime, instead of continuing the discussion like we normally would have and losing an hour or so, we went on ahead and got ready for the night. We sat there on the bed and looked at each other. I said to Lucas, ‘I think it’s working. I just can’t continue the argument in this condition.’ He looked at me, and I’m not going to say what he said, but the importance of the argument was gone.”
“So it didn’t take long to settle it?” Naomi asked.
“Nope, just like that and it was done.” Mary snapped her fingers. “Imagine what that same thing is doing to many young people who might have a sense of right and wrong. With their clothing off in public, much of that sense is probably gone. That may well be why even Christian people in today’s culture have such a hard time knowing what is right and wrong.
“Many people think that the sexual revolution caused the public nudity that we see today, while really it was the public undressing that drove the sexual revolution. That is why the devil is for taking your clothing off in the streets and keeping it on in bed with your husband. What is considered fuddy-duddy and old fashioned between married folks is considered cool walking down the public street in front of Wal-Mart.”
Lucas
turned around on his seat for a brief moment and then got his eyes back on the
road. Without looking back he said, “This doctor in
“It is sad,” Mary said, “what the effect of all this has on marriage. When women begin to uncover their heads it carries its effect down to the uncovering of marriage. Children in our western culture feel this strongly. Many, many, of them go to bed at night worrying about whether Mom and Dad will stay together. This fear comes because marriage is no longer secure and protected.”
“Not only that,” Lucas said, “instead of seeing the problem for what it is and correcting it, Christians are now, along with the culture at large, using a man-made bandage for the problem. They are placing a great emphasis on the wearing of the wedding ring. This is really just the world’s attempt to find security.”
“It’s just too bad,” Mary stated, “that they look to a pagan custom for it. I have had people at the grocery story ask me why I don’t wear a ring. When I tell them, they say, ‘Your husband doesn’t wear one either. Aren’t you afraid some girl will think he’s not married?’ To which I tell them, ‘A lot of good the ring does. It doesn’t seem to be stopping most people. I would prefer to trust something of a little more value. Like he knows what is right and wrong and chooses to follow it.’”
“Marriage,” Lucas said, “has been based for many generations on law, tribal law, traditional law, natural law, religious law, and so on. Now the culture has moved it from law to romance. The ring fits right in with that kind of thinking. We marry only because we are in love, and we stay married only because we are in love. Which works about as long as the feeling lasts. Romance is nice, but it is one of the most fickle, subjective, and unstable feelings of the human experience. You simply cannot build a marriage on it. Yet the ring promises that you can. It promises to keep your partner safe and sound forever. All the while it does no such thing.”
“The proof,” Mary added, “if we need any, is in the statistics. Divorce among Christians in the Western culture is just as high as among non-professing Christians. Even with their professions about biblical divorce. Everyone does pretty much what they want.”
“Someone has left the power of God and opened the door to the world’s power,” Lucas said. “It is up to us to shut the door, or to keep it shut if we have not opened it already.”
Naomi drew in her breath, as if she had been holding it for awhile. “That does explain a lot of things,” she said. “Is that the end of the story?”
“I wish it were,” Mary said, “but it gets worse. The final uncovering has to do with our core identity. When we no longer know who we are, we can become anything. More and more you find even Mennonite churches talking about how people who have same-sex feelings for one another need not be helped, but given acceptance. Many churches have lost their ability to deal with these complex problems because they have left God’s power a long time ago.”
In
the silence that followed they noticed that the rhythmic pattern of the road
had returned. Pa-ruummn, pa-ruummn,
pa-ruummn. “Sounds different from