I Corinthians 11:1-22
When Paul wrote today’s section, I get the sense that the whole issue of headcovering was associated with the worship service, not day-to-day public affairs. Today’s church is different – headcovering seems not to be an issue. It was, however, when I was growing up – women covered their heads at church. If they were not wearing a hat they put on a small piece of fancy fabric and fastened it with a bobby pin. Not so today. And the men wore hats back in the day, but they took them off the second they stepped inside the church.
So for back then and today I move away from church issues and look at everyday life – men remove their hats out of respect. With movies that are set in the old west or in the first half of the 20th century, whenever a man was introduced to a woman he removed his hat. We don’t see this removing-the-hat-when-introduced today, but we do see other signs of respect, like on the street when a funeral procession passes by and at sporting events when the national anthem is being played or whenever there is a call to prayer. Yes, we see it today, but there is also a younger generation where many of today’s young men do not know or abide by these old customs. I’ve seen older men poke younger men to take off their hats when the national anthem is being played.
So we see Biblical traditions that were established back then being carried out today. And we carry it forward in our philosophies and theologies. I no longer refer to myself as a conservative or evangelical Christian – politics has used these labels to affirm or distort particular peoples or cultures. The phrase that I do like is that we believers affirm “traditional, historic Christian beliefs”. I/we don’t buy into “liberal” denominations abiding by a new set of beliefs or society’s affirmation of alternative lifestyles. Our safe ground is that set of “traditional, historic Christian beliefs”. And if we are Neanderthals to the rest of society, so be it.
See also: May 5 / I Cor. 11:1-16