Winger further questioned whether Buxton thought that Jesus and the apostles had shaved faces, or otherwise if they were prideful individuals.
“That’s such a silly thing,” Winger said, nevertheless acknowledging that “people experience this all over the place, where what happens is it’s a cultural rule.”
“Your pastor probably grew up in a culture where men were supposed to shave their faces and it was considered wrong—not just not common but actually wrong in his culture—for men to grow beards,” Winger said. “He then projected this onto Scripture and is using the name of God and calling it pride, telling people that they shouldn’t grow beards. All we’re doing now is we’re taking our transitory, cultural things, and we’re projecting them onto the Scripture in the name of Christianity.”
“This happens all the time—all the time,” Winger said. “And we just want to make sure that we stick to just what Scripture says.”
Notably, discussions about how good Christian men should style their hair are not uncommon, particularly in more conservative and fundamentalist circles.
For example, last year, provost and research professor of theology at Grace Bible Theological Seminary in Conway, Arkansas, Owen Strachan encouraged his male social media followers to “cut the man bun. Lop it off. Time to look like a man. No one wants to say this in an androgynous age, but in obedience to God, do it.”
“No perfect length, but cut that hair down your back,” Strachan continued. “Hand that Scrunchie back to your little sister. Look manly. God’s glory is in it!”
Later in 2022, Desiring God staff writer Greg Morse published an article titled “O Beard Where Art Thou,” wherein he argued the exact opposite point from Buxton, championing beards as “a facial billboard for manhood, distinguishing men, at first glance, from boys and women.”
While Morse conceded that “the shaved can be saved,” offering condolences to men who are unable to grow full beards, he nevertheless argued, “Beards protest against a world gone mad. In other words, beards beard. They testify, in their own bristly way, that sex distinctions matter, that manhood will not be so easily shaven, shorn, or chopped by the Huruns of this world.”
Whenever discussion about the theology of male grooming habits crops up online, it is often quickly met with both humor and criticism.
This article has been updated to include more details about Buxton’s sermon.
