NOM

Corsair wrote: ↑Fri Mar 02, 2018 1:21 pm How about the general distrust of facial hair on men? I suspect that the church is also fairly opposed to facial hair on women, but it's not a current issue as far as I have seen.

Brigaham, John, Wilford, Lorenzo, Joseph, Heber, and George all had excellent facial hair. From full on "Duck Dynasty" beards to Amish chin straps and well manicured goatees, the prophets of the LDS church had a solid century of BYU Honor Code violating faces. It's too bad that David O. McKay shaved his face and the succeeding prophets and apostles went full 1960s counter-counter-culture in the hair department. Going bald is still A-OK.

At the risk of further outing myself, I can state that I am a cast member of the 2018 Mesa Temple Easter Pageant. Seriously, I will be on stage nightly in the last half of March 2018 letting my Christian Flag Fly. I'm in this picture straight from church headquarters:

Leaving aside the hilarious circumstances that put me in the cast, I do have a beard and wil not be trimming or shaving until Easter (April 1). All the men are encouraged to grow a beard with the exception of men playing angels and guy portraying Adam. Apostles, Pharisees, Saducees, temple priests and the Savior of the World must have a beard. If you cannot, due to employment requirements (or inability to grow one), you will be given a prosthetic beard applied nightly.

Among the people that are not allowed to wear beards are current temple workers in the Mesa temple. Seriously, the actual Pharisees are telling the fake Pharisees that they cannot grow a beard even for the biggest missionary outreach that the the church has in Arizona. A friend of mine is in a stake presidency and had to get permission to grow a beard from the stake president. One guy playing one of the Twelve Disciples of Jesus was also a bishop in Mesa. He had to get permission from his stake president for his beard then went back to missionary clean shaven immediately after the last performance.

When did this policy somehow become elevated to doctrine? (Answer: BYU President Ernie Wilkinson hated hippies. Seriously.) This is just as silly as the unfounded, unsupported, non-doctrinal ban on caffeinated soft drinks.