The latest edict from beard-obsessed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth adds strict new regulations to his crusade on facial hair, which rights groups have characterized as an attack on troops’ civil liberties.
In a March 11 memo, Hegseth, who has made grooming and appearances a central focus in his time at the helm of the U.S. military, raised the bar to qualify for a religious exemption to his blanket ban on beards. The guidelines lay out a strict new process by which service members may apply for a religious exemption and subject those who’ve already received one to a reevaluation, arguing they need to ensure their religious beliefs are “sincerely held” and have a genuine conflict with the grooming standards.
Service members who have spoken against Hegseth’s focus on grooming standards say his restrictions on beards are exclusionary to people from religious communities that require adherents to follow specific tenets of faith around beards, hair, and other grooming matters.
Sikhs, for example, who have served in the U.S. military since at least World War I, are required by their faith not to cut the hair on their head, to keep a beard, and to wrap their long hair in a turban. Members of many schools of Muslim tradition likewise have rules around beards and hair length.
The old testament also says “Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard”, but he’s got a pretty good haircut. It also says no clothes of mixed materials (so that poly-wool suit and poly-cotton shirt he’s wearing are no-gos). And it says no tattoos too, but he pretty famously has quite a lot of tattoos. Sounds like his own faith isn’t sincerely held.
Yes, but you see Leviticus is from the old covenant and none of that applies anymore, because the blood of Christ washed away the original sin so now humanity no longer has to follow those rituals.
Except the part about gay people being bad. That part still applies even though nothing else does. Because… Reasons. Yeah. That makes sense, right?
Indeed, this is the exact “logic” these people use. Their book has the character of Jesus saying that “not one jot or tittle” bit, but they claim they have a “new covenant” and get to ignore the inconvenient things about clothes, food, and hygiene, but keep the no homo stuff.
Frankly if Christians are following anything in the OT, they aren’t real Christians anyway.
I am off a sect that only follows the Old Testament, we are called The Only Real Christians.
You mean Jews?
Interesting, this wouldn’t happen to be a Scottish sect would it?
LOL, define a real Christian. There are probably over 100,000 denominations of Christianity alone. What one is the right one?
The Department of War’s grooming standards tribunal has determined his tattoos are violations and must be brought to standards immediately. The flaying will commence in 3…2…
Sincerity isn’t one of his strong suits