Post by Sharon Hargreaves Guest on Jul 12, 2007 19:09:03 GMT -5
Recently I was asked why I cut my hair, so I have tried to recall some experiences and conversations regarding the hair issue over the years.
At the end of this letter I will give reference to the transcription of an in-depth study on 1 Corinthians 11, done by MM Outreach Ministries of Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. Website: mmoutreach@gmail.com. It articulates some Jewish views from the Talmud which were the additional written and oral laws over and above the God-given Ten Commandments. Understanding some of these Talmudic additions is necessary in order to understand how they affected Jewish Christians of that day. These added laws were, in fact, in opposition to God's Word. These are the issues Paul was writing to the Corinthians about.
The topic of 1 Corinthians 11 is about head coverings for Jewish men and women while praying or prophesying. It has nothing to do with a daily rule about Christian hairstyles for men, married women, toddlers, children, teens or single women. The workers not only subverted the topic from veil to hair, but they added a new requirement that women's hair be kept in a bun. The workers made women's hairstyles into a doctrine of proof of salvation.
WHY DID I DECIDE TO HAVE MY HAIR CUT?
When I was 16 years old, and baptism was spoken about at convention, those considering the 'step' were advised to speak with the "worker you knew best" - for approval. I spoke with Elsie Scheller who had been in our area. She gave me no scriptural explanation for baptism. The discussion was mostly about how nice it was that I was "willing for this step"; but she added, "YOU ARE STILL CURLING YOUR HAIR!" This was immediately confusing to me because Elsie had the most beautiful naturally curly hair! Hair was not, in my view, much of a challenge for her. Why would someone with lovely curly hair make 'curling my hair' a standard issue for acceptance for baptism? I felt indignant and confused. The rest of the "visit" was about how we would just wear our ordinary clothes with a long raincoat to put over top and to wear old tennis shoes. And then they safety pinned the garb between your knees so it would not float over your head while being underwater!!! I had watched many baptisms so knew exactly the procedure, in and out of the water. And at Prince George it was COLD water!
I hadn't done very well with the hair issue so far anyway, as when I was 15, in great exasperation one day, I took the scissors and cut my own hair. I self-styled a 'duck-tail' -- now that 'dates' me - some may recall that style from the 50's-- 1955 to be exact. My mother cried when she saw what I had done but she said little. (A 'duck tail' style was short and each side at the back was combed toward the middle.) I think my Mother was more shocked than anything else. She did not, however, give me a lecture-- I just felt I had greatly disappointed her and that made me feel pretty badly because I loved my Mother dearly.
After being baptised and now given permission to take the emblems, the "Standard" about the hair issue was brought into focus. By this time I mostly kept my hair in a 'pony tail' at school. This better suited my participation in sports.
The autumn after my baptism Elsie Scheller and Clara Manary had meetings in our town. Now, they made the hair issue become front page, bold print headlines, in my 'spiritual responsibilities.' So the challenge went from wearing a pony tail to 'doing it up' -- somehow! The thing we called 'a bun.' It was never my idea of beauty. And not curling it made that challenge far beyond good success, as I have very fine, straight hair. My attempts were less than cheerful and turned the wondering heads of my fellow students, as I proceeded to 'do my hair up' for school. Sports, rather than academics, were my space and so the hair-do was severely tested. The long hair and buns eventually destroys every normal activity that a girl and woman has to do or wants to do. Washing and drying long hair is, for some, an all day affair. Eventually, the inactivity that women are forced into affects their health, energy level, emotional happiness and weight. Horseback riding, skiing, swimming, tennis, ball playing, and running, although still allowed, become such a nuisance due to the hair requirement and the skirt requirement that they are usually eliminated altogether. A woman's personality is changed by these man-made, unwritten rules.
The hair-do was just part of the larger package of the 'cookie cutter' standards that came to define one's identity. The standards for acceptance also included sleeve lengths, skirt lengths, no pants for the women and girls, stockings, shoes, colors, rules against TVs, movies, music, parties, games, dancing, radios, reading material, one's friends, where I went and shouldn't go, what I did, and shouldn't do, these things virtually intruded into and complicated every outward part of life. For these things I became 'willing', believing these were God's ideas. However, they contradicted the fact that Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden was light.
The mind is a powerful thing, and false teaching can give us a 'pride' in senseless burdens that we can falsely call the 'Will of God'. Satan is a master of counterfeits. It irked me that the 'fellas' had it easier in every way. But we were told at conventions that the women would get more blessing and have more opportunity to be a light to others. That reasoning always did strike me as an odd and unfair avenue to blessing. It did not occur to me that Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world" and that it was the moral character of God lived out in Him that was the true Light. I believe our'odd standards' for women succeeded only in repelling, rather than attracting anyone to Christ. I recall a man in Saskatchewan who brought a friend to a gospel meeting and then warned him ahead of time, "Just follow me and don't look at the women's hair-dos --- it will put you off right away!"
Christ's true light involves rather, the inward motives: moral values, integrity, honesty, love, joy, peace, patience, a pure mind, gentleness, loving-kindness, caring, sharing, truthful, moral purity, self-control, control of the tongue, faithfulness in marriage, caring for your brothers and sisters, caring for the needy, being honest in business, honoring your parents, etc. When the Holy Spirit is our Councilor He will lead us into all Truth, and of these virtues there is no end. It is better expressed in Romans 12:2, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..."...not your hairdo. Throughout the chapter Paul elaborates on different gifts and ministries which show practical ways of living as "light" in this world. None of which involve outward appearance or jection of normal social activities.
The struggles with the hair-do were never easy in the work either. While staying in someone else's home, it was not comfortable to get caught early in the morning with "your hair down" -- so doing it up was necessary even before you went to the bathroom. Just as rare was feeling comfortable at the breakfast table until you had your hair done up and dressed. It was great to stay with some single girls and just be natural for a change.
Winter cold weather days presented yet another challenge -- when it is minus 20 degrees Celcius and colder, your ears are in danger of frost bite. A toque usually keeps you warm and comfortable -- however, a toque doesn't do your bun hair a favor. You couldn't just simply take your toque off and easily runn a comb through your hair and be ready for the day.
Life in the Phiippines was even more challenging. Many modes of travel leave you totally at the mercy of the wind (which doesn't consider your hair at all). Though I am short -- many times I would catch my bun in something and yank out a hunk of what I thought was a well pinned coiffure. If I had a nickel for every time I redid my hair-do in the Philippines it would be significant.
Traveling on a smaller bus with all the windows down (because of the heat) was the worst. The only way was to wear a scarf -- so you were between the devil and the deep blue sea; wind-whack your bun or swelter in the heat under a head wrap!
I, along with many other women, needed a hairnet and hair spray plus those pins (that always scratched one's head) to secure the whole business. My mother and a few others supplied me with light brown hairnets my whole 14 years in the Islands. They didn't make brown ones over there. It must have cost them all a fortune. In later years nairnets became very hard to find. Hair pins were another challenge. We had friends here and there who could supply us -- the Japanese variety was the best.
Convention preps in the Philippines were another challenge for me -- if James Walden was around, breakfast was six AM. More of a challenge for the sisters and particularly the breakfast cook -- since it is still dark before 5 AM, there, you have to get your hair-do done off in some small corner, and yes, I have managed it with a flashlight -- hoping not to disturb the others too much. The hair-do always added 10 to 15 minutes to getting dressed and ready -- in order to get the breakfast on the table for six sharp. This rarely put me in a good mood for the Bible read after breakfast. I was simply too tired to say the least. I am not a morning person.
I have rid my house of all hair pins and old hairnets; cursed things!
When I first left the work at 50 years of age, finding work was a major challenge. Two of my first jobs were working in a fish cleaning facility and later shucking oysters. Each required a head wrap for clealiness. Inevitably, I had to re-do my hair-do -- sometimes at lunch time and usually before I left in the afternoon and then again in the evening if I went somewhere. What a hassle.
I realize that there are friends and workers who may not fully enter into my experiences but that does not invalidate mine. Many parents have had another 'layer of hair' so to speak, to deal with, if they had girls. Not only the mothers' personal struggle with their own hair to deal with, but to spend hours in the morning getting their girls ready for school --- braiding their hair, etc. Mothers have their own stores to tell and I have heard and seen plenty to know their stories and tears are true.
From the many comments I have heard over the years, I don't believe many husbands appreciate the problem of the long hair issue. At the best of times, husbands are often impatient, feeling their wives spend too much time getting ready to go somewhere. The hairdos certainly add to the time and frustration factor!
One family I knew had a number of children. The Dad often sat in the car and honked for things to speed up. One Sunday morning one child fell in the mud while going to the car. And while changing that child's clothes, the mother's skirt was soiled. Before she rectified the first emergency, another child required some attention. The car honking must have rattled her more than usual for when they arrived at meeting and she took her coat off --- we all discovered that she had forgotten to put on a clean skirt. This was highly amusing to us all, but I often think of how the pressure of getting children ready for meetings must have nearly driven some dear mothers to despair.
All these things caused me to hate my appearance. It does not give a sense of femininity, ladylikeness, a sense of well being or a sense of respectability. On the contrary, one battles embarrassment because of the messiness of long hair. The wasted time on the dowdy appearance was so unfulfilling and non-gratifying. Criticism came from insiders as well as outsiders. Professing people are often embarrassed by one another's appearnce, as well as their own.
After I had returned to my home area and was employed by the School District as a school bus driver, my hair was the subject of amusing comments from time to time. One of the employees at Maintenance frequently drew cartoons of any particular "mistake" some made. It was kind of a harmless way to keep us all on our 'cautious toes'. One cartoon he drew was a group of us ladies in some heated discussion over something -- each person was easy to detect by some distinct features -- mine were a pointed chin, pointy nose and the bun perched on the back of my head -- a good cartoonist aptly makes a point by exaggerating the odd things about a person. I actually had a bit of a shock to see my bun with such "high profile"!
Perhaps the first faint unraveling of the bun came when I spoke to a fellow school bus driver. His background had been Mennonite and he had his own School and Church, so I asked him about those who had once been "White cap" or "Black cap" Mennonites and how they arrived at a new understanding of the hair and head covering issues. The part of his reply that stuck with me was, "We don't make a doctrine out of anything that cannot be confirmed in at least three or four other places in Scripture. Keep Scripture in context and to whom it is written."
The same careful approach to doctrines is seen in Paul's writings about problems and accusations in the church.
2 Corinthians 3:1 "This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouths of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." King James
1 Timothy 5:19 "Do not entertain an accusation against an elder, unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. NIV
Similarly, Proverbs 11:14 says, "But in the multitude of councilors there is safety."
All vital doctrines of Scripture are repeated often.
A professing man I knew very well told his sister the proof that women must have long hair was the example of Mary wiping Jesus' feet with her hair -- "if it hadn't been long -- she couldn't have done that!" His sister said, "Surely, you don't think that scripture is about long hair do you?! It's not about long hair at all!"
Often an idea is introduced as a rule by someone who then looks to find a scripture that seems to support it. This is common with legalisms imposed for control purposes. Judgments and comparisons take over. These man-made standards turn the spotlight to the outward appearance and away from the true character of the heart. I believe the hair issue is far deeper than simply terms of "standard" but is instead a "control issue" . If girls, women and sister workers are ever allowed to wear normal hairdos of their own choosing, instead of the required bun, then I will say it is no longer a repressive control issue.
The basic reasons I wanted to have my hair cut and styled was because I wanted to feel good about myself, to look like a lady, feel feminine and attractive; and be released of the constant nuisance of fixing my hair. At the time I did not understand the fear I experienced in making this decision but I believe I now understand the two main reasons for this fear.
Number One, you will find when you read the Essay on 1 Corinthians 11 which outlines the real issue Paul was addressing. Understanding the history and attitudes of that day will give us accurate interpretation of that chapter.
Number Two, of the puzzle is how the false notions of "worldliness" came into the workers' teachings. This is all tied together with the beginning when William Irvine began to reject orthodox Biblical beliefs, openly condemning Christian churches and expressing his view of "worldliness". William Irvine condemned religion, politics, and education, tobacco, alcohol, wealthy people, lace, fancy clothing, money, Christian doctrines, Christian education and charitable activities. Other workers added sports, entertainments, dancing, cosmetics, and hobbies to the list of Don'ts. The early workers mocked those who trusted in the Blood of Christ to saved them, and called them "Calvary Ranters". When the Cross of Calvary is not the center of Christianity it opens the way for all manner of legalisms, disguised as "standards" for acceptance with God. The early workers added their own unwritten rules to God's written Word in oder to be saved.
At the end of this letter I will give reference to the transcription of an in-depth study on 1 Corinthians 11, done by MM Outreach Ministries of Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. Website: mmoutreach@gmail.com. It articulates some Jewish views from the Talmud which were the additional written and oral laws over and above the God-given Ten Commandments. Understanding some of these Talmudic additions is necessary in order to understand how they affected Jewish Christians of that day. These added laws were, in fact, in opposition to God's Word. These are the issues Paul was writing to the Corinthians about.
The topic of 1 Corinthians 11 is about head coverings for Jewish men and women while praying or prophesying. It has nothing to do with a daily rule about Christian hairstyles for men, married women, toddlers, children, teens or single women. The workers not only subverted the topic from veil to hair, but they added a new requirement that women's hair be kept in a bun. The workers made women's hairstyles into a doctrine of proof of salvation.
WHY DID I DECIDE TO HAVE MY HAIR CUT?
When I was 16 years old, and baptism was spoken about at convention, those considering the 'step' were advised to speak with the "worker you knew best" - for approval. I spoke with Elsie Scheller who had been in our area. She gave me no scriptural explanation for baptism. The discussion was mostly about how nice it was that I was "willing for this step"; but she added, "YOU ARE STILL CURLING YOUR HAIR!" This was immediately confusing to me because Elsie had the most beautiful naturally curly hair! Hair was not, in my view, much of a challenge for her. Why would someone with lovely curly hair make 'curling my hair' a standard issue for acceptance for baptism? I felt indignant and confused. The rest of the "visit" was about how we would just wear our ordinary clothes with a long raincoat to put over top and to wear old tennis shoes. And then they safety pinned the garb between your knees so it would not float over your head while being underwater!!! I had watched many baptisms so knew exactly the procedure, in and out of the water. And at Prince George it was COLD water!
I hadn't done very well with the hair issue so far anyway, as when I was 15, in great exasperation one day, I took the scissors and cut my own hair. I self-styled a 'duck-tail' -- now that 'dates' me - some may recall that style from the 50's-- 1955 to be exact. My mother cried when she saw what I had done but she said little. (A 'duck tail' style was short and each side at the back was combed toward the middle.) I think my Mother was more shocked than anything else. She did not, however, give me a lecture-- I just felt I had greatly disappointed her and that made me feel pretty badly because I loved my Mother dearly.
After being baptised and now given permission to take the emblems, the "Standard" about the hair issue was brought into focus. By this time I mostly kept my hair in a 'pony tail' at school. This better suited my participation in sports.
The autumn after my baptism Elsie Scheller and Clara Manary had meetings in our town. Now, they made the hair issue become front page, bold print headlines, in my 'spiritual responsibilities.' So the challenge went from wearing a pony tail to 'doing it up' -- somehow! The thing we called 'a bun.' It was never my idea of beauty. And not curling it made that challenge far beyond good success, as I have very fine, straight hair. My attempts were less than cheerful and turned the wondering heads of my fellow students, as I proceeded to 'do my hair up' for school. Sports, rather than academics, were my space and so the hair-do was severely tested. The long hair and buns eventually destroys every normal activity that a girl and woman has to do or wants to do. Washing and drying long hair is, for some, an all day affair. Eventually, the inactivity that women are forced into affects their health, energy level, emotional happiness and weight. Horseback riding, skiing, swimming, tennis, ball playing, and running, although still allowed, become such a nuisance due to the hair requirement and the skirt requirement that they are usually eliminated altogether. A woman's personality is changed by these man-made, unwritten rules.
The hair-do was just part of the larger package of the 'cookie cutter' standards that came to define one's identity. The standards for acceptance also included sleeve lengths, skirt lengths, no pants for the women and girls, stockings, shoes, colors, rules against TVs, movies, music, parties, games, dancing, radios, reading material, one's friends, where I went and shouldn't go, what I did, and shouldn't do, these things virtually intruded into and complicated every outward part of life. For these things I became 'willing', believing these were God's ideas. However, they contradicted the fact that Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden was light.
The mind is a powerful thing, and false teaching can give us a 'pride' in senseless burdens that we can falsely call the 'Will of God'. Satan is a master of counterfeits. It irked me that the 'fellas' had it easier in every way. But we were told at conventions that the women would get more blessing and have more opportunity to be a light to others. That reasoning always did strike me as an odd and unfair avenue to blessing. It did not occur to me that Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world" and that it was the moral character of God lived out in Him that was the true Light. I believe our'odd standards' for women succeeded only in repelling, rather than attracting anyone to Christ. I recall a man in Saskatchewan who brought a friend to a gospel meeting and then warned him ahead of time, "Just follow me and don't look at the women's hair-dos --- it will put you off right away!"
Christ's true light involves rather, the inward motives: moral values, integrity, honesty, love, joy, peace, patience, a pure mind, gentleness, loving-kindness, caring, sharing, truthful, moral purity, self-control, control of the tongue, faithfulness in marriage, caring for your brothers and sisters, caring for the needy, being honest in business, honoring your parents, etc. When the Holy Spirit is our Councilor He will lead us into all Truth, and of these virtues there is no end. It is better expressed in Romans 12:2, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..."...not your hairdo. Throughout the chapter Paul elaborates on different gifts and ministries which show practical ways of living as "light" in this world. None of which involve outward appearance or jection of normal social activities.
The struggles with the hair-do were never easy in the work either. While staying in someone else's home, it was not comfortable to get caught early in the morning with "your hair down" -- so doing it up was necessary even before you went to the bathroom. Just as rare was feeling comfortable at the breakfast table until you had your hair done up and dressed. It was great to stay with some single girls and just be natural for a change.
Winter cold weather days presented yet another challenge -- when it is minus 20 degrees Celcius and colder, your ears are in danger of frost bite. A toque usually keeps you warm and comfortable -- however, a toque doesn't do your bun hair a favor. You couldn't just simply take your toque off and easily runn a comb through your hair and be ready for the day.
Life in the Phiippines was even more challenging. Many modes of travel leave you totally at the mercy of the wind (which doesn't consider your hair at all). Though I am short -- many times I would catch my bun in something and yank out a hunk of what I thought was a well pinned coiffure. If I had a nickel for every time I redid my hair-do in the Philippines it would be significant.
Traveling on a smaller bus with all the windows down (because of the heat) was the worst. The only way was to wear a scarf -- so you were between the devil and the deep blue sea; wind-whack your bun or swelter in the heat under a head wrap!
I, along with many other women, needed a hairnet and hair spray plus those pins (that always scratched one's head) to secure the whole business. My mother and a few others supplied me with light brown hairnets my whole 14 years in the Islands. They didn't make brown ones over there. It must have cost them all a fortune. In later years nairnets became very hard to find. Hair pins were another challenge. We had friends here and there who could supply us -- the Japanese variety was the best.
Convention preps in the Philippines were another challenge for me -- if James Walden was around, breakfast was six AM. More of a challenge for the sisters and particularly the breakfast cook -- since it is still dark before 5 AM, there, you have to get your hair-do done off in some small corner, and yes, I have managed it with a flashlight -- hoping not to disturb the others too much. The hair-do always added 10 to 15 minutes to getting dressed and ready -- in order to get the breakfast on the table for six sharp. This rarely put me in a good mood for the Bible read after breakfast. I was simply too tired to say the least. I am not a morning person.
I have rid my house of all hair pins and old hairnets; cursed things!
When I first left the work at 50 years of age, finding work was a major challenge. Two of my first jobs were working in a fish cleaning facility and later shucking oysters. Each required a head wrap for clealiness. Inevitably, I had to re-do my hair-do -- sometimes at lunch time and usually before I left in the afternoon and then again in the evening if I went somewhere. What a hassle.
I realize that there are friends and workers who may not fully enter into my experiences but that does not invalidate mine. Many parents have had another 'layer of hair' so to speak, to deal with, if they had girls. Not only the mothers' personal struggle with their own hair to deal with, but to spend hours in the morning getting their girls ready for school --- braiding their hair, etc. Mothers have their own stores to tell and I have heard and seen plenty to know their stories and tears are true.
From the many comments I have heard over the years, I don't believe many husbands appreciate the problem of the long hair issue. At the best of times, husbands are often impatient, feeling their wives spend too much time getting ready to go somewhere. The hairdos certainly add to the time and frustration factor!
One family I knew had a number of children. The Dad often sat in the car and honked for things to speed up. One Sunday morning one child fell in the mud while going to the car. And while changing that child's clothes, the mother's skirt was soiled. Before she rectified the first emergency, another child required some attention. The car honking must have rattled her more than usual for when they arrived at meeting and she took her coat off --- we all discovered that she had forgotten to put on a clean skirt. This was highly amusing to us all, but I often think of how the pressure of getting children ready for meetings must have nearly driven some dear mothers to despair.
All these things caused me to hate my appearance. It does not give a sense of femininity, ladylikeness, a sense of well being or a sense of respectability. On the contrary, one battles embarrassment because of the messiness of long hair. The wasted time on the dowdy appearance was so unfulfilling and non-gratifying. Criticism came from insiders as well as outsiders. Professing people are often embarrassed by one another's appearnce, as well as their own.
After I had returned to my home area and was employed by the School District as a school bus driver, my hair was the subject of amusing comments from time to time. One of the employees at Maintenance frequently drew cartoons of any particular "mistake" some made. It was kind of a harmless way to keep us all on our 'cautious toes'. One cartoon he drew was a group of us ladies in some heated discussion over something -- each person was easy to detect by some distinct features -- mine were a pointed chin, pointy nose and the bun perched on the back of my head -- a good cartoonist aptly makes a point by exaggerating the odd things about a person. I actually had a bit of a shock to see my bun with such "high profile"!
Perhaps the first faint unraveling of the bun came when I spoke to a fellow school bus driver. His background had been Mennonite and he had his own School and Church, so I asked him about those who had once been "White cap" or "Black cap" Mennonites and how they arrived at a new understanding of the hair and head covering issues. The part of his reply that stuck with me was, "We don't make a doctrine out of anything that cannot be confirmed in at least three or four other places in Scripture. Keep Scripture in context and to whom it is written."
The same careful approach to doctrines is seen in Paul's writings about problems and accusations in the church.
2 Corinthians 3:1 "This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouths of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." King James
1 Timothy 5:19 "Do not entertain an accusation against an elder, unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. NIV
Similarly, Proverbs 11:14 says, "But in the multitude of councilors there is safety."
All vital doctrines of Scripture are repeated often.
A professing man I knew very well told his sister the proof that women must have long hair was the example of Mary wiping Jesus' feet with her hair -- "if it hadn't been long -- she couldn't have done that!" His sister said, "Surely, you don't think that scripture is about long hair do you?! It's not about long hair at all!"
Often an idea is introduced as a rule by someone who then looks to find a scripture that seems to support it. This is common with legalisms imposed for control purposes. Judgments and comparisons take over. These man-made standards turn the spotlight to the outward appearance and away from the true character of the heart. I believe the hair issue is far deeper than simply terms of "standard" but is instead a "control issue" . If girls, women and sister workers are ever allowed to wear normal hairdos of their own choosing, instead of the required bun, then I will say it is no longer a repressive control issue.
The basic reasons I wanted to have my hair cut and styled was because I wanted to feel good about myself, to look like a lady, feel feminine and attractive; and be released of the constant nuisance of fixing my hair. At the time I did not understand the fear I experienced in making this decision but I believe I now understand the two main reasons for this fear.
Number One, you will find when you read the Essay on 1 Corinthians 11 which outlines the real issue Paul was addressing. Understanding the history and attitudes of that day will give us accurate interpretation of that chapter.
Number Two, of the puzzle is how the false notions of "worldliness" came into the workers' teachings. This is all tied together with the beginning when William Irvine began to reject orthodox Biblical beliefs, openly condemning Christian churches and expressing his view of "worldliness". William Irvine condemned religion, politics, and education, tobacco, alcohol, wealthy people, lace, fancy clothing, money, Christian doctrines, Christian education and charitable activities. Other workers added sports, entertainments, dancing, cosmetics, and hobbies to the list of Don'ts. The early workers mocked those who trusted in the Blood of Christ to saved them, and called them "Calvary Ranters". When the Cross of Calvary is not the center of Christianity it opens the way for all manner of legalisms, disguised as "standards" for acceptance with God. The early workers added their own unwritten rules to God's written Word in oder to be saved.