Recently I was in a Grace Brethren church over the weekend and had a short but interesting conversation with a woman leader who wears a head covering–as Brethren women in years past commonly did–in response to 1 Corinthians 11. Now comes a column in WORLD magazine by respected writer Andree Seu. Here are several paragraphs from her piece–the complete article may be read at http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13011
I will write precisely one column on this, and one column is all it deserves. I have taken to wearing a head covering during worship. I expect one in a thousand readers follows this practice, so you might all be annoyed with me.
It means launching out and putting a symbol of “glory” on my head at church because I think 1 Corinthians 11 tells me to, even if I may turn out in the end to be wrong. That’s because I will definitely be wrong if I don’t do what I think God is commanding.
To disobey what I think God is telling me is to disobey God. There is nothing more a man can do at any given moment than say yes to God as he hears Him. It is God Himself who gently steers our boats, and corrects their course, but only as we’re moving toward Him (Philippians 3:15-16).
I read in 1 Corinthians 11 that the woman’s head is to be covered in worship. The modern Christian consensus tells me that is a relative and obsolete command, dealing with some first-century problem in the city of Corinth. My high-school literary skills tell me otherwise: The command is rooted in creation (verses 7-9) and in nature (verse 14). And if that weren’t ironclad enough, I am to cover my head “because of the angels.”
because we have taken scripture watered it down to make it more acceptable to our society so it will not be as hard to obey. God help us.