{"id":3007,"date":"2011-08-06T14:53:35","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T20:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3007"},"modified":"2011-08-06T14:56:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-06T20:56:23","slug":"beards-and-religiosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3007","title":{"rendered":"Beards and Religiosity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Religion journalist Mark Oppenheimer begins a New York Times<\/em> article on the religious significance of beards<\/a> this way:<\/p>\n

Go ahead, picture a religious Jew.<\/p>\n

Now picture a Muslim cleric.<\/p>\n

Now an Amish farmer.<\/p>\n

What do they have in common? Beards. And not neatly trimmed beards, but, in the popular stereotype, long, unruly beards, which connote piety, spiritual intensity and a life so hard at study that there is no time for a shave. The scholar, the mystic, the terrorist, the holy man \u2014 they all have beards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now who is missing from that list?<\/p>\n

Of course, we would not want male Druids to be viewed as in an anecdote passed along by Adnan Zulfiqar, the Muslim spiritual adviser at the University of Pennsylvania:<\/p>\n

\u201cI recall one gentleman who came back from a trip to Pakistan and remarked to me, \u2018I learned one thing: the longer the beard, the bigger the crook.\u2019 His anticipation was people with big beards would be really honest, but he kept meeting people lying to him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Religion journalist Mark Oppenheimer begins a New York Times article on the religious significance of beards this way: Go ahead, picture a religious Jew. Now picture a Muslim cleric. Now an Amish farmer. What do they have in common? Beards. And not neatly trimmed beards, but, in the popular stereotype, long, unruly beards, which connote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,85,15],"class_list":["post-3007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-druids","tag-islam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Mv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9426,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9426","url_meta":{"origin":3007,"position":0},"title":"Heathen Soldiers Can Wear Beards Now","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is interesting: Sikh men in the US military had gotten permission to wear beards as part of their religion. (Normally, beards are not allowed except, for instance, for special operations personnel in the Afghan back country who want to blend in, or something like that.) Comes now a Norse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Heathenry\"","block_context":{"text":"Heathenry","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=heathenry"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5252,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5252","url_meta":{"origin":3007,"position":1},"title":"Of Beards and Priests and Pastors","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"From the opinionated and entertaining blog Beauty Tips for Ministers, a link to a site examining the beard styles of Christian clergymen. The thing is, I think I see some Pagan bloggers here as well.","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12557,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12557","url_meta":{"origin":3007,"position":2},"title":"This Ain’t Your Film Set-CGI Viking Ship","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The best description I have ever read of sailing a long ship. I love it when people reconstitute old tech that still works \u2014 like the traditional Polynesian canoe that sailed from Tahiti to Hawaii and back in the 1970s, all without a compass, radio, or modern maps. This is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Norse\"","block_context":{"text":"Norse","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=norse"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/sea_stallion.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/sea_stallion.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/sea_stallion.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/sea_stallion.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4062,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4062","url_meta":{"origin":3007,"position":3},"title":"What’s Your Religious IQ?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I blogged yesterday, too much reporting on religion is written by people who are religiously illiterate \u2014 and, sometimes, proud of it. Every reporter at least ought to score well on this quiz from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Go ahead, take it. Fifteen questions \u2014\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7100,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7100","url_meta":{"origin":3007,"position":4},"title":"Wicca Again as the “Designated Other”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Pasque flowers blooming in a thin layer of pine duff atop a boulder. I love them for their precarious and improbably habitat. Spring is slowly coming to the forest, and within it the offer of new chances, a feeling that you might get it right this time. Travel and editorial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"pasque flowers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/pasque-flowers-206x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8466,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8466","url_meta":{"origin":3007,"position":5},"title":"CFP: Religion, Myth and Migration (Ireland)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Sixth Annual Conference of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions (ISASR) Hosted by Waterford Institute of Technology Religion, Myth and Migration Friday 16th June 2017 We are pleased to invite scholars to take part in the sixth annual conference of the Irish Society for the Academic Study\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Ireland\"","block_context":{"text":"Ireland","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ireland"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/isasr-logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3009,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007\/revisions\/3009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}