The Liberty Way and My Hair

This was a facebook note regarding the The Liberty Way.

I thought it was worth reposting. This was posted on a liberty student’s facebook page. I know him personally but I did remove his name from the post for security reasons.

I have come to the point in my Liberty University career where I simply do not care about the irrational hair and dress code. I have been told by RAs and even a professor numerous times this semester to get a haircut. I must concede and confess this is simply not going to happen. I have been okay with these petty rules for the last three years, but now I am just to the point where I cannot stand it any longer. The leadership seems to care more about the trivial matter of the length of my hair and the type of shirt that I am wearing than they do about my spiritual condition. I hear more about getting a haircut from the “spiritual leaders” of the campus than I do about spiritual things. There simply seems to be a disconnect here. I concede that there are probably some helpful things contained in the Liberty Way, although I struggle to think of any, but by-and-large it seems that the Liberty Way only propagates long-held dogmatism that is based upon crappy exegesis and even worse critical reflection. We are told we must wear collared shirts to look more professional. If this were only true… If they are going for professionalism then why are jeans allowed? Why can we have our shirts untucked? Flipflops? How are flipflops professional? Now I am definitely not advocated we move to a more professional dress code, but let us simply act with a shred of rationality. When it comes to the hair code I have never actually ever heard a compelling reason in favor of it. It seems to me that it simply boils down to the dogmatism that ruled the 1970’s when the University was founded. The hippies and stoners had long hair, so Christian men shouldn’t. When you ask an RA why there is a hair code the normal answer is that they don’t know, but we must obey just because it is a rule. Duty for duty’s sake. Give me a break. The Principle of Sufficient Reason anyone? The truth is that there is no sufficient reason for the rule. I pay out thousands of dollars per year only to have RAs badger me about my hairstyle. There’s my two cents.

I am constructing a deductive argument in my mind that will hopefully prove positively that the standard of dress and hair at Liberty University is irrational. Wonder if this will work?

Oh well. Looks like I will suck it up until I graduate. But I will not back down. I will not get a haircut until AFTER this semester is over. I will get a haircut on my own terms and not some power hungry RAs.