HEAD-COVERING
The early Christian Church decreed that women with short hair or who prayed with
no veils on were guilty of unnatural sin. St Paul gave evidence from theology
for that stance (1 Corinthians 11) so we are not talking about a custom but a
religious and moral law here. Customs can be changed but laws of that sort
cannot be altered. Paul said that women had to grow long hair and be veiled as
they prayed because they were made in the image of man. Men had no need to hide
their heads from God for they were made in the image of God. Paul was at
variance with Genesis which said that women were made in the image of God like
men were. He said that head covering was the only officially recognised usage in
the entire Church (v16). Now, the Church thrived in many places where women were
free to pray with bare heads and short hair so the modern Church is lying when
it says that head-covering was merely a custom that could be changed with the
times. No sexist custom should be tolerated for to do that is to encourage it.
And so Paul would not have tolerated the law of head covering unless he felt
that it could not be done away.
Nowhere does Paul hint that head covering is only necessary during public
worship. It is necessary all the time. He talks about women needing their heads
covered when they pray or prophesy and it is not until later (v18) that he
instructs about public meetings of worship.