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.