A five-year-old girl was denied admission at the New Bethel Seventh-day Adventist Academy in Liberta, Antiqua, because of her dreadlocks hairstyle. Jordan Mason, the girl’s mother, told the Antiqua Observer that “she was given an ultimatum to chop off her daughter’s hair or not to return.”
If missionaries were sent to Antigua, would they insist on no dreadlocks before teaching a child. I would think not. But if the child comes to America, the dreadlocks have to go.
I suspect the big issue is that they don’t want all the other kids to go and get dreadlocks, for purely aesthetic reasons. Or maybe there is some parental backlash. But what is the big deal? A bit of individuality is a good thing, and these kids when they grow up are going to encounter plenty of people that don’t look like themselves.
The ongoing suffocation of Adventism, as exhibited in its more traditional quarters.
I don’t understand your comment. The child was in Antigua, not the US.
So true!
Maybe we ought to advocate for hair freedom.
"The church official [Carson Greene] also stressed that hairstyle is not and never has been a matter of right or wrong, sin or salvation, but is rather a matter of discipline."
That’s a new one to me. So, having a hair style that doesn’t meet the schools completely arbitrary guidelines made up by some morality committee means you lack discipline, and then getting a haircut that meets the guidelines means you have discipline? Sounds like complete an utter nonsense to me…
“Dr Greene also maintained that, “As Seventh Day Adventists, we maintain that our policies are justifiable and biblically sound.”
Find me a proof text that says girls shouldn’t have dreadlocks - that dreadlocks are not a Christian hairstyle. Even better, where does the bible describe a Christian hairstyle? Let me think… still thinking… still thinking… researching… Oh yea: Nowhere.
Shiphrah and Puah, from Exodus 1, the midwives who helped Jochebed give birth to Moses, are commonly depicted with dreadlocks, or braided hair, which is basically the same thing. I guess that makes dreadlocks a biblical hairstyle, so I’m not sure what the fuss is all about:
I suppose this hairstyle is OK for boys, right?
Here’s a picture of the little 5-year old we can’t have attending our school. So threatening and scary with that evil Rasta hair!
We do not look good to the world when we do stupid things like this:
From the news article:
"Its announcement [the Parliament of Antigua and Barbuda] comes after a 5-year-old girl was refused entry into the New Bethel Seventh Day Adventist Academy in Liberta because the school has a policy against wearing locs. The child who had already been accepted into the school, was turned away during orientation after the principal pulled her mother aside and informed her that the child could not attend school with locs. The mother told Observer that she was given an ultimatum to chop off her daughter’s hair or not to return.
"While the family do not present themselves as Rastafarians, Cabinet says the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda protects freedom of religion, freedom of association, and the freedom to hold a belief system that differs from the majority’s.
"“The Cabinet noted that objection to natural hairstyles on the heads of students may be couched in language covering school deportment; however, the object, as the Cabinet sees it, is to enable discrimination against children from the Rastafarian community.”
““That debate about exclusion of Rastafarians from schools ended in Antigua and Barbuda nearly 50 years ago. Schools are not to discriminate against members of the Rastafarian community, or those who choose to wear their hair in the same manner as the Rastafarians practice. That is the policy as articulated by the Government,…””
So, in a country that has battled over this topic for decades, our school makes this move. Is it from arrogance, incompetence, hatred of the other, or stupidity? I just can’t decide.
While at SDA boarding school, I had to keep my hair cut so that it didn’t touch the top of my ears nor the back of my collar.
One of the texts the faculty used to rationalize this mandate-in addition to some of EGW’s “babbling on”-was Paul’s claim that nature says it’s a shame for a man to have long hair.
Of course, if nature is our guide every man should look like ZZ TOP:
And based on all the portraits and sculptures I’ve ever seen you’re right; Jesus clearly didn’t get the memo!
(Kinda makes one wonder what else there is in Paul’s letter that contradicts Jesus “good news”…!)
All of the above? 
Nature and, literally, the words of God, as relayed to Moses in the bible:
Yahweh said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy…
“Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.” - Leviticus 19.
The same passage goes on and Yahweh says:
“Priests [Ministers] must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies. They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God." - Leviticus 21.
Unfortunately, it seems that Dr. Carson Green missed this part of Leviticus because he has both cut off the hair on the sides of his head and and clipped off the edges of his beard! And in fact, he has shaved his entire head an beard!
I think that means he has profaned the name of his God, per Leviticus?
Tisk tisk.
So, I just couldn’t help myself:
carson.greene@slmadventist.org
Dear Dr Carson,
I think you are incorrect in supporting the denial of the admission of a little girl to one of our schools. This sort of exclusionary position flies in the face of both the inclusive teachings of Jesus in the New Testament and the teachings of inclusion found in the Old Testament.
Also, regarding your own hairstyle, you seem to have overlooked important passages in Leviticus 19 and 21:
Yahweh said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy…
“Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.” - Leviticus 19.
The same passage goes on and Yahweh says:
“Priests [Ministers] must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies. They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God." - Leviticus 21.
It seems you have done both of these things - to the extreme, in fact, as you have removed almost all of the hair on your head and face, which indeed is most unnatural. And, apparently, profanes the name of your God, per Leviticus.
So, I encourage you to both admit any child who applies to our schools in your jurisdiction, regardless of the length and shape of their hair (especially young girls, for which the bible seems to have no guidelines), and also to reconsider your own hair styling choices, which do not appear to be biblically sanctioned.
Best Regards,
Tim Teichman
Neither do I on reflection. I should have read the article more closely.
I read about this shameful episode in the sda community of Antigua this morning. I was stunned and sickened by the cruelty aimed at this innocent little who wanted to learn more about Jesus. I wondered if this would have ever happened go a white girl, and what message this girl got by this hateful
