★☆☆☆☆
The Biblical Headcovering: Scarf of Hidden Power by Renée Ellison was a quick read, but—oh my, my, my.
Full disclosure: I cover my head for worship. However, if this had been the first book I read on the subject, I might have abandoned the entire practice because of the number of extra-biblical teachings attached to it.
According to this book, it is not enough to cover your head during worship. You must cover full-time.
It is not enough to cover full-time. Your covering must be a veil rather than a hat.
It is not enough to wear a veil. The veil must not be sheer or made of lace.
And it does not stop with head coverings. The reader is also encouraged to give up slacks, jewelry, makeup, and patterned dresses or skirts.
Holy hedge laws!
The book presents another troubling false choice: If a woman gives up trying to look attractive for her husband, he will discover something even more beautiful—her inner self.
But why must it be one or the other? Scripture does not tell women to stop looking attractive. It warns us not to locate our value in outward appearance or make external adornment our primary source of beauty. A godly inner life and an attractive outward appearance are not mutually exclusive.
The book also attributes benefits to head coverings that Scripture never does. Among its claims or suggestions are that head coverings:
- Protect women from demonic interference and harassment
- Place women under God’s special protection
- May help break addictions
- Provide additional protection against crimes such as mugging or robbery
- Prevent the more intense sexual attention supposedly attracted by not covering full-time
These claims go well beyond anything taught in 1 Corinthians 11. Scripture connects head covering with headship, creation order, glory, authority, prayer and prophecy, angels, nature, and church practice. It does not teach that a piece of fabric possesses hidden spiritual power or guarantees special protection from demons, addiction, crime, or male attention.
Had the author stayed with what Scripture actually says, the book might have been one-third as long—but it would also have been much safer and more useful.
As I have written about head covering, I have found that one of the chief concerns women bring to the subject is not necessarily Paul’s instruction itself. It is the collection of additional rules that sometimes accompanies it. Women wonder whether covering means they must also abandon pants, makeup, jewelry, attractive clothing, lace, color, and every form of personal style.
Those additions are often called hedge laws: rules placed around a biblical instruction in an effort to protect it. A personal boundary may be wise for an individual, but it becomes dangerous when it is presented as God’s command for everyone.
The Second London Baptist Confession expresses the principle well:
“God alone is Lord of the conscience, and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to his word, or not contained in it. So that to believe such doctrines, or obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the requiring of an implicit faith, an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also.”
—Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 21, paragraph 2
A Christian woman may choose to cover full-time. She may prefer opaque veils, wear only dresses, avoid makeup and jewelry, or dress very plainly. She is free to make those choices as an application of her own convictions.
But personal applications must not be presented as biblical commands.
Let us be careful not to bind another woman’s conscience with requirements we cannot find in Scripture. Fabric is fabric. It can serve as a meaningful symbol of obedience, but it has no hidden power of its own.
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