I was at a conference on religion over the weekend and, over drinks one night, grooming behavior among the LDS came up. A never-mo in the group of people with whom I was chatting wondered whether there were formal grooming standards in the LDS Church. As various people chimed in, it eventually came out that it used to be customary for leaders to have facial hair, but that changed over time (see this study for more info. on this:Nielsen, M. E., & White, D. (2008). Men’s grooming in the LDS Church: A qualitativestudy of norm violation. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 11, 807-825.).
The never-mo among us then asked, “What did the beards look like?” The responses led him to suggest that someone needed to create a picture of one of those prophets with ZZ Top. Thus, I give you: ZZ Top and Joseph F. Smith:
lol, awesome.
i wonder what monson would look like with one. someone ought to photoshop that.
Hey now! Keep it respectable.
YESSSS!
Funny how things change. I was in a Dr’s office in Rexburg once and found it very laughable that one of the docs (who were all LDS, of course) was saying, “We were really worried because one guy had facial hair. We thought we were going to have to say something, but then he shaved it off.” Apparently, facial hair is a big concern in Rexburg.
Of course I can. Cute photo.