"In every democracy, there is a disconnect between reality and perception, with this disconnect voicing itself in the people voting for politicians that promise unfunded prosperity as if a person could borrow his or her way to being wealthy. The argument is that right investment—say, investments in education, in green energy, in the environment—made with borrowed money will bring about full employment of a population that looks too much like it has fallen down a flight of stairs while holding a tackle box of fishing lures (Dave Ramsey’s expression) … seriously, has not the person with multiple facial piercings in lips, nose, cheeks, eyebrows made him or herself unemployable? This person would be an employment liability for such piercings are distractions, both to the person and to fellow employees. And while the person has, in a democracy, the right to whatever body adornment the person chooses—a right conferred by citizenship in the democracy—an employer in the same democracy has the right to not hire anyone, or even relocate his or her manufacturing plant to a nation that isn’t rich enough for its populace to practice self-mutilation or self adornment via facial studs and rings.
There is a historical tendency for men to wear earrings shortly before the culture collapses, with the collapsed culture being replaced by a more austere, minimalist culture, one that spurns male head and face piercings ….
The Lord said to Moses, "Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'To your offspring I will give it.' I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people." When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.'" Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. (Ex 33:1–6)
A correspondence existed between personal adornment and being far from God, with the removal of personal adornment being a form of humbling oneself before God; of coming before God without haughtiness.
What would the Lord have done with ancient Israel if the nation hadn’t taken off its personal ornaments? Would there even be an ancient Israel, or would there have been only a nation derived from Moses?"
Can this be the reason why women are to cultivate a meek and quiet spirit instead of outward adornment? (1 Peter 3:3-4)
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