why didn't they say: "No Earrings" ?

I never could figure that out; you?

Because, in this case "bad" or "sinful actually means doesn't look like what a good, conservative republican should dress like.

Because it is not that the behavior is a sin, doctrinally speaking, it is that you are committing the greatest sin in Mormonism, disobeying a directive.

It does not have to make sense, be scriptural-based, or even have a grain of Christianity in it.

Yo just obey because they said it.

lol its wierd.. when my dad brings up my second ear piercing, and i say i like it, he rebuttals that with "well, your mother never got her ears peirced". and this matters why?? if god kicks people out of heaven for wearing earrings, i dont think i want to join that party anyways :P

Since the only reason one should have for not wearing earrings is that piercing the ears is barbaric, the OP is correct: it should be none or else not limited. My mother came from a generation in which only gypsies had pierced ears. Clip on earrings should be no problem - except for getting lost.

Huh??? I've got my great-great grandmother's earrings. I'd have to go check my genealogy whatnot, but that was quite some time back as I'm 55. No Mormons or other "start poppin' them babies out early!" types; every one of them was in mid-20s to mid-30s when they were having kids. She was not, if I may so state for the record, Romany. *memo to self:get healed-over ears pierced again one of these here days*

Have you ever tried wearing clip-ons? They are agony.

I would agree with that. There used to be a cultural taboo against any body modifications, including piercings. Clip-on earrings were used instead. And yes, they are agony to wear. Sometimes I've used vintage clip-on earrings as shoe decorations.

Again, when and where was this? My G-g-grandmother's earrings date from her marriage (wedding gift from her husband) which was in 1867. My mother pierced her own ears with her mother's blessing in about 1945 (using some ice and a red-hot needle...ouch!). Every photo I have of family members from the 1800's forward has the women with pierced ears, so where was this taboo taking place? I'm not being snarky, but I am being curious since my family members with earrings occurred in Sweden, Canada, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Washington State. So, when and where was this happening? Was this a Utah/Morridor thing or...?

"Among female European nobles, earrings were not in great demand. Elaborate wigs and high collars made it difficult to show off this type of jewelry. Women also wore bonnets or elaborate hats, which further made earrings impractical. Body decorations therefore focused on necklaces, rings and clothing choices. In addition, there is evidence that earrings were associated with the pagan practices of so-called uncivilized tribes and therefore frowned upon by pious members of society. In some cases, earrings were also associated with outlaws such as pirates.

The popularity of piercings went down even further when in 1920 the inventor of the ear clip introduced the new way of wearing jewelry. Clips continued to become the choice of “good” girls who would abide by the norms of a more restricted society. Piercings once again became popular during America’s hippie movement. "

http://psjewelers.blogspot.com/2013/06/when-did-people-first-start-piercing.html

It took a little digging to find it. My mom and maternal grandmother had an issue with pierced ears for themselves, but I was allowed to get my ears pierced as were y older sisters.

Hmmm...I'm going to take that blog with a grain of salt. Jeweler or no, Queen Elizabeth I was certainly wearing blingy earrings and as the queen went, so went fashion. I'd like to know the sources for his material, but, sadly, he doesn't provide any. As far as associating earrings with pirates...well. Pirates wore earrings because seamen wore earrings.

But I thank you for the blog reference!

Reason falls on deaf ears, but moronic taboos are heard and observed.

Because they lack common sense at the morg's HQ!??

Just like marriage partners. ONE is OK, two or more is not.

Now don't you just know Hinckley got this directly from God?

Self-control is knowing when to stop at one. :p

I can't for the life of me figure out why two ear rings in one ear is a sin,

but ignoring the basic needs of the poor and the hungry is not?


I was talking to a return missionary who served in eastern Europe, who told me that hungry, poor people would sleep in the doorway of the missionary's flat, and they were directed by the Mission President NOT to feed or help these folks, least they decide to stay long term.

If the missionaries ignored them, their MP told them, then eventually the folks would move on elsewhere.

I guess the MP shouldn't have to step over the hungry when he visits his missionaries...

My TBM niece wears two earrings--but she wears them both on one ear, her YW leaders tried to shame her out of it. Yeah, the youngsters learn how to be judgmental and rude, in a place where their clueless parents think their kids are learning to be Christ-like.

I'm still reeling about the poor people sleeping in the missionary's doorway. That MP had an opportunity to do something to really help others, and give a great Christian lesson to those missionaries, but instead, he stayed true to the cult.

God cares desperately about earrings, undies, and tea. Starving kids--not so much.

It's because GBH and friends grew up at a time when women wore
one pair of earrings and men did not. When fashion changed on
this it started in the counterculture. So GBH and friends see
it as "rebellion." Notice that he said it doesn't look
attractive--he's making a fashion statement. This is a fashion
statement from old men to a younger generation--"don't change
the fashions we grew up with, and for Pete's sake don't do it by
following counter-culture fashion."

To say "no earrings" would have gone against what their mothers
and wives have always done. That would have actually been
revolutionary.

By the way, has anyone said anything about earrings since GBH
passed the mantle to TSM? Does God no longer care about
earrings?

I haven't noticed anything from an "official" Mormon since Bednar's talk about the RM who ditched the girl he was considering marrying because she wasn't promptly obedient in removing that second earring from one of her ears. That was in 2005, so before GBH died. Since Monson took over, all that I have heard was talk among the rank and file Mormons (and no-longer Mormons) about it.

Of course, Bednar claimed that the number of earrings wasn't the real issue --- obedience was. I recall thinking, at the time, that Bednar and his RM friend really needed to get out into the real world more often. Take a little closer look at what the real issues are, for the majority of human beings.

2005? They haven't warned about the evils of multiple earrings
since 2005? That means that a whole generation of Mormon kids
coming up don't know that it's evil. The "world" is still
telling them to do this and nobody's pointing out that multiple
earrings is Satan's way of getting you to . . . to . . . to wear
multiple earrings.

So is this another of those "he was just speaking as a man"
things?

And more important than earrings is oral sex among married
couples. The last time any official mention of oral sex was
made it was 1982 and the FP sent out a directive that oral sex
between married people was an impure and unholy practice. That
was almost 33 years ago--a whole generation. Since then oral
sex has become very popular as shown in surveys of sexual
behavior. But the Church is falling down on the job of warning
people that it disqualifies them for temple attendance.
Gazillions of young Mormon couples are going to the temple
unworthily and don't realize it.

Or was the FP "speaking as men" back in January of 1982?

According to forestpal's report, some enforcement is being done at the local level. Possibly the earring diktat is now one of those tools that wards and stakes routinely use to spot-check obedience. After all, it's easy to implement and yields immediate answers.

It may simply be that Bedsore et al. see no need to harp on it; the BPs, SPs and HCs are doing an effective enough job themselves.

GBH couldn't come right out and say "NO ear-piercing," because that would have triggered outright, open rebellion. Too many generations of women, from most socio-economic levels, had single ear-piercings. Getting your ears pierced, and being given a pretty set of earrings to celebrate it, is almost a rite of passage. It was for me, anyway. My mother made me wait until my 18th birthday.

I would be willing to bet that many of the GA's wives have (and have had, in the past) pierced ears.

So GBH had to go with what was already the norm for many women, but made a point of asserting his dominance by forbidding any more piercing or piercing for men.

This is what god cares the most about. Screw the hungry, the poor, the sick, ect. Just don't have two piercings, thus saith lord unto his chosen people.

One of my WTF moments right before I left the church was during a lesson in RS. The RS president was giving a lesson on obedience and prioritizing things in your life so you could more fully live the gospel. She was a convert and her personal examples were 1. Once hearing the directive against more than one pair of earrings, she immediately remove her second pair and let the piercings grow closed. 2. She started evaluating her schedule and realized that her daily routine of taking care of her long hair (just below mid back) and putting on make-up were taking away from time she could use to read and study the BOM. So she chopped her hair off into a very very short masculine pixie cut, taking only long enough to comb some gel through it, and she stopped wearing make-up.

If that RS president were only a little clever, she would have obeyed the "keeping the Sabbath Day holy" rule, and refused to do any work of any kind on Sunday, including getting the kids bathed and dressed for church, cooking the big Sunday dinner and cleaning up after it, giving the RS lesson (volunteer WORK).

i was in Provo in 2008, went to a grocery store and noticed people starring at the side of my head. couldn't for the life of me figure out what the deal was.

got back to my hosts home, she said, "you wearing two sets of earrings."

hell, most of the time i don't notice what kind of shirt total strangers have on!!

them Utahns have too much spare time