{"id":45010,"date":"2020-01-07T12:06:21","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T15:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=45010"},"modified":"2021-04-01T11:19:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T14:19:20","slug":"pagan-us-soldier-wears-masculine-beard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/pagan-us-soldier-wears-masculine-beard\/","title":{"rendered":"Pagan US Soldier Wears &#8220;Masculine&#8221; Beard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45898 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/hopperbeard-259x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/hopperbeard-259x300.jpg 259w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/hopperbeard.jpg 581w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 259px) 100vw, 259px\" \/>Nevada Army National Guard Soldier SFC Benjamin Hopper has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/off-duty\/military-culture\/2019\/12\/30\/a-defining-feature-of-masculine-men-soldiers-norse-pagan-faith-earns-beard-waiver\/\">granted a waiver<\/a> allowing him to wear a beard &#8212; because he believes it is a &#8220;sacred and defining feature of masculine men&#8221; consistent <!--more-->with his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/356626\/number-religious-accommodations-including-beards-likely-grow-nevada-guard-ranks\">pagan religious beliefs<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cMy personal faith is deeply tied to the modern warrior lifestyle that I have been able to live during my military career,\u201d said Hopper, adding that the beard has never hindered his ability to put mission first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn short, it is honoring the pillars of heathenism, our ancestors and ancient gods and way of life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There is no central pagan belief structure, but an organizational website called Open Halls made a point in 2017 of saying facial hair <a href=\"https:\/\/www.openhalls.org\/beards-a-clarification\/\">isn&#8217;t a religious requirement<\/a> for heathens like it is for, say, Sikhs.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Also at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2019\/12\/30\/pagan-nevada-guard-soldier-gets-waiver-grow-beard-more-may-follow.html\">Military.com<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsfa.com\/2019\/12\/31\/nevada-guard-soldier-receives-ok-sport-norse-pagan-beard\/\">local news<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-share=\"true\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-size=\"small\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nevada Army National Guard Soldier SFC Benjamin Hopper has been granted a waiver allowing him to wear a beard &#8212; because he believes it is a &#8220;sacred and defining feature of masculine men&#8221; consistent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1266,6773,2,76,17,10,171],"class_list":["post-45010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-beard","tag-benjamin-hopper","tag-military","tag-pagan","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45010"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45899,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45010\/revisions\/45899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}