Where Are the Protestant Churches with Women in Veils?

Let's look at 1 Corinthians 11...

Protestants love to claim that they follow the Bible in everything it teaches. They love to claim that they go by Scripture Alone (Sola Scriptura). They love to claim that Catholics ignore much of Scripture and that they have gone back to the true faith as preached by the Apostles and especially by St. Paul. Well let’s look at one specific chapter from St. Paul and what it says about women in church with their head uncovered:

1 Cor 11:2 I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you. 3 But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.

7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.

13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. 16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.

So where are all the Protestant churches with all of the women in the church covering their heads with either veils or hats? Where are ANY Protestant churches with such a situation in their congregation?

Now to be very clear, this passage is talking in the context of worship. The prior chapter discusses the Lord’s Supper (as Protestants describe Communion) and the freedom that Christians have, and the second half of chapter 11 deals with abuses during the Lord’s Supper/Communion. So this is very clearly talking about the covering of the heads of women in worship services.

One rebuttal to this passage of Scripture from Protestants will be the claim that this particular teaching from St. Paul was only a teaching dealing with local customs in that particular place and time, and that this teaching no longer applies for Christians. But look at verse 16 and what it says. St. Paul says absolutely and definitively that “we have NO OTHER practice” and neither do any of the churches of God. This is not a pastoral teaching given for a particular city or a teaching given for a particular time, custom, or society. This teaching from Christ is universal and ongoing.

So where are the Protestant churches which have all their women obeying Scripture and wearing veils or hats to cover their heads? Where do any Protestants anywhere actually follow this explicit teaching from Scripture?!? (I suspect the veiling of women in Protestant churches was ended several centuries ago because it looked too Catholic and they wanted to get away from anything resembling Catholicism.)

The answer is there are no Protestant churches which follow this passage of Scripture, because Protestants don’t actually follow Scripture. They actually follow their own fallible interpretation of Scripture, which conveniently enough interprets many explicit passages of Scripture to mean the exact opposite of what the text actually says!

Sola Scriptura is a doctrine in name only for Protestants. It is their DINO that we must constantly remind them of. We must point out to them that they don’t follow their own doctrines and they don’t follow Scripture.