Piercings and Jewelry

In July of 1951, William Branham made an insulting joke about what he claimed to have been a Duchess who came to one of his tent revivals to meet him in Miami. According to his version of the story, the lady asked to speak with him, and he was not very excited to see her. The subject matter of the story that he used in his sermon if summed up in a single sentence, was this: "The lady was excited to see William Branham, so she came to greet him, but she was not dressed according to American custom, so he decided to insult her and she left."

Now, notice. Down there one time in Miami, there was some kind of a Duchess or something like that. Brother Bosworth said, 'Brother Branham, the Duchess of something, some island, something wants to meet you.' I said, 'Well, who's she any more than anybody else?' See? He said, 'Well, she wants to meet you. Will you wait just behind the tent?' And I said…Well, he's the manager, so there wasn't nothing I could do. And I said, 'All right.' When he stepped outside of the tent, there was a little old place there, a little—had roped off. And here come a woman through there with just about enough clothes on to wad a musket shotgun. She had earrings hanging plumb down like this, looked like the devil had been using her neck for a saddle and using them for stirrups. He'd rode her all over hell anyhow. That's right. Here she come down through there packing a pair of glasses, held out on a stick about…You know people ain't going to look through glasses out that far, holding it out like that, holding them out on a stick like that. And she walked down through there, you know, with her stick out like that, looking like that, looking down. Why, it's a wonder she didn't run over something. She looked like that. And she walked up to me. She said, 'Are you Doctor Branham?' I said, 'No, ma'am. No, ma'am.' I said, 'I'm Brother Branham.' She raised up her hand. She said, 'I am charmed to meet you.' I said, 'Get it down here, so I'll know you when I see you again.' That's right. Brother, what are we anyhow? Six foot of dirt.[1]

The story had no moral substance beyond that; Branham’s insults were the focal point of the story. He made insulting comments about her eyeglasses and the way she held them, her custom of greeting him, and her earrings. He said that the “devil had rode her all over hell” using her neck for a saddle and the earrings for stirrups, simply because her customs were different than his.

Over time this joke — meant nothing more than to be insulting — turned into a doctrine and it spread through the revivals. Both Branham and his peers began calling earrings "the devil’s stirrups" and women who wore them the devil’s horse. Because the "revealed word" was believed to be superior to the "written word"[2] in the revivals, and many of the ministers had never been through proper ministerial training — some of them had not even studied their Bibles, the doctrine was widely adopted even among non-pentecostal groups.

Today you got too much Hollywood evangelism, some little sissified guy with manicured hair, and stand up to a bunch of women with earrings hanging down like the devil's stirrups, and enough paint on their face to paint a barn, and bobbed hair, and every…That used to be a sin among you Holiness people. What happened? You did run well. The Bible still says it's a sin.[3]

Interestingly, Ezekiel 16:10-14 describes God adorning Jerusalem as his symbolic bride, and described what God called “perfect”: Bracelets, neck chains, a jewel on the forehead, and earrings on the ears. Also interesting is that the interlinear version uses Strongs #639 to describe the rings, and the original Hebrew also included a nose ring.[4] The King James version omits that part of the translation, while newer versions such as the ESV include the nose rings.

I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.[5]