Tonsure time

Confirmands at Trinity Lutheran Church, Burlington, Iowa, collected money for camp and raised up a bit of history when their pastor, Erick Swanson, agreed to have his head shaved in the style of Martin Luther as a monk (called tonsure).

The students met their $2,500 goal in six weeks. Ilene Frank (left), a member who formerly owned a hair salon, and Swanson’s wife, Kristi, do the hair-cutting honors.

Romans once punished Christians by shaving their heads like slaves to humiliate them, and monks began doing the same to identify themselves as slaves of Christ.