Tekulve Jackson-Vann only intended “to switch up my hairstyle a little bit,” but his sartorial choice got an initial thumbs-down — which quickly turned to acceptance — at the Payson temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“This was a moment to open up a conversation,” Jackson-Vann said Tuesday, about “how we interpret certain church guidelines across different cultures.”
It started a couple weeks ago, when Jackson-Vann, a therapist who lives in Spanish Fork, contacted the coordinator of his volunteer shifts at the Payson temple. He had recently had his hair done into dreadlocks, and sent a picture to the shift coordinator as “a little heads-up, so he wouldn’t be shocked.