The grammar authorities are going to battle it out today. For they all have a different opinion about our topics: the merits of using the word “for” to mean “because,” and whether it’s OK to start a sentence with the word “for.”

Now, guest-writer Bonnie Trenga writes,

The experts' opinions range from,

• yes, go ahead and put a “for” wherever you like—in the middle or at the beginning of a sentence; to
•  yes, but “for” belongs best at the beginning of an independent clause; to
• no, no way—you’re not allowed to put “for” at the beginning of a sentence.

Yikes! Who’s right? You’re going to upset someone no matter what you do.

Because beginning a sentence.  

"Because I could not stop for Death-He kindly stopped for me". So begins one of Emily Dickinson's most well-known poems, and so falls another of the more arbitrary rules of usage, which states that you should not begin a sentence with because. As Dickinson's poem attests, there are occasions when because is perfectly appropriate as the opening word of a sentence. In fact, sentences beginning with because are quite common in written English.