Tattoos and Piercings and Plugs, oh my.....

Sometimes, I fear that the curmudgeondom that stalks us all is gaining on me, or at least that's how I feel whenever I venture to the mall with my wife.


I always imagined that in the future, we would be driving jet cars, living in domed cities and wearing form-fitting unisex jumpsuits. I imagine that there were many other kids back in the 1970's who shared the same daydream. It's amazing what 38 years will do to a daydream. I drive a pick-up, live in suburbia, and would look downright scary in a unisex, form-fitting jumpsuit. Beyond this, one can't swing a dead cat in Northern Virginia without hitting someone who would seem to have stepped off the pages of a 1970's-era National Geographic magazine. This phenomenon has left me both simultaneously bemused and concerned.


There is what seems to be an obsession with body defacement (or "modification"). I have observed this across the age spectrum from young teens on up to AARP members. The "military tattoo" of the soldier or sailor, along with the demure ear piercing have become a quaint relic from another time. Earrings have given way to "plugs", which have given way to extreme plugs. To date, I've seen earlobe plugs that appear to be the size of half dollar coins. I've seen faces that contain enough piercings to construct a modest wind chime. I have to ask, "Why am I so disturbed by this?"

There are only two reasonable answers to preceding question; I'm becoming either a grizzled old curmudgeon, or I am troubled by something that may have deeper connotation than first realized.

I pride myself in being a Christian Libertarian, and one who strives to keep the main thing, the main thing. Within this, there is a scared responsibility not to use my liberty as a club. Yet even with this said, I will vigorously content that God's word speaks clearly to, and proscribes a large number of practices and lifestyles that are rife within our society. We as believers first, and humans second, ignore these proscriptions at our own peril.

I went on a dig throughout Scripture to see what it might say on the subject of body modification (tattoos, et al). It turns out that bodily defacement is clearly prohibited by the Levitical Code as delivered to Moses by the LORD. These were practiced by the pagan nations (and are still practiced by cultures today). It would be a reasonable conclusion then, to say that the practice of body modification is unscriptural.

Does this fly in the face of a libertarian viewpoint? I don't believe so. The proscription against bodily modification lies within the listing of moral prohibitions, rather than ceremonial requirements. Though we don't offer up a guilt offering under the New Covenantal economy, it is still an offense to knowingly defraud our neighbor. Christ fulfilled the ceremonial requisites of the Law, he didn't abolish its moral requisites.

Some might support the practice on the basis of silence, the fact that the New Testament doesn't speak to the practice. I believe that this too is a faulty position. Consider the fact that the New Testament is silent on the topic of inter-species copulation. Despite this fact, there's not one sane person who would make a case for such a practice, or contend that it is permissible under the New Covenant.

The explosion of body modification and other sub-christian practices should stand to remind (and warn) us that we live in a society that is Post-christian, and slipping away from anything remotely resembling what Francis Schaeffer referred to as the "Christian Consensus".

Saints, Evangelists, and Apologists; our work is cut out for us.