question for christians

I am a christian myself so i want to ask a question, my friend does not want his wife to get a tattoo, he said he is old fashioned and he does not believe christians should mark up there body, yet he is also the same person who abuses alcohol, smokes, has a huge beer belly, eats all the junk food he wants, so my questions is why do people like him think tattoos are bad but destroying his body with toxic "food", cancerous cigarettes , and destructive alcohol is fine?. Like damn the hypocrisy is strong.

 

Why don't you ask him? Yes, according to the Bible, God wouldn't like anything you just described, but we don't know this guy. We can't tell you why he thinks this because many people have many different reasons for having a certain worldview.

All I can say is because he's a hypocrite.

 

One difference is dietary habits and smoking are not permanent. He can change those. Tattoos are harder to remove then just stopping what you are doing. I have tats and I'm a Christian, I dont really get the opposition but I respect the stance. Isnt Christian freedom great?

 

Okay... couple things.

Number one, Leviticus is the Old Covenant, which no longer applies to us.

Number two, a few verses before that, God commands them not to wear clothing woven of two different materials. Pretty sure we are all probably doing that at this very moment.

And last but probably most importantly, number three, this verse is ALWAYS taken out of context!

The verse says "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves." There is SERIOUS reason to believe the words "tattoo marks" here do not mean what our modern selves think it means. People back in that day used to cut their bodies and mark themselves for the dead, like some kind of pagan/witchcrafty thing. It doesn't mean you can't draw a pretty picture on yourself.

Please, for the love of all that is Holy, look at CONTEXT. Context is so so so so (x200) important.

 

Maybe this makes me a jerk, but personally, I don't really respect the stance of people who claim that God is anti-tattoo, especially when the only reason they think that is because they are completely misunderstanding a piece of scripture. They're just wrong. The verse they quote to support their idea that God hates tattoos doesn't mean what they think it means.

I'm not hating on these people or anything, I'm just saying, they are wrong. They are saying God said something that he never actually said, because they're not looking at context and they're completely misunderstanding. So... yeah.

 

It's not being a jerk. I think if not getting tattoos is their personal sacrifice to God or it brings them closer to God to self impose a rule of some kind it's fine with me. I agree that arguing it as some great theological interpretation is a hard sell. That's why I mentioned freedom. We are given the ability to make 100s of personal judgements about our behavior without creating dogma.

 

Oh yes, absolutely. I definitely agree with that. I just don't like it when people act like God gave some command that tattoos are bad, because that isn't true. It's a misunderstanding.

I actually GOT my only tattoo for that reason. I had just come back from a Women's Retreat, and I felt totally transformed by God and reminded of how everything I am and everything I have belongs to Him, particularly concerning time, money, and my body (i.e., not committing sexual sin). I immediately got the idea that I wanted to "brand" myself as belonging to God, in a place I will see often and can remind me that I belong wholly to him.

So like two days later I texted my tattoo artist friend and she gave me a small cross on my wrist. I love it. It is a constant reminder, not just of the message itself, but of that weekend at that retreat and God changing my heart in so many ways.

 

I have Christ's head crowned with thorns on my arm

 

Awesome!

 

That's silly. God couldn't care less if you have a tattoo. As far as your buddy, he's hypocritical but so is the church. So I'm not shell-shocked here.

I don't have a tattoo (yet at least) but if you want one, get one.

 

That's interesting. I've only ever heard that from Eastern Orthodox, but it was explicitly statues not images. They obviously have tons of icons and paintings. I'm Catholic so we have tons of symbols, paintings, statues, sacramental, blessed objects, relics ect.

Early Christians used a fish symbol. Many venerated or held on to objects associated with Jesus and the faith like the shroud of Turin, blood and bones from saints, pieces of the cross. The tomb of St. Peter in inscribed with symbols from Christian pilgrims over the centuries. I dont really understand that position personally. It smells a tad of Puritanical nonsense that someone misunderstood.

 

I've honestly never heard that before in my life, so all I can respond to is my initial thoughts in this moment. I would say that if it becomes an idol, then that's a problem. For example, it bugs me in horror movies when religious people come into a haunted house and put up a bunch of crosses, as if that means something, and simply holding up a cross is going to magically cast out demons. The objects don't hold any spiritual power in and of themsleves. And I think viewing them that way is raising them up to the level of God, which is idolatry.

But if you just see it as a reminder, then I think it's a good thing. Visual reminders are really beneficial.