Ok, I know this is a pretty touchy subject for some people. There are the "devout" who think that I (and my husband, and siblings, and most of my friends) will be taking a trip "downtown" when we die, and then there are the others. Let me be clear: I DO believe in God. 100%. But I dont subscribe to organized religion (despite being raised in a Roman Catholic family) as I think it is responsible (through its followers) for a lot of hate. I respect religion and absolutely see that it has a place in society, but I prefer my own spin on God. I truly believe that being a good person, and educating myself, and being tolerant, and accepting is more important than whether or not someone has tattoos. Call me crazy. Alot of what I have found/heard as far as arguments from Christians against tattoos is " Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you..." Leviticus 19:28. I need to point out that 1. this is from the old testament, and 2. it referred to pagans who, at the time, practiced cutting and "tattooing" their dead to appease their God. Now, the old testament also had some other "rules" that I doubt many Christians follow or consider a sin, such as "...Neither shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you" Lev. 19:19 or "You shall not eat anything with the blood" Lev. 19:26 (ummmm, helloooo, filet mignon medium rare please). Its hypocrisy to pick and choose what you want to enforce from your bible. Times have changed and the people getting tattoos are not pagans worshiping satan. We are normal people...like everyone else. Some of us are believers and some are not. Some of us are good people, and some are not...but it has nothing to do with our ink. I think what these "Christians" who damn us to hell for tattoos are forgetting are some essentials of being Christian. "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God" Rom. 15:7, "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification" Rom. 14:19. It is really sad for me, as a mother now, to still see so much hate in the world. It's very important to me that my daughter grows up to think for herself and judge people on their character and heart rather than their skin. Its important to me that she have faith in something, but not so blindly that she judges others on ridiculous notions that just don't apply anymore. I want her to see that her mom is a good woman, mother, wife, who yes, has tattoos, but treats others with respect, has a strong work ethic and good morals. I don't every want her to be that kid (and yes this really happened with another child and a friend of mine) that walks up to someone and says "you are not going to heaven because God doesn't like tattoos"... I think there are far more important lessons we could be teaching our children. If Reilly decides to get a tattoo one day, I will love her just as much as I have since the day I found out I was having her. Imagine if we all starting being really Christian and accepting others for who they are and not what you see on the outside. My tattoos don't make me a bad person, they don't make me a bad mother, they dont stop me from being awesome at my job, they don't make me less intelligent. They aren't harming anyone, so, what is the big deal?
I think most people today for a lack of a better word tolerate or except tattoos. There are always going to be those people who take the words in the bible, Tanakh and Torah, the Koran or whatever religious book they read as the last word. Just like anything else we can have our faith, be catholic and not agree 100% with everything in the bible. Times change and people change but we will never change everyone. Unfortunately we are always going to have people who don't agree with tattoos, same sex marriages, bi racial marriages, people who are racist. I could go on. What you need to do and are doing is teach your child that these things don't matter. That people are people and we should love/accept all.
ReplyDelete