A Christ Walk Church

A. Well, it depends . . . If the reason for getting one is for decoration alone, no sin is probably involved. If, instead, the tattoo is even PARTLY motivated by arrogance, group (gang) identification, or efforts to become powerful in your peer group, sin is probably involved. If you truly believe that the tattoo adds to your outer attractiveness, that's fine.

If you are under the age of consent, keep in mind that other sins might be involved. If your parents or guardians are against the idea, you should probably comply with their rules. Hopefully, they have logical reasons for their attitudes (which you may not understand or agree with), but, even if not, you should follow their rules. This guideline also applies to adults who have a spouse who is strongly against the idea of a tattoo. You should carefully consider their feelings before deciding on your actions. Whether there is sin involved or not, is dependent on all these things.

Also, keep in mind that there is a possibility of infection and even a remote chance of serious illness due to the tattooing process.

Q. Is it sinful to: get a body piercing?

A. Well, it depends . . . If the reason for getting one is for decoration alone, no sin is probably involved. If, instead, the piercing is even PARTLY motivated by arrogance, group (gang) identification, or efforts to become powerful in your peer group, sin is probably involved. If you truly believe that the piercing adds to your outer attractiveness, that's fine.

If you are under the age of consent, keep in mind that other sins might be involved. If your parents or guardians are against the idea, you should probably comply with their rules. Hopefully, they have logical reasons for their attitudes (which you may not understand or agree with), but, even if not, you should follow their rules. This guideline also applies to adults who have a spouse who is strongly against the idea of a piercing. You should carefully consider their feelings before deciding on your actions. Whether there is sin involved or not, is dependent on all these things.

Also, keep in mind that there is a possibility of infection and even a remote chance of serious illness due to the piercing process (even for earrings!)

Q. Is it sinful to: feel negatively toward all those of some racial group?

A. Well, it depends . . . PROBABLY.

Q. Is it sinful to: use drugs?

A. Well, it depends . . . PROBABLY.

Q. Is it sinful to: buy or own a gun or other deadly force weapon?

A. Well, it depends . . .

Q. Is it sinful to: have or encourage an abortion?

A. Well, it depends . . . If the motivation is for personal convenience, then it probably involves sin. Abortions have become so common and accepted in modern society that this probably applies to most of them.

However, often, the situation is more complicated than this. A broad church rule would not be flexible enough to consider unique aspects of an individual situation.

Certainly, if the mother's life is seriously endangered, no sin is involved. Similarly, if the woman was forcibly raped and became pregnant, no sin is involved. In these situations, the woman is free to choose which course to follow, without a burden of guilt overshadowing the picture.

There are also some "intermediate" situations which involve a complex variety of circumstances. Each person has a unique situation to analyze and decide on. In general, if a significant reason involves personal convenience, sin is probably involved. If personal convenience is NOT involved, there may be good likelihood that no sin is involved.

Q. Is it sinful to: have pre-marital sex?

A. Well, it depends . . .

Q. Is it sinful to: try to commit suicide?

A. Yes, it is. God created each of us uniquely and individually. He had a purpose to create each of us. We may not understand His reasons. We may be confused and frustrated at life's apparent unfairness. We at A Christ Walk Church believe that He does not CAUSE any "bad" things to happen to us. We believe that He may sometimes not "protect" us from such things BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING WE NEED TO LEARN THAT WE COULDN'T LEARN IN ANY OTHER WAY. This is NOT (repeat, NOT) God's punishment of us. He wants and needs us to each learn proper reactions and behavior to a wide variety of situations, and so He must sometimes allow us to deal with situations that seem totally unfair. HE LOVES YOU. He wants each of us to grow and become complete. If He always protected each of us from every problem the devil provides, we would never learn to deal with ANY adversity and we would each be incomplete. Life often seems unfair to us, but that is not because God doesn't love us or wants to punish us; it is because there is something we need to learn. God does NOT allow us to have to deal with more of the devil's burden than we can handle, but it sometimes seems so to us! When we experience tremendous loss of something or someone we treasure, it is NOT God's punishment of us for weakness or failure. It is instead an OPPORTUNITY to learn. It may often seem cruel, but it isn't. GOD LOVES EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.

Summary

All of these discussions involved you analyzing a particular situation to determine your ACTUAL motivation for your thoughts and actions. This is NOT the same as what you might tell others (where you KNOW it is not the full truth). It has gotten popular lately to blame abusive or alcoholic parents for everything one does "wrong" as a way to slide by the responsibility of one's acts. This trick doesn't work with God. If you are a man who has been caught beating up your spouse, you might try to rationalize your actions as having been imprinted in you as a child in an abusive family. BUT, if your actions are even partly driven by any of the following, you are commiting serious sins, even if police or judges or psychologists justify your actions: If you ENJOY beating your spouse; If you feel POWERFUL by doing it; If you feel MACHO by doing it; If you feel JUSTIFIED in doing it; If you feel she DESERVES the beatings; If you feel it's NORMAL for a man to beat his spouse. Even if no one else knows these feelings of yours, God knows! Modern society's tolerance and compassion for people who are accused of crimes often causes gentle reaction to such terrible behavior. God is not tolerant AT ALL for such behavior.

There ARE rare individuals who were very seriously affected by growing up in dysfunctional families. If the TRUE net effect is a complete lack of understanding of morals and values, where the child grows up to be an adult who TRULY doesn't comprehend the consequences of his behavior, then possibly sin might not be involved. But just trying to USE this as an EXCUSE for anti-social behavior just adds MORE sin (of deception) onto the initial sin done.

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