Culture Savvy


Over at Think Christian, Kim posted the following short excerpt from Internet Monk (Michael Spencer) on the subject of whether tattoo-ing is right or wrong it God’s eyes:

“I do not believe God cares any more about a butterfly tattoo on an ankle or a pierced nose than he cares about Jan Crouch’s hair or the music styles heard at a Gaither homecoming. Both are culture. Neither are sinful. Neither commend us to God. Are there legitimate questions of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture? Yes, but we must be careful to not identify Christ with culture, whether high or low.”Internet Monk: High Culture, Low Lifes and Judgement In The Household of God: Answering That Tattoo/Piercing Question

I was intrigued by the quote and decided to read more. But when I followed the link I was a bit put off by the size of the post. I’m afraid I seem to have a short attention span when reading online – I much prefer the short and snappy approach. But I persisted and read the whole article, and was glad that I did.I’ve never been confronted by the “to tattoo or not to tattoo” question, but I am constantly trying to apply Paul’s teaching on being “in the world but not of it”. Michael’s comments are the most helpful I’ve read on the subject in some time. I’d love to write more, but I’m off to read the other posts that he’s linked to.Phil Johnson and Douglas Wilson here I come…