Culture
The pop culture urges us to adopt pagan customs by portraying the rich and famous through the avenues of TV, movies, fashion models, music fads, radio, the internest, video games, restaurants, casinos, theme amusement parks, sports and various other entertainments. The technological advancements of the 20th century have vastly accelerated the proliferation of the popular culture. This culture has spread to formerly sophisticated, traditional, religious, and mainstream society. It is changing the way we think, live and respond to life in general. It is giving us the opposite kind of education needed to inherit eternal life. This popular culture is a powerful pervasive element we cannot ignore.
“Popular culture is so much a part of our lives that we cannot deny its developmental powers….like formal education or family rearing, popular culture is part of our ‘learning environment’….Though our pop culture education is informal, we usually do not attend to pop culture for its ‘educational’ value. It nevertheless provides us with information and images upon which we develop our opinions and attitudes. We would not be what we are, nor would our society be quite the same, without the impact of popular culture.”
Lloyd
What are the health risks of tattooing and body piercing?
Because the process exposes blood and body fluids, there are risks of…
Getting a disease(hepatitis B and C, tetanus, and HIV)
*Infection and inflammation
*Allergic reactions to dyes and jewelry
*Pain and swelling
*Permanent scarring, blemishes and deformity
*Nerve damage and paralysis from improperly placed piercings
*Slow healing and keloids (scar tissue). They look like white bumps or rings around piercing, especially prevalent in people of color.
*Boils and herpes simplex virus as a result of unclean equipment.
Many doctors who work in skin clinics report that there are tremendous health risks involved in tattooing and piercing. Here are some of the complications from tattooing and piercing.
*Staph infection
*Contact dermatitis
*Areas that won’t heal
*Swelling. Soreness, redness
*Plastic surgery (due to eyebrow piercing, when the jewelry rips out of the hole)
*Teeth cracked, chipped or knocked out; cuts scrapes and sores in the mouth (due to tongue piercing)
*Inflammation and damaging of skin cells
*Infection and tenderness
*Costly and difficult dental work to correct mouth and tongue piercings.
*Scarring
These complications are often caused by inadequate sterilization, lack of technique, and allergic reactions to the nickel in the jewelry.
“Piercing the tongue can result in permanent numbness, difficulty talking, loss of taste and breathing problems if swelling is severe.”
Lloyd
Yes think carefully and take into account the admonition of the Lord, the feelings of others (parents, etc.) and the repercussions of a violated conscience
Gwen & Rick Shorter
“Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
Leviticus 19:28
“When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or]an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. Deuteronomy 18:10-14
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
1 Corinthians 6:19,20
“While you pray, dear youth, that you may not be led into temptation, remember that your work does not end with the prayer. You must then answer your own prayer as far as possible by resisting temptation, and leave that which you cannot do for yourselves for Jesus to do for you. . . .
I would remind the youth who ornament their persons . . . that, because of their sins, the Saviour's head wore the shameful crown of thorns. When you devote precious time to trimming your apparel, remember that the King of glory wore a plain, seamless coat. You who weary yourselves in decorating your persons, please bear in mind that Jesus was often weary from incessant toil and self-denial and self-sacrifice to bless the suffering and needy. He spent whole nights in prayer upon the lonely mountains, not because of His weakness and His necessities, but because He saw, He felt, the weakness of your natures to resist the temptations of the enemy upon the very points where you are now overcome. He knew that you would be indifferent in regard to your dangers and would not feel your need of prayer. It was on our account that He poured out His prayers to His Father with strong cries and tears. It was to save us from the very pride and love of vanity and pleasure which we now indulge, and which crowds out the love of Jesus, that those tears were shed. . . .
Will you, young friends, arise and shake off this dreadful indifference and stupor which has conformed you to the world? Will you heed the voice of warning which tells you that destruction lies in the path of those who are at ease in this hour of danger?
Many of our youth, by their careless disregard of the warnings and reproofs given them, open the door wide for Satan to enter. With God's word for our guide and Jesus as our heavenly Teacher we need not be ignorant of His requirements or of Satan's devices. . . . It will be no unpleasant task to be obedient to the will of God when we yield ourselves fully to be directed by His Spirit.”
AG 166