What A Curious Term...

I was sat playing my bass earlier today and I suddenly remembered I hadn't posted a blog for a good few months, to be honest I felt pretty awful. I had promised myself that I would post regularly and it just didn't happen, primarily because I have been fairly busy. I've got a few thoughts that will be spread across a few posts in the coming days but for now I want to discuss the last few days just briefly...

We are finished for the term here at Moorlands (I still have an essay to write, but that is a subject for another post!) and it went out with quite a bang: the Moorlands Variety Show! Involving Bhangra dancing, a rather disturbing video created by myself and a very good friend of mine Chris, some great music and to top it all off a marriage proposal (congratulations to James and J!!). However, the following morning I cleared off, skipping out on the final chapel of the year and the end of term breakfast, to Chesterfield to meet Mark Broomhead and his wife Sarah, founders of The Order of the Black Sheep (OBS). I will be on a placement with them for five weeks from early January  and I am very much looking forward to getting involved up there with the amazing work they're doing.

One of my greatest 'smile moments' this term must have been the first meeting of the Moorlands Metal Cell. We are a small group of people, all from different backgrounds but all of us have a love for various kinds of metal. After I got back home from Nordicfest I found myself with a huge burden for the folk in college who had been alone for most of their church lives in their love for the extreme end of music. I have struggled in the past, perhaps under the radar, with opening up and being honest with people about how much I love extreme music. There seems to be a culture of almost apologising for liking it, I suppose I need to get over it but it is rather difficult.

'So what sort of music are you into?'

'Well, um, I like heavy music... But I also like lots of other things like Justin Timberlake!!!!'

Why not just say, 'I like extreme metal.' then have the other person pull a weird face, question your sanity and edge slowly away? I think like many Christian metallers I have this inherent desire to be accepted by the church and don't get me wrong it is better than it was 10 or 20 years ago, but there still seems to be a shying away from this 'black sheep' culture. We seem to be the ones who are just too far gone, we are the ones who will laugh off the jokes about our 'Satan music' or the 'Satan worshipping festivals' and who totally find them hilarious. How would a standard, evangelical Bible College Christian feel if I started knocking 'worship music'? I've tried it, it does not go down well.

 

Sometimes I wish people could listen to and acknowledge the power that comes with metal, you have this strange sort of dichotomy now: wishy washy, ambiguous 'worship music' which is as dull as dull can be VS powerful, declarative, unashamed metal of all genres which sounds like it speaks. I used to think it was my calling to turn every Christian into a metalhead but it just will never work, people are too safe within the confines of their bubble and if anything tries to burst it, well, decry it as 'noise'. I've talked about this before, I don't care if someone dislikes it just don't try to tell me I should also dislike it.

Metallers seem to be one of the most misaligned groups in the Church today, they are often left to their own devices, it is assumed that they will just band together and be a little clique. Now, while it is important to encourage each other with mutual passions, it is just as important to accept them into the body. I've experienced this to some degree with my current church (more about them in a later post!!) but there is still this weird sort of, 'leave him to his own devices, he'll work himself out!' vibe. When metal is such a part of me that I find it hard to have a conversation without working it in (heck, whenever I preach I end up quoting a song!) why can that not be accepted just as much as musicals, Switchfoot, sports, dancing or film? Why should it always be questioned/mocked/joked about?

Why is it that metallers tend to be the quiet ones who sit at the back of church? I'll tell you, it's often because they simply don't feel welcome. No matter whether or not you would accept them or not experience has often shown that they just cannot broach the subject of metal, it has shown them that people will judge them based on what they see (it still happens), not what they experience.

Anyway, this post has become a fairly lengthy ramble about something it wasn't meant to be about so I will go to sleep now. I will be posting probably daily for the next couple of weeks with thoughts, poems etc.

Goodnight friends, and don't take this as a pity post, take it as a truth post.

For now, I leave you with love (and one of my favourite songs at the moment!),

The_Rambler

Oh Sleeper - The New Breed

The Witness of Ink...

I’ll start this post as I mean to go on, I have tattoos. I am getting more tattoos. I do not consider this a contradiction to my faith. Right, now for the meat…

I have come up against some opposition with my tattoos, some say they don’t like the aesthetic nature of them (perfectly okay, everyone has their tastes) but they are willing to concede that it is my body and that there is nothing inherently wrong or sinful about a Christian getting tattooed. Others will claim that there is indeed something sinful about getting tattooed, either citing proof texts or invoking the importance of image. I hope to address some of these arguments in this post and I am more than happy for people to comment and either agree or disagree, let’s get healthy discussion going =]

Proof Text 1:

‘You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.’ Leviticus 19.28 (ESV)

Well… At first this seems like a pretty clear cut issue, but let us remember the first rule of giving a proof text; make sure you understand the context! If your agenda still makes sense with the surrounding verses included and the context recognised, your proof text is legit. So let’s try that shall we, just the two verses leading up to it:

‘You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes. You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.’ Leviticus 19.26 – 28 (ESV)

‘You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it.’

Hmm, we still kinda do that… oh, and doesn’t Paul say something about everything being permissible, not everything being beneficial and not causing your brother to stumble?

‘You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.’

Occult stuff is covered heavily in the NT and elsewhere in the OT, seems like an obvious one really and most certainly not confined to Levitical law.

‘You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.’

When did you last shave?

‘You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves.’
Wait… I find no references outside Levitical law to this… Um… Well, I guess I should stop shaving!

It is important as well to remember the context, the Israelites had just escaped from Egypt and were trying to remove themselves from the pagan practices of the Egyptians. One of these was to cut themselves on behalf of a dead relative to release the lifeblood. The restriction was to prevent pagan practice, the concept of tattooing as a witness wasn’t there (more on this later).

So it seems the argument from the Old Testament ends in either accepting it as an invalid argument or never shaving… Let’s move on.

Proof Text 2:

‘Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit!!!!’ 1 Corinthians 6.19 (ESV)

This is the only part of the verse that is ever quoted, the whole verse looks like this:

‘Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.’ 1 Corinthians 6.19 – 20

Wait, so what was he talking about that goes contrary to this?

‘Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.’

Critique

Although the context is sexual immorality, it does not mean that it isn’t true for other things and the prohibition of tattoos is for this reason.

Well, look at what Paul said, ‘EVERY OTHER SIN a person commits is outside the body’, so even if you consider tattoos a sin (which you won’t unless you also consider shaving a sin), the prohibition is not supported by this defense with the context being sexual immorality.

So it seems to me that Paul was not thinking of tattoos when he wrote this, if he did consider them a sin against the body he surely would have included it.

Non-Biblical Argument 1:
 

Getting tattoos is a form of self harm.

Well first of all people tend not to tattoo themselves… but let’s put that to one side. All I will say to this is ‘do you have piercings or do you consider them sinful?’.

The other question to ask is the difference in the nature of self-harm to the nature of tattoos, self-harm is often carried out in order to distract the harmer from some greater problem or difficulty. Tattoos are, from a Christian perspective, a form of witness and not a distraction from seeking help elsewhere or addressing personal problems. A poor link to make.

Non-Biblical Argument 2:

They don’t look very nice.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Many people don’t like long hair on men nowadays (many didn’t like it on me!) but hey, Jesus had long hair! (Poor argument I know, but go with it.)

Segway time… Who looks on the outside? Man. Who looks at the heart? God. What do you want someone who looks at the outside to see? Christ. Who is to say that tattoos cannot be an effective witness? The question someone with tattoos often gets is, ‘can I see your tattoos?’, then ‘Cool, what do they mean\what are they?’ – if I have a cross and ‘consummatum est’ in plain view I can’t really avoid the gospel message can I now!

This is not to say that tattoos are not for everyone, they are certainly still more effective as a witness in certain sub-cultures, but it is also not to say that if you have tattoos you must wave them around at every opportunity. The world is still coming around to accepting people with tattoos and not making character judgements. This does mean it can be harder to get jobs if you don’t dress appropriately (why I will not get tattoos I can never cover up), however if you’re sensible, you shouldn’t have a problem.

Tattoos are not a sin, you may not like the aesthetics but then some may not like the aesthetics of glasses and would rather wear contacts. I would ask two things of those who oppose Christians getting tattoos if you have been convinced by my arguments:

1) Please don’t make judgement calls about people with tattoos if you don’t know them, treat them the same as any other individual you might meet.
2) Remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that the ink in our skin is not only a form of permanent worship but a permanent witness to what Christ has done in us.

If you have not been convinced of my argument, feel free to comment and state your position but let us be respectful =]

Finally some advice for Christians with tattoos:

Although it seems like a good idea to show them off, it can hinder relationships. Remember that you have to recognise where you are and be appropriate for the situation. If you know that flashing tattoos in a certain context will cause offense, don’t do it. Just like you might dress appropriately for an occasion, cover up appropriately.

So to conclude, if you’re one of the priest’s from the line of Aaron and you’re thinking of marking your skin in any way which identifies you with a pagan religion/practice then I wouldn’t recommend it. Otherwise, it’s up to you.

For now I leave you with love,

The Rambler

New Site, Regular Updates and New and Improved Content!!

Welcome to my brand new blog! Well, technically it is the same blog but I have shifted it to a new host in order to improve content and to give greater access to new ideas for posts. 
On that note, I have plans to post regular reviews of albums and gigs. The first of these should be up towards the end of this weekend with a series of album reviews leading up to this years NordicFest which I shall review with unrelenting honesty and fervour, just remember that a review is semi-objective and semi-subjective.
I will repost all my previous content onto this site but under new headers so that you can control the content you want to see and choose to read various categories and blog post themes. So, if you were subscribed to my previous blog you can feel free to unsubscribe from that as there will be no new posts and please subscribe to this one! If you weren't previously subscribed then please subscribe if you are interested in what I have to say. 

Well, I'm now off to re-upload my content... Don't forget to subscribe!

The_Rambler