Videos I liked this month: Arab-Christian feel-good humor... Should Catholics get tattoos?... What the world's smartest man and Mike Tyson say about God... How Fr. Dan turned trauma into victory
> Who do you agree with? Are you on Team Fr. Mike or Team Fr. Ripperger?
Excellent question. I'm on Team Burn Down Your Social Media Account (not yours, Shannara, but anyone who has a cult of personality). To be a household name is far more dangerous than to get a tattoo. It's dangerous for the person's pride and it's dangerous because they're putting themselves in a position where they have greater responsibility (and where people are not going to pause to discern "do I trust this advice just because I like this guy and agree with him on other issues where he is more of an expert", like when we take relationship advice from a movie star because we admire them in their latest movie, or from our tax accountant because he's good at taxes so he must be good at everything, that's what a cult of personality is. So the risk of taking this greater responsibility is more than it might appear to be). People should ask the guidance of their own parish priest or their own regular confessor or spiritual director.
I have no personal position on tattoos on other people. However my oldest kid with autism (if permitted) asks women "what is that on your (hand, wrist, arm, leg)" and when they answer "a tattoo" he asks "is it real" (vs drawn on with magic marker) and then he says "(Name) the Tattooed Lady" in a fruity announcer voice, because Olivia Saves The Circus is a book he will apparently never forget. He is in favor of tattoos, on other people, but in return he expects them to enjoy this conversation which they probably were not expecting (very difficult to convince him that not everyone is into it). They also seem to expect him (having brought the subject up) to care about what it is a picture of, why they got it, and what it means to them (he does not care, he has lines to deliver and will not be distracted from them). So to me the whole thing is very awkward and since I do not want to be Mom The Tattooed Lady, it would not cross my mind to get one myself.
I’m on team Father Mike! I have two small tattoos, one you can’t see at all and the other on my left ankle. Really small, a heart and an anchor. I have a bellybutton piercing and two piercings in each ear. If I’m going to hell for that we have a problem. It’s all about the meaning, and neither of my two tattoos have occult or esoteric anything attached to them. I love the ocean and the heart is cute. It ain’t that deep, and no I don’t regret either. While we are on that subject, we can add circumcision to the list of mutilations of the body, of which Jesus was part of. Not to mention the cutting of hair and beards are also right next to the no mutilation line in the Bible, so what now?
There has to be some sort of common sense in Christianity. Otherwise, we shouldn’t have pretty rocks like geodes or quartz in the house because of witches and what they do with them things. Rocks (or anything else) don’t have meaning unless you attach a meaning to it. Black cats are just poor cats with a particular coloring, unless you want to be superstitious. One thing is to brand yourself with a blatantly pagan symbol, knowing full well what it is, and something else is just getting some random design you like. (And no, lying to yourself, and trying to lie to the world, saying pagan symbols are meaningless unless you attach meaning, is nonsense, so put that argument away).
Sometimes I wonder if Christianity is going the way of the Amish or jehovas witnesses, where everything is bad. Electricity will cause the devil to come after you with the Amish, and celebrating birthdays the same thing with the JW. There has to be a limit. Otherwise how do you expect to convert people? And I am NOT saying in ANY way that we have to dumb down the Bible, but taking things to extremes is not healthy either. Will father Mike go to hell or will the devil come after him for tattooing himself with a religious symbol? Or me with my little heart and anchor? Really? Neither is extreme. Just my two cents.
> Who do you agree with? Are you on Team Fr. Mike or Team Fr. Ripperger?
Excellent question. I'm on Team Burn Down Your Social Media Account (not yours, Shannara, but anyone who has a cult of personality). To be a household name is far more dangerous than to get a tattoo. It's dangerous for the person's pride and it's dangerous because they're putting themselves in a position where they have greater responsibility (and where people are not going to pause to discern "do I trust this advice just because I like this guy and agree with him on other issues where he is more of an expert", like when we take relationship advice from a movie star because we admire them in their latest movie, or from our tax accountant because he's good at taxes so he must be good at everything, that's what a cult of personality is. So the risk of taking this greater responsibility is more than it might appear to be). People should ask the guidance of their own parish priest or their own regular confessor or spiritual director.
I have no personal position on tattoos on other people. However my oldest kid with autism (if permitted) asks women "what is that on your (hand, wrist, arm, leg)" and when they answer "a tattoo" he asks "is it real" (vs drawn on with magic marker) and then he says "(Name) the Tattooed Lady" in a fruity announcer voice, because Olivia Saves The Circus is a book he will apparently never forget. He is in favor of tattoos, on other people, but in return he expects them to enjoy this conversation which they probably were not expecting (very difficult to convince him that not everyone is into it). They also seem to expect him (having brought the subject up) to care about what it is a picture of, why they got it, and what it means to them (he does not care, he has lines to deliver and will not be distracted from them). So to me the whole thing is very awkward and since I do not want to be Mom The Tattooed Lady, it would not cross my mind to get one myself.
I’m on team Father Mike! I have two small tattoos, one you can’t see at all and the other on my left ankle. Really small, a heart and an anchor. I have a bellybutton piercing and two piercings in each ear. If I’m going to hell for that we have a problem. It’s all about the meaning, and neither of my two tattoos have occult or esoteric anything attached to them. I love the ocean and the heart is cute. It ain’t that deep, and no I don’t regret either. While we are on that subject, we can add circumcision to the list of mutilations of the body, of which Jesus was part of. Not to mention the cutting of hair and beards are also right next to the no mutilation line in the Bible, so what now?
There has to be some sort of common sense in Christianity. Otherwise, we shouldn’t have pretty rocks like geodes or quartz in the house because of witches and what they do with them things. Rocks (or anything else) don’t have meaning unless you attach a meaning to it. Black cats are just poor cats with a particular coloring, unless you want to be superstitious. One thing is to brand yourself with a blatantly pagan symbol, knowing full well what it is, and something else is just getting some random design you like. (And no, lying to yourself, and trying to lie to the world, saying pagan symbols are meaningless unless you attach meaning, is nonsense, so put that argument away).
Sometimes I wonder if Christianity is going the way of the Amish or jehovas witnesses, where everything is bad. Electricity will cause the devil to come after you with the Amish, and celebrating birthdays the same thing with the JW. There has to be a limit. Otherwise how do you expect to convert people? And I am NOT saying in ANY way that we have to dumb down the Bible, but taking things to extremes is not healthy either. Will father Mike go to hell or will the devil come after him for tattooing himself with a religious symbol? Or me with my little heart and anchor? Really? Neither is extreme. Just my two cents.