A little more about that Goth meme from a while back

[omorka]

Okay, I think I found out why the Christian "don't let your babies grow up to be Goths" list was so flipped out about self-cutting.

Deut. 14:1-2 You are children of Yahweh your God. You must not gash yourselves or shave your foreheads for the dead. For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be his own people from all the peoples on the Earth. (New Jerusalem Translation)

In other words, the Canaanite Pagans did it, and therefore the Hebrews shouldn't, not because it was inherently wrong but as one of their "people set apart" things. That means (a) it was part of the Ceremonial Law, which most modern or postmodern Christians should see as repealed by Christ's sacrifice, but (b) Christian Reconstructionists and their allies tend to follow Paul's inherent distaste for anything that once was done by any pagan people in any context that could even loosely be considered religious.

I wonder why the chapter-and-verse cite wasn't given, though . . . I mean, it's right after a passage condemning other things mentioned in the article, such as divination and "worshipping other gods" in general (and prescribing the usual death penalty for them). Maybe it's because the next one is one of the ones forbidding bulled pork barbecue, crawfish boils, and cheeseburgers.

Comments

[pinesandmaples]

Personally, I think the reason that Christians have problems with cutting is the same reason they have issue with tattoos and branding:

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are." I Cor. 3:16 and 17 (NAS)

and also:

"For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body." I Cor. 6:20 (NAS)

Those are the verses I was always pointed to when my friends and I would ask about various forms of self-scarring and mutilation (tattoos, branding, cutting, etc). In the Old Testament, it was more about God setting his people apart from the pagan peoples around them. But with the coming, death, and resurrection of Christ, the Mosaic (?sp?) law was abolished and a new standard was established, namely that we no longer had to offer sacrifices because Christ had made the sacrifice so that we were purified enough to actually be the lambs needed. (I'm 100% sure you already know all that, btw.) But sure, the reason back in the day was the pagan thing. At this point, I'm fairly certain it's not because Christians are trying to avoid any traces of pagan worship, but more because we are called to present ourselves pure and unblemished before God the Father. And cutting is a blemish of the physical sort.

I honestly refuse to believe that more than 5% of Christians understand or care to understand that the reasoning behind the cutting is a mental issue that needs to be addressed with love and care. (Which would explain that I told Mrs. Carter I was a cutter before I told my own mother.)

[skirtovereyes.livejournal.com]

*jumps up and down uber excitedly* You read/study/comprehend/are interested!!!!! *hugs* *jumpy jumpy jumpy....

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

She's quite good at that sort of thing.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Of course, dear child. I did not leave Christianity, and with it any chance I might once have had of having an open and fulfilling relationship with my family of birth, lightly. It was, and remains, a topic of great personal interest for me, although probably not in ways that would be particularly pleasing to you.