The Spirit of It

A friend of mine recently posted her viewpoint on Facebook about a church congregation in Anaheim, CA., that had the opportunity to tattoo the church logo, (a heart inside a four-quarter circle) on their forearms. This act was offered during service and was to represent each person’s commitment to the church and to God. My friend stated that "tattoos were for pagans" and asked people to "separate themselves."

She received a number of responses, both positive and negative. While I support each person’s prerogative to express them self, freely and openly, it is important to differentiate between ‘law and personal preference.” Many responses to her entry quoted Christian scripture against tattooing the body. One was: Leviticus 19:28 which says, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord.

I think that like many things taken literally in the Bible, modern understanding of it is limited and incomplete. If we were to remember the 'spirit of the message,' which I feel addresses doing no harm to your body on purpose, then, there is no judgment of right or wrong. Christianity only holds one piece to the puzzle of the Divine and dictatorship never lasts.

Additionally, my friend is the wife of a minister. The fact that she used the terminology of “pagan,” as further demeaning anyone who is of a different religious background than herself, is more disturbing than a poor judgment call on body art. How is this any different than the Muslim teaching of “hating infadels," anyone who is different than they are?

So, on that note, the quote of the day is:

“The underlying theme that God has tried to share with “the children of earth” is that of creating love and unity in all things, not separation and hate!” tc

Divide and Conquer

In the book, “The Great Cosmic Mother” by Monica Sjoo & Barbara Mor, they state that patriarchal societies, those built upon the foundation of male dominion in the areas of politics, religion, family and psychotherapy, are devoted to the philosophy of “division.” Patriarchy divides spirit and mind, male and female, mind and matter and God from nature. For thousands of years man has raped nature, exploited her natural resources and manipulated the earth’s production for the mechanical, unyielding and progressive ideals of separation for his own creation.

The combined communal-orientation of family, spirit and group well-being promoted by women from the Neolithic age forward, has been oppressed, trampled upon and broken down into individualism and isolation. Community creates a bond of potential, exactly what patriarchal dominion rejects. The meaning of “Strength in numbers” has been distorted from harmonious societies of ancient times, all working together for the betterment of the entire group to ‘those who have and those who have not” under patriarchy.

"The beautiful bond of Mother and Child has been reduced to 'primitive,' 'infantile' and even 'pagan' by those in sex-role cultures. “The son has to reject the mother to be able to dominate the wife as a ‘real man’ and the daughter must betray her for the sake of ‘submitting to man.’' It was not always this way and will not remain this way going into the future. The sacred bond of Mother/Child, Husband/Wife and Community will once again emerge as The Way to Love, Balance and Live a harmonious, spiritual life!

So, on that note, the quote of the day is:

“The warm, protective womb of the world began within the Earth Mother and there is where we all shall return in love, peace and beauty.” tc