Character: Is it something you HAVE or something you ARE?

Body modification is a subject that comes up from time to time in christian circles. Used to be that only crusty sailors, bikers and a thug sub-culture would get tattoos or radical piercings. Now the mainstream rushes to get their 'ink-therapy' or 'skin-art'. Even many church people, following, the pattern of this world, struggle with the ethics of it for a short season and then rush off to get there body modified.

Body modification is one of those topics that avoids a head-on, plain teaching from the scriptures. I believe a strong argument can be formed from two verses in 1 Corinthians. In verse 7:4 Paul reminds us,
For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

This verse makes it plain that our bodies are not our own but we must take into account how we present our bodies to our spouse, present or future.

Even more compelling and direct is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20,
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, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

It is my opinion that this verse may be applied to forming a rejection of the temptation to modify our bodies. Our bodies are not our own - we may not do as we please with them. I believe that deciding that we MAY do what we want with our bodies is a slap at our heavenly Father and his sovereignty over us. It's a vulgar declaration that we are little gods, child-kings who establish our own rules.

I'm not writing these things to try and make you feel uncomfortable about your tattoo or the steel through your tongue. In fact, I didn't really start this article to look at the morality of body modification. I want to turn our attention from the right or wrong of it to the WHY? Why do people do it and why has it gotten so popular?

Character
Character is a fascinating word, for in defining the word we can arrive at two definitions nearly opposite in meaning. On the one hand 'character' can be defined as 'moral and ethical quality', 'good repute', 'qualities of honesty, courage and integrity', 'strength and originality'. Some have said that 'character' is who you are when you are alone in the dark. When there is no one to pretend or act for, who are you?

On the other hand, 'character' can be defined as 'a part played by an actor' or 'an odd, eccentric or amusing person'. A 'character actor' is 'an actor who specializes in playing unusual people rather than leading roles.' (Compact Oxford English Dictionary) So one definition is the essence of true being and the other is the practice of fakery.

Character, as in the qualities of virtue, used to be taught in schools. It was exalted in books and stories. It was expounded from the pulpits and encouraged in communities. Then there seemed to be an assault on the means of spreading these messages. The Bible was thrown from the schools, the Ten Commandments were no longer welcome in the public square. Virtues have been replaced by the anti-virtues screamed in popular fiction, television, music and movies. There is no longer a premium put on such attributes as respect, honor, manliness or femininity. Where character was once the foundation of the individual who contributed decency to the community there is now a vacuum. We once could go to our beds at night with the satisfaction that we had purpose and dignity.

Now we have stripped our young people of the virtues that form a foundation. The result is an entire generation who are looking to have character but finding no source they are forced to CREATE character. So we watch our young people become actors, eccentric, odd - specializing in playing unusual people. They trick out their cars, they wear long bright chains and jewelry, they color their hair, they tattoo their skin, they pierce the most unconventional places in their flesh, they invent new words, they use the most vulgar expressions and they don't care who hears them. Why? Because they lack character? Yes, of course but in the lack for character they are creating a character. They will have character. If we don't create a culture where they can learn true, inner character, then they will create a character of their own. To them, an obnoxious, self-absorbed, self-destructive, iconoclastic character is better than no character at all. If our culture continues to fail in planting seeds of character then society will certainly continue to reap what it has sown.