Turkish Tattoos

The young woman above, in Istanbul Turkey, is facing a dilemma. What will she do with the body piercings on her back? If she wants an education, she’ll have to make changes. The government of Turkey has been leaning toward a more conservative and Islamic way of thinking, and pupils in school have been banned from have body ink and body piercings. The law may be difficult to enforce and seen as repressive, but that hasn’t stopped President Erdogan from trying. A Muslim country, since the days of the reformer Ataturk who founded the current Republic, Turkey has walked a fine line between secularism and Islam. Now things in the country that was once a cradle of Christianity are moving in the direction of Islamisation.

My point isn’t to debate the political aspects of government infringing upon personal rights. What’s apparent is that some Muslim countries are moving in a moral direction that is shameful to America. No, I don’t want the government telling me or anyone what they can or cannot do with highly personal habits or predilections. But isn’t it a little topsy-turvy when Islamic countries find distasteful what some Christians extol with their “liberties?” What a conundrum that one can find more body piercings and hideous tattoos in a Sunday morning, emergent mega-church than in a Istanbul high school classroom. One reason that the ISIS/ISIL terrorist movement is gaining steam is because they appeal to a stricter way of thinking than even U. S. Evangelicals have. I’m not for legalism, political repression, or equating spirituality with outward appearance. What Turkey is doing may be undemocratic, but is the American Christian way of trumpeting tattoos all that much better?

NOTE: To read other blogs by Bob about tattoos, see “Tattoo Removal” (09/21/12), “Cremation Tattoos” (11/11/13) and “Christian Tattoos” (2/11/14)