It is difficult to find excuse for good persons, of faith in God, giving time and resources to the changes they want to make in the cartons of their souls – their bodies. The resources of medical science could be better spent in relieving the suffering of persons, rather than augmenting some part of the human body in the context of beauty or preference. Celebrities encourage the public for augmentation surgery. The poor may use cheaper routes, like tattooing. Tattooing has become an industry, so the public is distracted from the body given of God to some odd demand inside a person to make of self a billboard. The drawings and words are often garish, or present a garish impression. What makes us so lacking in personal worth of what we are to create an oftentimes unwanted, unsavory impression? Studies do not permit tattooing to come off well in general society. They do distract the viewer from the person to an uncertain impression, and commonly leave a negative feeling in the observer. Persons of faith need to be aware of little known evaluation questions: Do I insult God’s creative gesture when I follow this procedure for anything? Do I enhance or degrade the witness of my life to the ministry of God? I examine my purposes for actions.
It is clear from Scripture that the standard of God is that he gave us our bodies through the process of pro-creation. He created the first human parents (spiritual joined to physical) and breathed the breath of life into them. Every baby born is the creation of God through the creative gesture he shared with us. We do, in the birth of a baby, what God did in blessing nature. That should be remembered so to do all we can to assure health and safety, goodness and mercy, development and respect, love and life for every person. Living within the guidance of God’s moderation every person can be, with energy and purpose, what he or she ought to be in spiritual and physical fulfillment. The person ought to care about cleanliness and good nutrition, which is low cost protection against illness and infection. What do we do? We defy moderation so to lose our best body health; we resist some protections so to age the skin prematurely; we take up habits that become slow suicide; we follow sometimes odd styles so must do something to shorten, to lengthen, to add to, to subtract – to give an impression of youth. So the story might be embellished. All this becomes another way in which we lose ourselves in something that is transient in the ultimate, and may become impossible for us to maintain. Some transient cultures can’t be corrected.
Popular culture declined toward the end of the twentieth century, when mankind’s dignity fell to cultural wounding. Human dignity has its foundation in the image of God. Man and woman have emerged as sophisticated animals, moderating their sophistication in puberty cultures. Entertainment became more physical, dependent upon animal force more than human skills. More bodily injuries followed. Grooming became bizarre in many instances. Hairdos became garish, for both men and women. Persons advocating for individualistic styles, copied each other in denim, perhaps stressed denim so that a new pair of jeans was already worn out. Values grew out of feelings. Styles were justified on one point – comfort casualness. No one proved that former styles, rightly tailored, were uncomfortable. Values declined or changed. Persons could earn some degrees of achievement with fewer requirements than formerly. Reliance turned to the rich and powerful to keep things going. The quality of popular music and other entertainments declined. General culture caught lower denominators. From networks one is appalled at the language, images, and accents appearing there. Modern Pop culture defies, for the moment of this writing, the potential for better private or public life. Persons are manipulating persons in popular degradation. It touches a carnal context. The meanness of the young in their tweets is openly deplored. Crude is in – for many. None of this criticism denies that some things are better than ever. There are strong popular movements to assist others. Underlying decency is acknowledged and reporting is improving. Authority persons are making statements about the decline in the popular culture. It may well be that those who are reading this in some future year from my editing will be in a new Renaissance that will spell recovery from some declines in public culture and purpose. There are so many liftings after declines than for us to lose the belief that we can impact society for better contexts in styles. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020