From Salon:
A Michigan pastor who says he’s doing everything he can to reach out to people who don’t feel comfortable at a traditional house of worship has opened a tattoo parlor inside his church.Somehow, I don't think a suggestion for a tattoo parlor in the church or the parish hall would gain traction at my church or any Episcopal church that I know of, although there may be churches out there who would be willing to implement the idea.
Rev. Steve Bentley of The Bridge, a church located inside a Flint Township shopping center, said his ministry is built on the belief that mainstream religion has become ineffective and irrelevant to most people. To that end, he opened Serenity Tattoo.
Tattoo artists Ryan Brown and Drew Blaisdell work by appointment or from noon until 8 p.m., Monday-Saturday, at the county-licensed tattoo shop that sits not far from Bentley’s office as well as the watering trough that he uses for baptisms.
Bentley, who has two tattoos, said he understands some don’t like the idea of Serenity Tattoo inside the church, but the pastor considers tattooing a “morally neutral” practice that he likens to getting one’s ears pierced.
“We are about doing church in a different way and being relevant to people,” Bentley told The Flint Journal. “You can get a tattoo in a clean environment. You can do it while still sticking to your moral code.”
On the church website, Pastor Steven Bentley's says:
Wow!!! Front page article about The Bridge having a Tattoo Parlor in our building has turned into quite the media frenzy. Few things about this - We did not open Serenity Tattoo for publicity, rather to change lives beginning with the artists, their clients and apprentices and spreading from there. Many positive posts from all walks of life - love to see some "getting it." Some negative posts that fall into 3 categories - 1 being Leviticus 19:28 which says not to cut yourselves or make permanent marks - 2 being Jesus clearing the temple in Matthew and 3 being the church is a place for worship not tattoos or other stuff.Pastor Bentley is spot on about the passage in Leviticus. The book is chock full of laws that both Jews and Christians consider cultural norms for the times, rather than laws to be obeyed today.
The first one is really simple - Lev 19:27 also says to not cut the hair at your temples or trim your beards and that chapter contains many cultural/ceremonial prohibitions based on what the local idolaters were doing and trying to make sure the Israelites were distinguishing themselves from them. Anyone that wants to say that one verse is a prohibition on tattoos must also condemn ear piercing, shaving, and many other currently acceptable practices. Using that verse to condemn tattooing is pure ignorance of good bible study.
Read the rest of Pastor Bentley's statement, which also addresses objections to the tattoo parlor based on passages in the Christian Testament, the cleansing of the temple and the church as a house of worship. His defenses are not all that persuasive to me. In all honesty, I found the toll booths in York Minster to be offensive. I question charging a fee to visit a church. It's fine to suggest an amount for a donation, but to charge an admission fee seems wrong. No one should be kept out of a church because of an inability or even an unwillingness to pay.
I wonder if the experience of getting tattooed is serene at Serenity Tattoo. I was rather tense while getting tattooed several years ago, and I wanted the session to be over as quickly as possible.
