Leviticus 19:28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am Jehovah.
Body mutilation — and here I’m not talking about a pierced ear or a tiny tiny pierced nose or a tiny flower on one’s hip — is one of the sure signs that we are returning to anti-Christ paganism. In cultures influenced by and seeped in Biblical Christianity the problem of guilt is understood, by the “in Christ individuals” in that culture, as having been dealt with in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Further, any real moral guilt that comes into a believer’s life subsequent to their union with Christ is confessed, repented of, and taken to the Cross of Christ and left there in light of the pronounced absolution of sins that happens week by week in Church, by the voice of Christ as heard over the vocal chords of the minister, or that is everywhere pronounced in Scripture. Christians don’t carry their guilt around because they have a Great High Priest and Savior who has relieved them of their guilt. For a Christian to carry their guilt around is to announce that Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension is not sufficient.
However in cultures where sin and guilt have no answer, the individuals in that culture must provide themselves ways to deal with their guilt. The only options that are available are either for one to pay for that guilt one’s self — thus leading to masochism — or for one to try to fob off their guilt on someone else, thus leading to some form of sadism. Guilty people will always try to find ways to relieve themselves of their guilt burden. If they refuse Christ’s sacrifice for guilt they will offer up themselves or someone else as a guilt sacrifice.
Body mutilation is one of the forms of masochism whereby our culture is reflecting that it is seeking to shed its real moral guilt via self mutilation (masochism). Where there is no understanding of guilt being taken by Christ in the Atonement there one should not be surprised to find a tattoo, piercing and body mutilation culture where atonement is being sought in punishment of self for one’s real moral guilt. They have no Christ to suffer for their guilt and so they do things to themselves to make themselves suffer for their real moral guilt.
Secondly, at the same time, one can see the body mutilation culture as an attack on the image of God in man. Man, is — both body and soul — created in the image of God. The self defacing of God’s handiwork, via body mutilation, is an attempt to cast off the image of God in favor of an image as created by the autonomous self. The rebel against God will not have God rule over him and one way to cast off and deny God’s rule is to mar one’s self so that the mirror doesn’t reflect back the image of God that is so violently hated. What better way to get rid of true moral guilt then by attacking the one whom one refuses to go to for the only relief from guilt possible? (By the way, this idea of attacking the image of God in one’s self, I believe accounts a great deal also for the rise of sodomy and lesbianism as well. As sexuality is tied up very closely with the image of God in men and women, overturning God’s intended order for sex in an effective short term attack on the image of God in men and women.)
Thirdly, I think a lot of the mutilation we see is a manifestation of the fixation our culture has with rejecting boring “whiteness” in favor of spiffy tribalism with its tatoos, piercings, weird hairstyles, goofy clothes, etc. Everywhere it is being shouted how evil white people are. (This is, by the way, another form of displaced guilt. Guilt is not taken to Christ therefore guilt will be passed on to white people in a sadistic fashion in order to relieve others of their guilt.) Body mutilation allows white people to seriously alter their whiteness thus relieving themselves of white guilt.
Finally, in body mutilation there is always the sinful “look at me” dynamic going on. Those outside of Christ are especially self centered, desiring to have all of reality and all attention orbit around them. Body mutilation allows the mutilator to be the center of constant attraction.
