Young Poor & Angry Press

My name is T.J. Green. I’ve been a Christian my whole life and now I’m a full time youth pastor in Sylvan Lake, AB Canada. I made a deliberate choice to follow the straight edge life style when I was 15 years old, when I went to my first punk show.

At the age of 27 I still stick to the principals of that lifestyle. I’ve toured in hardcore/metal core bands around Canada, and have been putting on all ages for about 10 years now. I’ve worked with bands like Comeback Kid, Bane, Shai Halud, and Outbreak. I’ve found being a Christian and being in the hardcore scene has sometimes faced its contradictions. This is my attempt to answer the question of those who are too religious to accept people who look different. Why has the church been stuck on the outward appearance, when the scriptures clearly state, “God looks at the heart of man not the outward appearance” Sam 16:7

I think it’s this idea of permanence that makes Isaiah 49:16 so appealing: “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”

Did you catch that? God has a tattoo. And it has your name on it. With full knowledge of what he was getting himself into, God made a decision to love us.  And then in the book of revelations it also has reference to Jesus having something written on his thigh.

Back in those times it was common for pagans to mark their body (when mourning) for the dead. The King James Bible says, “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.”

I find it very interesting that it does not say tattoo..

In the Douay-Rheims Bible it says, “You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead, neither shall you make in yourselves any figures or marks: I am the Lord.”  Obviously this isn’t a common version, but what I’m getting at is we need to read it in context. If we are going to follow the letter of the law we need to follow every other command perfectly. For instance in Leviticus 19:27, “You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard.”

Lets take the biblical character Samson for instance.  He was a cool guy.  Killed a thousand men with a jaw bone of an ass.   He was a Levite and it was law for them.  They had strict rules they needed to follow.  For instance the levites were told “..don’t cut your hair..don’t go near dead things.”  If I’m not mistaken that means Samson was a vegetarian, as was Daniel.
If we were to follow the law I should always cover my head, never eat seafood or anything that wasn’t kosher like ham etc, think woman shouldn’t get their ears priced, and for sure not men, and the list goes on.

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus made the statement that He came not to destroy the law, or the prophets, but to fulfill it. Jesus is saying we are no longer under law but under grace. This is my problem with religion. Religion states that you have to be perfect in order to get to utopia, paradise, heaven or whatever afterlife your particular religion believes in. If this is so…the afterlife is empty because no one is perfect and everyone has fallen short.

Bottom line, our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We should keep it pure…but it’s also a tent; it’s going to return to dust and it won’t go to haven with us. I think the temple of the Holy Ghost looks nice when it’s decorated; I’m gonna get my sleeve finished soon. I’m really excited about that.