Body Modification

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David073

David073

Puritan Board Freshman
Are unnecessary body modifications sinful? I would lean on saying yes, but would like help in fleshing this out.

An extreme example would be a man who unnecessarily undergoes medical procedures to make himself externally look like a woman. We would all be in agreement in saying that this is a sin, but which commandment(s) would this violate? More questions to follow, but we’ll start here for now.


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Tom Hart said:
Modification? Mutilation might be a better term.
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Agreed, but there’s a reason I use the term modification, which I’ll explain after reading some answers to the questions I posed.


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Von said:
What about cutting out a mole because it's ugly?
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There's nothing in a mole that might be considered essential to a person, to my mind. If we met a person with no moles, no one would even be aware of it (although I'm not sure there is a person without moles? interesting question; can't find a quick answer online).

Moles can appear and disappear on their own. Maybe get rubbed off. They can also be irritating and dangerous, as we all know. They have no positive function of which I'm aware.

All this considered, I think this is in a different category from much of what might be considered "body modification": they're not necessarily permanent, not necessarily benign, and their removal typically is a very minor procedure that has little significant impact on the person on whom it is performed--excepting again, that it were a dangerous or particularly unsightly mole.
 
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Andrew35 said:
There's nothing in a mole that might be considered essential to a person, to my mind. If we met a person with no moles, no one would even be aware of it (although I'm not sure there is a person without moles? interesting question; can't find a quick answer online).

Moles can appear and disappear on their own. Maybe get rubbed off. They can also be irritating and dangerous, as we all know. They have no positive function of which I'm aware.

All this considered, I think this is in a different category from much of what might be considered "body modification": they're not necessarily permanent, not necessarily benign, and their removal typically is a very minor procedure that has little significant impact on the person on whom it is performed--excepting again, that it were a dangerous or particularly unsightly mole.
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Apparently Absalom had no moles.
To the OP
I think it boils down to intent. Why is the modification sought? Dissatisfaction with how one was made? Removing moles and blemishes, while it may be nothing more than vanity in some cases, is simply restoring the skin to it's original condition. Having horns installed or cleaving the tongue, however, makes one ask "why?" And are we including tattoos in this discussion? Technically they are surgically installed, and they serve no other purpose than vanity, or to announce insecurities to the world.
Also, I'm perpetually trying to non-surgically modify my body by working to make my waistline smaller. Surely than can be attributed to vanity, though I'd like to think my motives are pure.
Sorry if I didn't advance the discussion at all: those were just some early-morning thoughts your question evoked.
 
"A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God" (Deut. 22:5).

How much more a man seeking to wear a woman's body?
 
I agree with Ben. I think a lot of it is a matter of the heart, and what it is set on. I think there are circumstances where certain things are justified, but when I look at most people around me who are having modifications done, it is pretty clear by their lifestyle that they have other gods they are worshipping. So maybe that has to do with the first Commandment.

Compared to other people, I know my teeth can be whiter. Do I care? Not at all. In fact I have learned to appreciate the defects in my appearance, as they serve to keep me humble.
 
Ryan&Amber2013 said:
I agree with Ben. I think a lot of it is a matter of the heart, and what it is set on. I think there are circumstances where certain things are justified, but when I look at most people around me who are having modifications done, it is pretty clear by their lifestyle that they have other gods they are worshipping. So maybe that has to do with the first Commandment.

Compared to other people, I know my teeth can be whiter. Do I care? Not at all. In fact I have learned to appreciate the defects in my appearance, as they serve to keep me humble.
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I’ll remember that if defects ever manifest in my looks.
 
I think it's worth considering, with regard to modifying the body even to remove defects, that perhaps our aesthetic can be a bit too focused on symmetry and a somewhat artificial idea of "perfection." I wonder about that.

Perfect symmetry is quite rare in nature, after all. If it can even be said to exist. Even your dominant hand's finger is typically a half size larger than its counterpart on your opposite hand.

In traditional East Asian aesthetic, there isn't quite the same fear of the unusual or asymmetrical. Unusually shaped trees and stones are particularly prized, for example. They're essentially seen as having been marked by the divine in a special way.

I wouldn't be so bold as to say the that the latter is closer in some sense to a "divine aesthetic," but I don't think it would hurt to question some of our acculturation on this point. Could be interesting, at least.
 
Morgan said:
So are tattoos modifying the body?
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I guess it depends on what you mean by modify. I would be more curious to know somebody's reasons for getting them. My wife has a few, and she was even a Christian when she got them. She says they are now a regret, so I imagine there is some sort of vanity tied to it, even though at the time she thought it was a good thing to do.
 
Morgan said:
So are tattoos modifying the body?
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Well, yes. They take something that is naturally one color and permanently change the color of it, typically in the shape of drawings or words. The same divine law that prohibited modifying the body also prohibited tattoos. Whether that applies today one-to-one is another discussion, I suppose.

At bare minimum, tattoos are utter wastes of money.
 
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