Grey issues

random note: the bunch of flowers i plucked for my mom on mothers day is still surviving until now, in a cup of water. some of the then-unripe flowers have even bloomed during the week. compare to the rose bought from the florist on the same day - it died long ago.

Yesterday i was having dinner with a group of elder guys, namely ivan, joel, david and clifford. we had dinner at adams and after dinner we started talking about a certain christianity-based stuff. it turned out that there was a lot to talk and argue about and we had different viewpoints, so we decided to go to mcdonalds to continue our discussion/debate in aircon comfort. at the end of it, we were all supposed to blog about it. i dunno if the rest have yet.

Is it ok for church goers to have ear piercings (esp for guys)? tatoos? bizzarre hairstyles and colors?

i think the act of getting all these reforms itself is not the problem; its not wrong. some argue its just a way of expressing urself. that alone does not justify anything. how to decide should be to ask yourself; by expressing urself through piercings and weird styles, what is the purpose of getting it? what kind of expression are you trying to show? what impression would it give others? to me these things portray the person as trying to be cool and fashion extreme. gives me an impression of insecurity.

ear piercings and especially tattoos are stereotypically linked to gangsters, bengs and lians. and those getting them should be aware of the connections, so going ahead still would mean either acknowledgement or ignorance. especially if ur in leadership positions, it would open urself to more judgement from the people. from what is expressed, they interpret it in their own way and could well lead to a bad impression, compromising ur ability to reach out to them effectively.

i am aware that such things are getting more and more common among the youths these days and soon it may become the norm. it wont be outright wrong even if that happens. it is still possible to have a youth congregation with everyone having ear peirced, pink hair and tattooed but faithful, fervent and God-loving. these things alone do not in any way inhibit us from being good christians.

but chances are, the person who does these wants to show that he is trendy and fashionable, or trying to be outwardly different from others so as to attract attention. and that should not be the purpose for going to church. not only does it spoil the purpose for going to church, it may distract others away from God meanwhile. As far as i know, God doesnt care about our outward appearance. so whatever for? dont conform to the pattern of the world.

Is it ok to drink beer in front of youngsters (who are somehow under ur care)? eat food offered to idols?

this would depend on case to case basis. as discused, drinking is not wrong even for christians. it would be ok for a father to drink in front of his underage son, give him a bit to try, but warn him that he cannot drink other times. but it is not ok for a mature person to bring underage kids out and buy them all a can of beer. even if he tells them not to drink at other times, the act of specially buying the beer for them is outright encouragement to drink. as for the case where underage kids hang out with a group of adults, the adults buy alcohol only for themselves and maybe fruit juice for the kids, but they drink in front of the kids; it is more of an issue of insensitivity cos the kids may feel left out and deprived because they cannot drink. many times the kids wont even want to drink, but there is the slight chance that they catch the desire to be like the adults - to drink, and then they fake IDs or whatever means to get beer for themselves. if that happens, the adults are guilty of stumbling the kid into doing somethin wrong. so i suggest playing safe and just drink juice together. take into consideration also the kids' character.

the food offered to idols topic branched out from that of stumbling. refers to a passage in the bible about christians eating food offered to idols in front of a new believer still weak in faith. the concern is that he may still hang on to the mentality that the food is sacred as he believed for many past years of his life, but due to peer pressure from fellow christians he eats the food too and then feels uncomfortable after that. haha. to me that is super lame and quite funny. and i dont see whats wrong with that at all, so i dont understand the purpose of that passage. its similar to encouraging a muslim who just converted to christian to eat pork, he still feels uncomfortable doing so but eats it under pressure, and after that he goes "yuck, babi inside me!" and regrets doing so. ask me, i say its a good thing, cos his old mentality must be done away with and replaced with christian ones. better than being scared of babi forever, unnecessarily.

Is it a sin to get drunk? what is the extent of the wrong?

to me, getting drunk doesnt seem like a sin in any case. but whether it is morally wrong depends on the intentions of the person. its wrong if the person purposely drinks in order to get drunk, perhaps to get the high and carefree feeling, or if he knows his limits very well but voluntarily drinks past it. it shouldnt be wrong when he accidentally gets drunk because he is unaware of his limits or he was saboed. purposely getting drunk would mean giving up the God-given ability of self control and discernment to be under the influence of alcohol, which is mostly impulsive. that is akin to purposely opening yourself up to temptation. even if under temptation or when drunk we do not commit any sin, putting oneself at such unneccessary risk is great foolishness itself. so, know your limits, and stick to them when drinking.