body piercing & convert

[dahlia]

I know that people can join the Church if they have tattoos. I know the Church lets South Pacific Islanders who are already members get tattoos because it's part of their culture. My questions are - do people have to remove piercings, do males have to remove earrings, and do both sexes have to remove ear plugs?  I can imagine that even a medium sized plug leaves quite a stretched earlobe, requiring some kind of cosmetic surgery or at least some stitches (read - expense) for a convert. 

Personally, tattoos don't bother me, but the eyebrow piercings and lip rings just make me wonder 'why???'

[Vort]

No. No one is required to remove tattoos or cover up body modifications or get restorative surgery or anything like that. Maybe there are rare exceptions (I'm thinking possibly "sex change"), but as a general rule, no. You can even do body modifications and tattoos and stretch out your earlobe or lips or whatever while a member. As far as I know, you can get a temple recommend while doing so.

I suspect that most Saints would agree that gauging out your earlobes or lips is a ridiculous and foolish thing to do; a large subset of those would also agree that doing so is not pleasing to the Spirit. But we don't deny a temple recommend because you yell at someone while you're driving, which also (probably) offends the Spirit. We are weak, and the Lord (and his Church) minister to us in our weakness. We are not required to be perfect to attend the temple, nor anywhere near; we are required simply to clear some very obvious--and low--moral bars set up to see if we meet the minimum requirements one can expect in order to enter the house of God and learn about him. Very basic compliance with the beliefs and laws of God's kingdom is really all that's required. Nothing there about tattoos or gauged-out ears or lips or cheeks.

Many Latter-day Saints want to draw a bright line between "doctrine" and "policy" (or "culture" or some such thing). This is nonsense, of course, but a surprisingly large part of the LDS population (probably a majority) does so. One or two decades ago, our prophet offered sage, grandfatherly advice: Don't get tattoos. Don't get lots and lots of piercings. Don't participate in such body modifications. It's not wise and it's not good. Treat your body as the holy temple of God it was designed to be, a temple where the spirit of God -- that would be you -- dwells. That advice is as wise and timely now as it was then, perhaps even moreso. But not every good idea or wise piece of advice gets added to the baptismal requirements list or the temple recommend questions.

Edited October 4, 2018 by Vort

[dahlia]

It's good to know that people don't need to stitch up their earlobes if they want to be baptized. 😊

[Sunday21]

Many people have tattoos or former piercings here. They tend to remove the studs. No more. No one says anything.