SIGNS OF REGRESSION

We are living in a regressive age. It is pointed out continually that we are progressing by popular culture. The question becomes progressing to what? No answer. It is a deafening silence because the popular pundits have no idea. Progression for them is to allow all that was unallowable in the past. They call this advancement when in reality it is the opposite. They are not aware of how far they are drifting from the ethical shore.

This makes sense considering that the dominant ethics of our day is pragmatism. Pragmatism recognizes no absolute truth. Not recognizing any absolute truth means that the individual decides what is truth for him. Pragmatism operates in the immediate moment based upon the situation and can be classified as situation ethics. Pragmatism is the religion of flux. No absolutes leads philosophically in one direction, crisis. Pragmatism engenders instability. As the prophet Isaiah put it in Isaiah, "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."

With the passage of time, a culture should be progressing ethically. When this is not the case, it is obvious what the cause is. There has been a change in direction ethically speaking. There are only two belief systems in the world. One believes in absolutes that is in unchanging standards and the other believes in no absolutes or continuously changing standards. One is progressive and the other is regressive. One is life giving and the other is headed for death.

I watched a video about skin art (tattoos) in the Super Bowl. They were showing football players who had tattoos. Some of these players were covered with tattoos. One player had a tattoo on his neck. These players are proud of their tattoos and are not ashamed to show them off. Every player in the video showing their tattoos is black. This does not mean that white players do not have tattoos because some do, but this video used only black players.

Are tattoos art and do they have any ethical significance? Leviticus 19:28 reads, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD." Ethically, tattoos are outlawed by the law of God. This is an unchanging standard. Therefore to deviate from this standard is to regress ethically. The acceptance of tattoos in our culture is a sign that our culture has regressed in its ethics, not progressed.

Tattooing is symptomatic of an ethical decline in culture. Tattooing is an effect, not a cause. It is what we see. The cause is underlying, but is shows itself in the tattoo itself. It used to be only a few people had tattoos. Now, the number of people with tattoos has increased dramatically. It seems as if the majority of people now have them. Tattooing has become mainstream. When this occurred, it was obvious that an ethical regression had occurred.