Dear Mr. Phillips: Upon reading your answer to the ladies question about piercing a woman’s ears, I feel led to say that our body is the temple of the living God. Every part of it has a ‘natural function’ whether we understand it or not. Drs may never know why God made the appendix, and people may live seemingly fine without theirs, but it most definitely does have a purpose. God does everything He does on purpose. God made us “very good”. Every single part of us. I beg to differ with you when you said “an ear piercing does not involve damage to and/or impede the natural function of the body, but, arguably, a typical tongue piercing does just this.” Perhaps not immediate, but the information I’ve gathered, being a natural health professional, shows clearly the intricate, minute, and ‘wonderfully made’ earlobe and how it relates to every other organ in the body. People put staples/metal in their ears to lose weight/quit smoking...because the energy from those points on the ear are perfectly connected to the corresponding point in another part of the body and can alter ‘natural function’ of the way our body reacts or responds to stimuli. Drs know there’s more to the ear than hearing with. Piercing the tops of the ears directly interferes with the body’s natural electrical function to major organs such as stomach, liver, spleen, etc. With metal posts piercing through the midst of hundreds of electrical currents (that God placed in the ear for a purpose)that are intended to carry messages the brain signals will damage the body, including the ear itself, in varying amounts sooner or later. We might heed the Bible’s example Gen 35:4 Jacob demanded they put away their strange gods, so they gave him “all their earrings which were in their ears. And Jacob buried them. The pagan Egyptians were the ones they were copying the earring idea from in the first place. There’s more physical evidence and facts I can provide of the ear and various body parts being damaged by peircing the ear, if you’re interested.

Hello Doug,
I just glanced over your article about body piercings. I disagreed on one point. Ear piercings are bad and do affect the health of the whole body. I had my ears pierced when I was 18. Although a doctor did it, I developed a terrible infection. It permanently changed my body chemistry so that I could never wear jewelry except if it was at least 18 c. gold. Kind of defeats the reason I had the piercing....I loved to wear jewelry! Even now, at 55 years young, if I wear clip on earrings of any materiel, my earlobes swell and yucky puss oozes out of the decades old hole.

From Doug:
Thank you for your comments. I am grateful to learn of these helpful observations and personal experiences. Here is my perspective: Based on the doctrine of sola scriptura, any theory of modesty, ornamentation, diet, etc. needs to have as its predicate the Word of God. Our study of the Word must bring us to the precepts and normative patterns to help us discern the broad principles and make wisdom applications.

As noted in my article: I have trouble with the “ear piercings are inherently unbiblical” position, or even the “ear piercings are inherently harmful” position. In my view, such a view is biblically indefensible. I simply do not know how to get around the fact that God specifically requires ear piercings as a sign of submission in servants, or that He clearly blessed the delivery by Abraham of ornamental piercings as a gift to his daughter-in-law Rebekah. I appreciate the fact that there may be reasons not to wear any such things (practical and preferential reasons), but there is no way of which I know to get around the fact that some ear piercings were actually commanded of God.

This brings me to a concluding thought about my first point mentioned above: Any theory of science, health or diet must emanate from the Scripture, not the other way around. For example, if your theory of diet says that eating meat is inherently unhealthy, but God commands the eating of flesh and models it through the law and the life of his son Jesus Christ (as He does), then your theory is wrong because it contradicts the all sufficient text of Scripture. One can not claim that wine is inherently wrong, when God says so much to the contrary in Scripture. There may be very good wisdom reasons to abstain from flesh or from wine, but this can not be claimed as a universal for all men at all times given the fact that the plain text of Scripture is contrary to such conclusions. The same goes for theories of the origin of the universe, of health (allopathic, homeopathic or naturopathic), of childbirth, of modesty — everything. A proper exegesis of the Biblical text must drive our worldview and applications, not the other way around.