{"id":10708,"date":"2012-01-07T14:51:28","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T19:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=10708"},"modified":"2012-01-11T16:21:29","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T21:21:29","slug":"does-bible-ban-tattoos-no-scoffs-shopping-center-church-that-also-offers-cage-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2012\/01\/does-bible-ban-tattoos-no-scoffs-shopping-center-church-that-also-offers-cage-fighting","title":{"rendered":"Does Bible ban tattoos? No, scoffs shopping center church that also offers cage fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bridge, an offbeat church in a Flint, Michigan shopping center, is offering tattoos to its members. It also offers occasional classes in cage fighting, poetry slams and auto repair.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Michigan pastor who says he’s doing everything he can to reach out to people who don’t feel comfortable at a traditional house of worship has opened a tattoo parlor inside his church,\u201d reports\u00a0Businessweek<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>magazine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pastor Steve Bentley's tattoo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But tattoos? What\u2019s next, mixed martial arts? Professional wrestling exhibitions? Actually, the Bridge church has already offered both. It seems the Rev. Steve Bentley says his ministry is built on his conviction that mainstream Christian evangelism has become ineffective and irrelevant to most folks.<\/p>\n

Toward that end, he hired Tattoo artists Ryan Brown and Drew Blaisdell and opened Serenity Tattoo inside the 30,000 square feet that the 500-member church owns at Flint Township\u2019s Carman Plaza shopping center.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust down the hall from the Rev. Steve Bentley’s office and around the corner from the galvanized watering trough used for baptisms,\u201d reports the Mlive<\/a> news website. There the tattoo artists ply \u201ctheir trade by appointment or from noon until 8 p.m., Monday-Saturday.<\/p>\n

And one of their best customers is the parson. His back is a Christian mural.<\/p>\n

But what about Leviticus 19:28, which plainly says, \u201cYou shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves.\u201d That would seem pretty straightforward.<\/p>\n

Yeah, counters Bentley, but what about Isaiah 44:5, which proclaims in part: \u201cThis one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’ and \u2026 another will write on —\u00a0Continued on Page Two<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bridge, an offbeat church in a Flint, Michigan shopping center, is offering tattoos to its members. It also offers occasional classes in cage fighting, poetry slams and auto repair. \u201cA Michigan pastor who says he’s doing everything he can to reach out to people who don’t feel comfortable at a traditional house of worship…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[1946,1947,1945],"class_list":["post-10708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-news","tag-steve-bentley","tag-tattoos","tag-the-bridge"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes Bible ban tattoos? No, scoffs shopping center church that also offers cage fighting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2012\/01\/does-bible-ban-tattoos-no-scoffs-shopping-center-church-that-also-offers-cage-fighting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does Bible ban tattoos? No, scoffs shopping center church that also offers cage fighting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Bridge, an offbeat church in a Flint, Michigan shopping center, is offering tattoos to its members. 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