What is the church’s stance on ear gauging and temple recommends?
Question
Gramps,
Can a teenager lose their limited use temple recommend for wearing the smallest gauges there are?
Julie
Answer
Julie,
A Bishop is the only person who is authorized to judge and issue limited use recommends for youth. As such only the Bishop for the youth in question can make the call on that.
Now if I were to speculate about a hypothetical youth and his/her hypothetical Bishop, then I could see the Bishop taking gauged ears as a symptom. As such I could see that Bishop wanting to figure out what exactly it was a symptom of, because that could be much more serious.
In the For Strength of Youth pamphlet under dress and appearance we read:
Do not disfigure yourself with tattoos or body piercings. Young women, if you desire to have your ears pierced, wear only one pair of earrings.
Since the main purpose of ear gauging usually is to go bigger, I could easily see a hypothetical Bishop determining that having them is a violation of the Church standards as outlined in For Strength of Youth. The whole point of them is beyond a simple pair of earrings, and more towards disfiguring.
In the end though, the impact on holding a recommend is between the youth and the Bishop, and they should talk about it together.
Gramps
Just a small correction: bishops, AND their counselors, are authorized to judge and issue limited-use recommends. Not just bishops.
Actually this is not all correct, only bishops are judges in Israel not his counselors. If anything is questionable a counselor should first seek the bishops opinion before issuing the recommend. A counselor can only issue a recommend if a candidate meets all the requirements without question. Stake presidency counselors can judge in most cases.
Does this really determine their worthiness to server the Lord? Are they indulging in activities that make them unclean to enter the House of the Lord? I guess it is the luck of the draw on the bishop 😉 If someone has a skull & bone tattoo, an eye patch, and a parrot, does it make that person a pirate? The decision should be based on the interview, honesty, and the spirit.
JustMe, If you truly had the spirit would you do things contrary to Him?! Would anyone come to any other conclusion that if Jesus were walking the earth today he would have tattoos or gauges of any sort? And to your question, no it doesn’t make him a pirate, it just makes him insane!!
😉
Jesus was perfect, and we are sinners. Jesus would look to the good in us and judge us on our love for Him, not our appearance. I did not say that I disagree with the standards, but take out the earing and enter the House of the Lord with a clean spirit. There are lots and lots of people that enter the House of the Lord with tattoos and modifications to their bodies. “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” That quote is not meant towards you, Brian, but a simple reminder of our own shortcomings. Again, the person is judged on their appearance as “insane”. In fact, I know this “insane” guy who served a mission and lost an eye in Iraq, and he serves the Lord every day. He entered the Marines at 23 and lost an eye during combat, and the tattoo is a badge of honor from his unit. He received the parrot from a Veterans organization to help with PTSD.
I think its obvious that gages are not appropriate or compatible with the nature of God. Could you imagine the Savior’s mother or even himself adorning his body with anything of that nature. I believe if you truly ask yourself the question if it is appropriate or not, you already know the answer.