(OPINION) Televangelist Joyce Meyer announced that she got two tattoos for the first time at 79, to “honor God” and is convinced that the Bible supports her decision despite the belief among some Christians that tattoos are sinful.
According to the Christian Post, The president of Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Missouri, said in a video clip posted on her YouTube page in October that she was convinced by Isaiah 49:16 that it’s perfectly OK for her, as a Christian, to sport a tattoo.
“Some of you think it’s fine and some of you think, man, you get a tattoo, you’re on your way to Hell. And you’re free to think what you want to. But you’re not free to judge people who do what you don’t think they should do,” Meyer told the mostly-female audience gathered at one of her events last fall as she read from Isaiah 49:16: “Behold, I have indelibly imprinted or tattooed a picture of you on the palm of each of my hands.”
“… Ever since I read that scripture that said people had tattooed on their hands, ‘I belong to the Lord.’ I thought, I’m gonna get a tattoo that says ‘I belong to Jesus,’” the televangelist said to cheers and applause.
She explained that she was at a meeting in Australia about five years ago when she made that declaration. She was not aware that a tortured tattoo artist had heard her comments.
“It’s really a neat story. I don’t know if I can get the whole thing out right. But he (tattoo artist) had gone through the most hellish thing. First of all, he had bipolar disorder. And so, his mind was already kind of messed up.
And then a bunch of religious Christians got him convinced that because he was a tattoo artist that he was going to Hell,” Meyer said. “When he heard me say that I wanted to get a tattoo that said, ‘I belong to the Lord,’ or ‘I belong to Jesus.’ He said, he decided to go back into business.”
Meyer said she didn’t believe the connection was coincidental so both her and her husband, Dave, got tattoos from the tattoo artist.
“I have a nice little cross back there (on her back). And it says ‘I belong to Jesus.’ And just for good measure, I put love on my foot to remind me to walk in love,” she said. “Dave’s 82 and got a tattoo. I’m 79 and I’m doing fine. The guy said that we were the oldest people he had ever tattooed.”
Meyer further urged her critics not to send her letters complaining about her decision to get tattooed because she already prayed about her decision and her conscience is at ease.
“The whole thing is it’s between me and God. And it’s a matter of my heart. And when I stand before God on Judgment Day before He makes any decision about me, He’s not going to call any one of you and say, ‘Is there anything you’d like to add about Joyce?’” she said.
