Topic: Is getting your belly button pierced mutilation?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: January 2, 2003

Moderator who originally posted this source: Kathy Martyn

Question:   Is getting your belly button pierced mutilating your body, and does it say anything about the subject in the Bible?

Answer: 

Thank you for your question. As a Bible reference, take a look at 1 Corinthians 6:15-20. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ....Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God and that you are not your own?..."

Another reference from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (364)" Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day."

Now to the question at hand, personally I do not think belly button piercing is mutilating your body. Rather, it is an expression of cultural style. It is the virtue of temperance that calls us to avoid excess...and, I think this directly relates to what we do to the interior and exterior of our bodies.