Brad Littlejohn and Doug Wilson are currently in the middle of an interesting back-and-forth on the difficulties
that come with trying to deal with visible displays of feminine worldliness in
the church: things such as pink hair, ear-stretching plugs, yoga pants, tattoos,
body piercings and so on.
Everyone involved already seems to agree on a number of things: first, that it is unhelpful to pretend that the Law of Moses is directly relevant; second, that the New Testament does not address most of these issues in so many words — we have to get there by application from passages about
“braided hair” and “costly attire” and such things; third, that despite the fact that we
are dealing with principles rather than direct commands like “Don’t get a tattoo” or “Don’t dye your hair”, these principles cannot be handwaved away without us losing something very important; and fourth, not all such displays should be handled in precisely the same way — things like salvation, spiritual maturity, age, level of commitment, baptism, history and present circumstances absolutely come into it.
Everyone also agrees talking about the subject
is like petting a hissing cobra.