So if a man were to be converted and began attending church with a tattooed neck and two full sleeves of tattoos on his arms what do you think the reaction of *your* ward would be?
What are the chances this man would ever be a bishop in your ward?
This raises the question of to what extent converts are required to conform to the expected opinions of their fellow members. Is this person obliged to get his/her tattoos removed before passing the sacrament, for example?
For what it’s worth, back when I was at BYU, I had a friend/coworker who was a convert to the church. He had gorgeous, brilliantly-colored tattoos on both arms and both legs. While we worked together, he was called into a singles ward bishopric. His tattoos, from what I could tell, were neither an issue at BYU or in the bishopric. I have no doubt he could have been called as bishop except, in my experience, BYU wards tend to have an old person from Provo and bishop and a married student as the second counselor.
In this neck of the woods (UK) such a thing would not be unusual. I can think of two previous Bishops who are tattooed (both now high councilmen, one a temple worker).No-one bats an eyelid.
I did find slightly disconcerting the temple worker who saw me through a certain part of the endowment one temple visit, who has ‘hate’ and ‘love’ tattooed on knuckles of his hands. After the first time you get used to it, and it certainly didn’t stop him being called as a worker.
After all, it’s what is inside that counts!
We have been blessed in our ward with a number of men who were converted or who returned to Church after some tough lives. Once my wife observed to me approvingly that 6 out of the 8 men passing the sacrament (there were no young men at church that day) had visible tattoos. What a wonderful thing!
I think everyone will be shocked if the Bishop in their church have visible tattoos. But let us all remember that priests/bishops are humans too.They are not God, they are just disciples of God.
“priests/bishops are humans too”
Why does this statement sound condescending to me?
Do you mean to say that tattooed members are in some form lesser than non-tattooed members?
Hard to say. You haven’t given us enough information. Does he live the commandments? Does he try to make a difference in the lives of others? Does he have leadership experience. If so, then I would say he chances of being bishop are fairly good.