Dare Babalola
Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo, founder of the David Christian Centre and a well-known relationship coach, has reiterated his decision to get a tattoo, stating that there is no biblical scripture that prohibits a child of God from having one.
The cleric’s decision to get a tattoo reading “3:16” in Roman numerals, referencing John 3:16, sparked social media controversy, with netizens condemning the act and citing Leviticus 19:28, which states, “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.”
Dismissing the argument against his decision, Pastor Okonkwo said in a viral video trending on Tuesday, “There’s no scripture that says a child of God cannot have tattoo. So, people are (just) doing personal preference, or what the Holy Spirit told them, or their church’s preferences. They want to impose this on other people, and that’s not how this works. Everyone needs to know Christ and the word of God.
“Somebody needs to sit me down and say tattoos are bad because if somebody draws ink on their body, their brain goes bad; if somebody draws ink on their body, their character suddenly goes bad. They must give me scriptural or scientific proof, or something to back this up.
“Nobody can tell me why tattoo is bad. It’s just bad because… no reason. This kind of thinking is saddening for me because how is Africa going to catch up with development if we are still thinking ‘oh, somebody wore jeans and went to rob, so jeans are now bad. Pastor cannot wear jeans because last week somebody wore jeans and went to rob a bank’. What are we talking about? So, I don’t see the basis.”
Further, Okonkwo stated that while tattoos may be associated with bad people, he could name 10 good people with tattoos.
“It’s the same reason why some people don’t want to go into politics. They say politics is for bad people. So, we have left it for the people we think are dirty. So, who is going to go there? That has been the mindset of the church. We avoid everything that looks bad, and then we complain,” he said.
