What does the image “Christian Goth” strike in you? What does it mean to have both a faith in Jesus Christ as your lord and savior AND yet see the world in its entire splendor as a broken thing? Is it really all about teen angst or is it something more? Is it about community? A shared ideal? A common bond?
You see, dear readers, these are the questions that for decades now my brothers and sisters and I in the Christian Goth community have attempted to answer to the conservative church and to the secular outsiders both Christian and Non-Christian. There have been for decades those Christians who felt moved and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit to move through a particular subculture and bring the good news to an area where many felt God has either abandoned them or felt that they are completely irredeemable. Christian Punks, Metal Heads, Christian Hip Hop fans, Christian “Alternative” fans (Read as Grunge or just odd), and each of these groups has encountered a fair amount of resistance both within the subculture they are attempting to reach and by the church they felt they are supported by.
But few subcultures Christians have attempted to move through have been met with as much resistance by the church (I feel) as the Christian Goth movement.
With every step made into the very actually eclectic culture that the Goth community offers, the Church has cut strings of support leaving “God’s Army” cut off from its supply lines. In my experience, what this has created was a closet community within an already Pariah subculture.
Most Goth’s in reality care very little whether someone is a Christian, a Pagan, a Buddhist, a Satanist, a Hindu, or otherwise really so long as a fair amount of respect is applied. The Goth community largely was founded on the notion of rejecting religious abuse. Not rejecting religion, not rejecting Christianity even, but rejecting the perpetrations of verbal, sexual, and even spiritual abuse from organized religion.
Conversely, Christian Goth’s have attempted to apply a large amount of respect to the people they attempted to reach through the club scene and through events. We see ourselves as equals in the struggle to remake the world from bits of longs lost lore and treasure we find. But in our Christian perspective, we believe that no real glue holds this life together outside of God.
This Blog is going to be dedicated to my musings on just that subject. What it means to follow Christ as the light of my life, when my perception is guided largely by seeing the world through black lights.
I used to say “I see the world through coffin colored glasses.” It’s a very negative way to see the world. It is often how some Goth’s do see the world. Through the veil of the passed on and departed. Lately, I’m reviving a different and more positive statement I took back when I first donned a pair of Combat Boots and Eyeliner. I see the world covered in black light. Covered in strange colors, bizarre glows, and in that light… I see revelations that remain hidden to some. I hope to share some of those with you.
Think of it like this. Do you remember those late night news broadcasts where they take a series of black lights and light up a hotel room to show just how disgusting it really is with the lights off? Sometimes, that is how I see the world. Suddenly, the lights turn off and I am face to face with decades of unclean semen stains littering the walls and doorknobs and sheets and bathrooms of places I am standing in.
Conversely, and less disgusting a thought, I can stand in the right place and see something beautiful that some may never have seen before.
I began my foray into the Gothic Rock community early in 1992. It was really more just a buzz word that had been whispered about in my High School days of “Strange People” hanging out in coffee shops talking about philosophy and drinking coffee till dawn. “I like coffee” I said…
For a Christian Metal head, I must say I was warmly greeted by the Deathrockers I met early in those halcyon days. I was rather enamored by how well they included me in discussions and gave me tips to joining the tribe. Maybe they just thought I was cute and wanted to hit on me… I dunno.
I had felt for a number of years that I may be very well the ONLY Christian Goth. That is… Until the Internet opened up opportunities for all the rest of us to connect and share stories.
No subculture I think has totally embraced the internet quite as much as the larger Gothic Rock community. There are MILLIONS of websites dedicated to sharing band information, DIY (Do it yourself) fashion, and musing on everything from Black Lipstick to Coffee. A few among them are the Christian Goth communities.
Such as:
www.thefirstchurchofthelivingdead.com
To name a few.
I’ve known many of them down through the years via e-mail, forum posts, and gifts we give each other. The larger Christian Goth community knew me at one time as Doctor Raven. A name I adopted early on and eventually tried to use to build a name for publishing and promoting Gothic Rock music.
I sadly had to hang that name up for a while.
Here… I plan on getting back to some of those prior unfinished musings I had on faith and life living as a Christian in this dark community.
I hope I can keep your attention.
Music in my head:
COD by Rackets & Drapes
“God bless the children of the Damned.”
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