from thebigfamilyoftattoos.blogspot
I have nothing against black clothes. In fact it's probably my favourite colour (its very slimming and hides dirt well :)
And personally I have eight tattoo's, so I'm not trying to bring people back under the old testament often misquoted laws about marking your skin.
But when black clothes, darkly themed tattoo's and darkly themed music collide can it create something supernatural?
Hold on - create is the wrong terminology!!
It's more like......could it invite darker pre-existant forces (if they existed) to come in and have a look, maybe stay for a while? When you see and hear life through dark filters could you attract dark things that possibly co-exist with us?
When I write these blogs, I really want to challenge people to think about culture. I didn't grow up in a Christian culture. We had a veneer of Catholicism but were involved in the occult on both sides of the family. So I hope you don't read this and think that some Christian Pastor is being condescending to any other subculture. Just as athiests force Christians to think long and hard, I hope people won't reject the possibility that some of these scenarios could be true, relevant or at least worth evaluating.
The Goth subculture intrigues me. I got to watch it evolve during the 80's, 90's and 00's. It has multiple subcultural elements within it. People often generalise and mistakenly think Goths are all depressed outcasts. Most Goths I know are intelligent, articulate, hard working, university educated, broad minded and friendly. As one person described to me as I wrote this blog, his view of the gothic subculture was;
"A purposeful attempt to subvert the dominant culture".
And you could say the same thing about Jesus Christ and his subversion of the Empire He was born into (Think of His inclusion of woman, the people he hung out with and the message he spoke which got Him crucified). So Goths, and Christ have that in common thus far.
from hi5comments.net
Plus there are plenty of Christian Goths so we are not suggesting Goth always = agnostic.
On the flip side of the positives in the subculture tabled above it has been my ministry experience and the experience of others that young people in this subculture are more prone to:
- Depression.
- Self esteem issues.
- Experimentation with the occult. (defined as participating in occult practices like Wicca, clairvoyance or ancient rites or religious ceremonies even at a 'playful' level).
- A perception of isolation or at times rejection from the broader community.
- Are interested in/involved with the paranormal (not the same as occult practices, more like media shows, paraphernalia and seeking answers about life after death/hauntings etc).
from lastfm.com
So the question is, does involvement in subcultures that tend toward darker imagery create more doors to the paranormal?
In our first blog this month, we got some really cool feedback from people involved in the Vampire/Vampyre subculture and I thank them for their honesty.
Could we get similar feedback from people in the Gothic subculture? Remember, this is not an attack on you or your subculture any more than saying that many surfers/Hipsters/Bikie gangs have common traits or are prone to certain attributes, so please don't be defensive. We just want to know if you guys have more supernatural experiences and if you attribute any of that to common themes in the subculture of just random cases.
Looking forward to some feedback, God bless you - Pastor Baz.
Next week - Tattoo's and imagery.
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