| By: Jeff Larson
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CARTOONS
by: Jeff Larson |
GOTHS
& Christianity-
Definitions from Dictionary.com
Gothic: characterized by gloom and mystery and the grotesque
Goth: A style of rock music that often evokes bleak,
lugubrious imagery.
lugubrious: Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to
an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.
Now I
have nothing against black clothing because at my age I am told it is
‘slimming’. In that case is there a color darker than BLACK
to help me out?
The reason
I am returning to the topic of Goth (not a traditional Baptist favorite)
is that because of
my growing Goth/Punk collection of cartoons I am receiving a growing number
of responses to
my cartoons from Goth Christians. These responses have been presented
in very respectful
articulate manners, and I do appreciate them. And here is a link to a
site they recommend to
share the message of LIGHT to dark places. http://www.gothsforjesus.com/
Thank you again
for sharing your views, and for your goal of offering Jesus message of
hope for those rejected
by society. I plan to spend more time at this site and grow in my understanding
of your mission.
The point
presented by Goth Christians is well taken. Darkness the Bible speaks
about is not
the color of my clothes, but the emptiness and personal despair we can
fall into. You can wear
a white dress shirt, colorful tie, clean shaven, well groomed, with a
big ol’ confident smile on your
face.. BUT be so dark inside. Dark in your motives and desires, and/or
dark in your feelings of
loneliness and despair.
On the
other hand you can be a punk rocker with intense emotions expressed on
your face, and
dressed from black from head to toe and be filled with the intense love
of God that the clean cut
guy mentioned above should envy.
Do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind to do the
good and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2 paraphrased on the fly by
ME). This is the message
of Paul to the Romans, this is the message of Jesus to the Goth/Punk community,
and this is the
message of Jesus to the traditional church, AND EVERYONE ELSE IN BETWEEN.
Who are
any of us that we should boast? Who are any of us to frown on others?
We are one
body, we are the body of Christ, and if this is true than when one member
hurts, all hurt together,
and when one rejoices, all rejoice together. IS THIS TRUE in how it plays
out in our lives, or
has this been reduced to another trite Christian mantra with no power?
So returning
to Goth, gothic, and the gothic movement. Let me repeat the definitions
I found in
dictionary.com
Gothic: characterized by gloom and mystery and the grotesque
Goth: A style of rock music that often evokes bleak,
lugubrious imagery.
lugubrious: Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to
an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.
My reason
for listing these definitions is because these are the aspects of the
Goth movement that concern me. The message of Jesus, and the message of
the cross is not gloomy, grotesque, dismal, or mournful. It is also not
a shallow perky Jesus loves you without substance either. The message
of Jesus is the very power of God. It is the power to transform a gloomy,
grotesque, dismal world with peace and joy that is no emotional rush.
It is much deeper than that.
I share
often my struggles in life, and my insecurities. These are my dark places
where my not ul-
timately relying on Jesus makes my views dismal, gloomy, and lonely. So
as I ramble on, let me
summarize by saying that all paths are futile, and successes are shallow
and DARK without God.
Darkness in your marriage, your job, your private thoughts, your loneliness,
your feelings of
futility and despair need the warm light of God.
God is
like the Statue of Liberty with the inscription Give me your tired, your
poor, Your huddled
masses, yearning to breath free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the
homeless, tempest tossed, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. But of
course God’s light and
answer is perfect in comparison to the good intentions of Lady Liberty.
Darkness
of the heart, darkness of the soul is scary and never to be embraced.
Not for the
corporate executive, the punk rocker, or the middle aged cartoonist. So
whether we choose
dark clothes or not.. choose the light and hope of God. There is power
only in the light.
May God
bless each of you with his light, and may this light fill the dark places
in your
hearts and minds where desperate, and lonely fears are absorbed and replaced
by the very
real love of God.
Jeff
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