A Christian Goth is a person who is part of the Gothic Subculture and Christian as well. It is a state of mind and a way of being...rather than just a state of dress. Do I wear a lot of Black? Well yes of course. But then again I am very fond of dark colors period. Deep Purples...Burgandy...Midnight Blue...deep dark teal (not aqua..but a form of blue green with much black in the mix)etc.
Does being Goth mean that it has a dark aesthetic. Yes. How can a Goth be a Christian? Well the first thing you need to do is to take the stereo types and stigmas associated with the Goths and the Gothic subculture and chuck them out the window. A Goth is not so easily defined. You can not point to someone and say "They are Goth." . We tend to be artists, writers, photographers, musicians, etc . We do see the world from a dark POV. We have an appreciation and a strong awareness of the dichotomy of life. The contrast of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. We live in darkness, yes, however Christian Goths have the Light of Christ Jesus in them, and we take and share it in many different ways with others who live in not just twilight and darkness but those who live in the light of this world as well. But we Christian Goths are more aware about the world's and society's and life's dark side than most any other group. So I am saying while we are not THE ONLY subculture or type of person to do this we do tend to be of the majority of the ones that do. As well as being the lovers of a bit of theatrical darkness in some respects and the social darkness of not buying into what is plastic and shiney and uberfluffy or so Donna Reed-ish/"Friends"-ish fake you could scream. PRIMARILY ABOVE ALL it is the "darkness" of encountering and embracing the full depth of human emotions. Entertaining the Sublime and recognizing that all that Glitters is not Gold.
Even on a superficial level though, much Gothic darkness is specifically Christian, with crucifixes and the lot. While playing victim or having pity or seeking pity is not a Gothic trait....often Christian Goths have a good bit of empathy when and where their fellow man is truly suffering.
Christian Goths have a sense of darkness in their spiritual tone if you will.
Even Jesus Himself prefigures Gothic darkness and the kind of spirituality expressed by Goths by being the total person: He experienced grief as much as joy and agony as much as exctasy
And as for Rice...her works are nice grimm fairytales...interesting to read but not worth a spit in the wind to live by.
As for Bierce..Derleth..Lovecraft..Poe...King...Palahniuk and the like...nice enjoyable stories of grim fantasy.
