WELL, HE SAID IT ALL!

WELL, HE SAID IT ALL!

You're right, Jesus was the first punk! His entire life was one big protest to the tyrannical, money and hate based society. It was a quiet riot of love.

HE WAS PUNK RAWK AS HELL

And it is difficult balancing faith with a punk lifestyle for so many reasons... First off, people's modern day, skewed views of what is and isn't punk are so exhausting. Not to mention the elitists and their bizarre and inaccurate"requirements"... like I need to meet requirements to be a rebel! HILARIOUS!

A lot of people in the scene will make you feel like you don't belong. But rest assured, no matter what religion you are, you belong here. We accept you. And if some "punks" don't, ignore em. They're not punk anyway.

It's difficult with faith, too. Religious people look at ya like ya have three heads when you walk into a Bible Study decked in two inch long spiked arm bands and a patch jacket. That's part of the reason I hate going to churches. There isn't one I have walked into and haven't been stared at...

I used to go to a Christian homeschool group in middle school that took place in a church. I wore all black every day, it was at the very beginning of my alt journey. My entire class cornered me one day and interviewed me on whether I was going goth or not. None of them had ever spoken to me before, they completely ignored me... except this one emo girl who would sit with me occasionally. Asked how I was. Talk to me about anime and whatnot. Treated me like I was normal. That is when I think I began to understand who my people were... who would accept and be there for me. I mean, at the time, I didn't even know what goth meant... but it clicked in me. I took the label. Then I went home and started researching whatever this "goth" thing was🤣🤣🤣

I went on that rant to say: if you're a Christian and you're goth, emo, punk, metal- whatever! You don't have to deny one half of your identity to accept the other. God put the desire in you to be who you are and not apologize for it. That is not a desire born of sin... that is your fingerprint. Your own unique self. Don't toss it away just because some people told you that being YOU isn't acceptable. Screw acceptable.

Be yourself. Don't apologize for it, either.

It's what you were made for.

im curious, how does being punk affect your feeling of religion? are you still a practicing catholic/go to church?

Hahahahahaha oh boy, buckle in cause this is gonna be a fun ride. I’ll put a cut cause this is gonna be long simply due to the amount of context that is needed to understand how I’ve managed to mash these two things together in my life. I hope this answers your question anon! (And thank you for asking nicely, that usually isn’t the reaction I get).

So, for reference, I am Catholic born and raised. My mom is Catholic, my dad is only recently exploring being religious. My brother has remained a Catholic good boy throughout his life, my sister has denounced religion. I’m somewhere between them. I don’t go to church often, but I still feel at home there when I do (most of the time). So technically, I’m not a ‘Practicing Catholic’ because of that, but I’m following my faith to the best of my ability (explained below).

I 100% believe there is a god, and because of that my faith has had some rough intersections with other parts of my life, such as being punk, the communities Im a part of, and being heavily involved in STEM. And those are things that took me years to figure out for myself. When just looking at being punk though, I think where it really clicked that punk wasn’t against my religion, but actually supports it, was in my freshman year of college. Like I’ve said before, I go to a Protestant school so every class has to somehow have at least one connection to religion (as a chemistry major this can get extremely annoying). But that year, I had a history class as a gen ed, Western Civ to 1450, and an absolutely kick ass professor to go with it. 

This class was the game changer for 18 year old me (oh my god that was 5 years ago). We spent a lot of time in this class talking about religions of ancient civilizations, and of course we talked about Christianity. And this man went absolutely feral. He was the man that introduced me to the concept of ‘Jesus was a punk’. And when you ignore all the random bull shit that comes out of people’s mouths at church and just look at the bible... yeah, he was right. Jesus flipped tables, he ate with societal outcasts like prostitutes and the homeless, and god did he hate the Roman government that controlled so much of the world at that time. 

And I think that’s when I really felt free to embrace the punk culture. The one thing that was holding me back was gone. I also later learned that professor had a metal band (I’m now going to have to try to find his youtube again lol - its been years). 

But yeah, being punk and religious in 2022 is hard. Its hard because the people who claim to be Christians are ignorant, refuse to learn, don’t know the context of the book they call holy, refuse to understand where Christianity stems from and our roots in Judaism, and keep trying to interpret the bible in a modern world (the bible can’t tell you shit about the evils of the internet man). I don’t particularly like going to church because I often find that its a snake pit disguised as a hospital. Though, that’s nothing new, if you ever take the time to read Romans (my favorite part of the bible), its full of Paul just absolutely loosing his ever loving shit because of how corrupt the churches are. 

So instead of going to church once every seven days and conforming to the rest of the vipers there, I try to live my life by Jesus’ standards for interacting with others. Be kind and forgiving, try to understand other points of view, don’t discriminate based on job, color, socioeconomic status, gender, how many kids, ect. Moral of the story, in my opinion, to be a good Christian, you need to treat people as people, and welcome them with open arms. You need to give back to your community. You need to fight for a better world. You need to push back against oppressive and authoritarian governments. And those are all punk values as well.

More of this, guys...

I think my choice would have to be Vessel by TwentyOnePilots. There's cry songs, inspiring songs, feel good songs, weird songs, general bangers... some decent variety there. I listened to it every night for a while and never got tired of it. If you ever are in a position where you need someone to sit with you but it's 3AM and there's no one around, trust me when I say Tyler Joseph is a great choice. In this album specifically. I have a theory that it was designed for people who have a fear of sleeping, insomnia or generally just a rough time at night.

you can only listen to one (1) album for an entire year. no other music. what is the album??

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance

Couldn't agree more! There's no such thing as an ugly person. Ugly is something inside you. As cheesy as that sounds, it's so true. I know because I've experienced it in my own life! I have a friend that I thought was unattractive when we met years ago. Now she's one of my best friends, and guess what? I think she's one of the hottest mofos I know! Like DAMN! When she snags a man, he better be good to her, cause he's lucky (and if he's not I'll give him a taste of them punk tactics you heard about on TikTok, just you watch). On the other side of things, I had a friend once who I thought was very pretty... until she showed her true colors. Now? When I look at her, all I see are her flaws. They jump out at me every time. She's ugly, and she did that to herself.

On another note, that's a great example of why I wanted to do this. I have a big nose and I'm pretty insecure about it. Glad to know you wouldn't see it like I do, Reg. Thanks!

(Also couldn't agree more on the body hair. It being unhygienic for women but fine for men is such a double standard I legitimately just don't understand. I don't shave my legs.)

What's some unconventional things that you find attractive? Things that don't fit the typical beauty standards: hourglass figure for women and muscular/tall build for men. Clear skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, small waist, etc. Or things that don't fit the standard for that particular sex, for example, finding a woman with broad shoulders attractive or a man in makeup.

I think it would be good for people with those traits, things they may have been shamed for, to have a reminder that people out there think they're sexy.

This has to be one of the most beautiful things Lord Almighty created.

You know it's spooky season when you spend eighty dollars at WALMART. Can't remember the last time I did that. Don't think I ever have, actually. BUT GOTHS, GO RAID THE HALLOWEEN SECTION IT'S GOING HARD!