So let me offer a couple of thoughts:

First, people need to find out what a real goth is really like. [I'm waiting for the toxicology reports and more interviews to reveal their favorite music before I make any final assessment of who these kids were, but I don't believe these guys were real goths. I believe they were bright, computer geek wanna-be's; they didn't have the personality to be a true goth.] Goths are usually intellectual, artistic, and articulate. They are into art, poetry, and music. They are passive, introspective, and can be dramatically emotional. They can also be too self-absorbed, brood to a fault, and they internalize everything (even things that have nothing to do with them!) As a group and as a rule, goths take their stress and pain out on themselves, not on others - cutters, piercers, slicers - suicide addicts - they will beat themselves up in their guilt and their sorrow to prove how real their pain is. They are some of the most creative, interesting, wonderful gifted people I have ever met, and some of the most troubled. I know these generalizations don't fit everyone exactly, but as a group, these characterizations mostly hold true in my experience. And I know these are entirely flattering portraits, but it is an honest assessment, and these are not killers.

Second, I think that we need to do some things as a Christian gothic community. We need to dispel the rumors about goths with the truth. Be honest about who you really are. For those of us who believe it is effective and important, we need to pray for all the kids and their families, those who lived and those who died. We need to pray for what remains of the "Trenchcoat Mafia". We need to pray for goths in high schools across the country that they will be able to endure any backlash that may occur in the next few weeks. We need to pray that there will be no backlash, no witch hunt. Now more than ever, we need to find courage and give courage to one another. We need to be prepared to expect and face more derision. We need to apply the principle of turning the other cheek, in a very real way. We need to be prepared to leave vengeance in the hands of God. We need to be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks us - an answer about who we are as goths and why, and about who we are in Christ (for those of you who are IN Christ). We need to practice the character of Christ in all our dealings, in faith, not fear.

( This is the second article written in the week subsequent to the shootings)

I think it’s safe to say that the traumatic events at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado have left most of us stunned. As we pull out of shock, we are going to hear a host of opinions and accusations and assessments and blame. The fingers are already pointing at violence in entertainment, the lack of adequate gun legislation, an unprepared school system, indifferent parents, racism, the neo-Nazi movement and the NRA. And let’s not forget God, the devil, and good old-fashioned sin.  Soon we will leave behind the legitimate search for answers, and settle for revenge and payback through the accepted channels of courtroom suits and counter-suits,    and it will all boil back down to money. And probably, we will even legally molest and abuse and traumatize these children all over again in the courtrooms, excused by our desperate attempt to find closure. Who’s to blame? Everyone? No-one? Frankly, for all my experience with the youth of America over the past three decades, I’m not sure I have any satisfactory answers.  I am seeing a couple of things as the dust settles and the chaos starts to clear. Perhaps these observations will help fill in some of the holes:

GOTH is going to be forever changed.  I spent the better part of that tragic week doing interviews for radio, TV, and newspapers. I answered questions as best as I could, trying to be a voice of peace and reason in a maelstrom of angry accusations. I tried to tell people that the gunmen were NOT gothic, and most of the true goths I know were bright, talented, young people who could never perpetrate something like this. But after all was said and done, it’s a moot point.

This tragedy has put the gothic sub-culture in the public eye in a way that not even a year of Manson’s "Anti-Christ Superstar" tour could. It can no longer remain an underground phenomenon. We have been "outed," brought to the surface, and thrust into the mainstream, whether we like it or not. Gothic is going to move from sub-culture to culture. It will become much broader and more inclusive than it started out to be. All things dark and black will now be labeled gothic. Anyone singing sad songs in a black dress will automatically become gothic.  You may doubt me, but you need to remember back to a time (if you can) before 1984, when heavy metal was just an obscure and extreme corner in the world of rock music. But after the success of Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Van Halen - Heavy Metal WAS rock music. The same thing is about to happen to Goth, only this time, the changes are being born out of tragedy, rather than success. There’s no going back. The gothic/industrial community will just have to learn to accept the inevitable.

What does this mean for us? For awhile it means that goths will be under a level of scrutiny, often accompanied by an animosity, they have not been accustomed to. (Oh, joy! Even more mockery and abuse!) But after awhile the culture will adapt, as it always does, and gothic will become a cool cultural phenomenon copied by un-goths to show they’re "hip". And some people will get rich, especially movies stars and musicians. For Christians, perhaps it means an era in which gothic/industrial music and ministry will become more acceptable to the public. And perhaps some gothic version of Calvary churches will offer synthesized worship like incense. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe not. In any case, it will push the true underground even deeper. The expressions and fashions of the dis-enfranchised will turn and twist a little bit more and some strange, new sub-culture will strangle hundreds and thousands of young people before we can reach them with the message of hope. It makes our job a little bit harder. Someone will have to start all over again learning a new culture, a new language, a new music, a new mind-set. I wonder how much time we have....?

Reaching the Trenchcoat Mafia.  For some time now, I have been crying out in the wilderness: "We must reach the underground. We must win the Marilyn Manson generation." Although these young men were not gothic, they were part of the Marilyn Manson generation. While I would never say that the entertainment media makes kids do dangerous things, it certainly contributes to the cultural atmosphere, mind-set and world-view that makes inconceivable acts like this conceivable in the minds of angry and anguished adolescents like these.

There is no excuse for what these young men did, but there are reasons. We’ll hear much about where the blame lies. People will point fingers at the NRA and the internet, violent video games and neglectful parents. But basically it all boils down to relationships. Like so many killers before them, these were isolated, insulated young men. They were on the fringe of a fringe group with the distancing, intimidating reputation of the Trenchcoat Mafia - wanna be Terminators, living in a fantasy world.  We all need key relationships with stable individuals in our lives to provide touch-stones for our wandering imaginations (Gen. 6:5, 8:21). This is especially true of adolescents. Where were the touch-stones for these young men? Apparently, it was not their parents. Nor have I heard clear reports of a teacher who tried to be that special bridge. How did the Christians on campus respond to these young men? Where were the brave souls who had an aching heart for the disenfranchised, the hurting, the misfits?

Despite all it's self-professed cheer-leading, the Church has been retreating for some time now. Perceiving the world to be too dangerous, they have drawn back from the deserts and the outlands where people most need to be offered hope and Living Water. They have been busy building the walls of their holy cities higher and higher, happily singing "A Mighty Fortress is Our Church."  They have even withdrawn from the mainstream, hoping that politics will be a more safe and effortless weapon - although it is clearly not one of the weapons of our warfare       (II Cor. 10:3-5; Ephesians 6). Like the Pharisees of old, the church is building barriers and denying entry to more and more of those and makeing them feel uncomfortable (Mt. 23:13, 15). And yet, this is our destiny - to reach the unreachable; to search the highways and byways, inviting the poor and disreputable to a feast of His Love (Luke 14:16-24). Where are those with the eyes of God to look past the scary masks and the intimidating titles and see the hearts that are torn apart in fury and failure? Where is the true Remnant that realizes it will always be dangerous to do Christianity right - but are going to do it any way? Where are the brave souls who will say, "Here am I. Send me!"? (Isaiah 6). Where are the Christian warriors who will leave the safety of the City to spend their lives for their Lord? We can no longer cling to the old banner of "Come and see...." We must once again rally around the battle cry of "Go, therefore..."(Mt. 28:19).

The Last Days.  The story is told that one of the gunmen stood in the library and screamed "Does anyone in here believe in God?"    Out from under the desks where all her friends were cowering, Cassie Bernall, shaking but resolved, stood up and professed her faith in God.  The gunman was reported to have screamed, "Why?" as he shot her dead on the spot. Cassie Bernall was an American martyr. To the best of my knowledge, she was the first Christian to die on American soil, specifically for declaring her faith, in almost 200 years. I do not believe she will be the last. 

It would appear that we may well be in the Last Days, indeed. For the ,spirit of Lawlessness will grow until the Man of Lawlessness is revealed. And the Spirit that restrains him and his time seems to already be withdrawing (II Thess. 2:6-8).    Does it not seem that we are in the beginning of the time of sorrows (Mt. 24)? What can we do in these dark times?