Hi, I run a ministry called TechnoChicks to female geeks, gamers, fans, and goths. We have a wide variety of interests, but generally get the same reaction in churches to who we are and our activities. At lot of people are more forgiving of males with these affinities, then females, in both the Christian and secular communities, so we tend to attract women who have either rejected the idea of church, go but don't fit in, or they pretend to be someone else while at church. I've worked with several gothic ministries and many people in the Christian goth community.

Incidentally, I am taking my first bellydance lesson on Thursday, and have been watching a lot of videos of gothic bellydancers like Tempest. Really interested in that genre and the steampunk genre of dance.

You might as well ask, "What is the point of Christian preppie? Or Christian country?"

Disclaimer: Like Roswenth, I'm not a real goth, though I enjoy elements of the gothic culture and have goth friends, both Christian and otherwise. I also identified myself as goth for a couple of years in high school, but that was a LONG time ago. :)

A major component of the Gothic subculture is an appreciation of a different aesthetic. Two of the major ones are romantic Edwardian-Victorian styles and techno-industrial styles. This is nothing about either one that is inherently sinful; actually, there are many gothic fashions that are much modest than the current mainstream fashions. (I won't claim that all are, of course.)

There is also nothing that makes mainstream fashion and style more Christian than gothic or other subcultures. Our designation of it as "Christian" is entirely arbitrary, and what we label as Christian is always in a state of flux. In the nineteenth century, after all, no Christian woman would ever be seen uncorsetted! In the fifties, she would never chew gum or attend church without hat and gloves.

Another major component of gothic culture is the ability to see beauty in that which is normally considered dark, dreary, or bleak. A classic romantic-goth example would be a dark, barren, windswept hill. Most would consider it depressing; to the goth, it is a thing of beauty. And it is just as much God's creation as a flower-filled meadow.

As for death, that's one of the most misunderstood elements of gothic culture, I believe. It's true that there's a lot of death-related imagery, such as skulls, gravestones, coffins... But only a few goths (in my experience) really develop an unhealthy fascination with death. The gothic ideal is opposed to a [i]fear[/i] of death. Think about that; most people in more mainstream cultures are quite scared of death, even if they try to hide it. Death is a constant in the universe: everyone and everything will die.* All the things of this world are temporary! (See Revelations, especially chapters 21 and 22)

Goths understand it's all fleeting; gothic Christians go one further, and remember the full Truth: God delivered believers from death."Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:54-55) God wants us to live without fearing death! "Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." (Hebrews 2:14,15)

I would never say that the gothic culture is all good, or that it's inherently superior to any other. It's also not for everyone, just like country or preppie fashions and lifestyles aren't for everyone. But it's not inherently evil, and in some respects I think it has something to teach the rest of us. And there's no reason Christians can't be goths.

*Barring divine intercession :)