Quote (Vivienne @ Jun 23 2013 03:06pm)
The Church has no particular political views. It accepts people from all walks of life. The current 'Black Pope' High Priest Peter Gilmore says -
“As has been said many times before, one’s politics are up to each individual member, and most of our members are political pragmatists. They support political candidates and movements whose goals reflect their own practical needs and desires. Our members span an amazing political spectrum, which includes but is not limited to: Libertarians, Liberals, Conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, Reform Party members, Independents, Capitalists, Socialists, Communists, Stalinists, Leninists, Trotskyites, Maoists, Zionists, Monarchists, Fascists, Anarchists, and just about anything else you could possibly imagine. It is up to each member to apply Satanism and determine what political means will reach his/her ends, and they are each solely responsible for this decision. Freedom and responsibility—must be a novel concept for those who aren’t Satanists. We take it in stride. Members who demand conformity from other members to their particular political fetish are welcomed to depart.”
Satanism is not a doctrine with a set of rules about what you can and cannot do or think. It is a philosophy supporting the freedom of choice from religious doctrine and it encourages people to make their own mind up.
I agree, religion is stupid. Satanism was never a religion for me. Simply a philosophy that I agreed with for a time and some rituals which have a psychologically healthy effect... much like yoga or tai chi.
I came to gothic fashion before I came to Satanism. I loved gothic culture for many of the same reasons as I loved Satanism however. I'll tell you a quick story -
When I was young I was in a children's home. In that children's home I realised that I was not the same as a lot of the other children. They were mostly wannabe gangsters or chavs and extremely prejudiced toward anyone who was even slightly different. I had already begun crossdressing in private by that point and was involved in homosexual activities with one of the other residents. He was not openly gay, but I was. Kids can be cruel... especially ones who were as damaged as the kids I lived with. But that prejudice was all I knew. I grew up believing that the world held similar views.
When I was a little older I made a friend outside of the children's home. He asked me to go to this nightclub with him and I agreed. It was an alternative venue - playing industrial and rock music and full to the brim with goths. The first thing I saw was two guys kissing on the sofa by the door. There were a lot of people around and nobody seemed to care or even take note. This probably sounds ordinary to you but to me this was unheard of. If I had kissed another male in the children's home where people could see us we would have both been beaten up and ridiculed.
At that point gothic culture and fashion became, for me, a symbol of defiance toward prejudice. It was a culture in which nobody judged you for your sexuality, gender orientation, race or anything other than who you were as a person and in which being different was not reviled but celebrated.
Are you a girl or a guy ? you completly confused me :|