Skull Imagery? Why are skulls and death in your designs?

An email, my response and the insight of many others who posted comments on the Pierced Clothing MySpace blog featuring this topic. Here's a recent, pretty tactful email I got from someone inquiring about the skull imagery and it's relation to death followed by my response. It is good to ask these types of questions and I'm glad for this person's question. I'm convinced on my end and am being led by my convictions in Christ when launching designs but I'd like your input and perspective since I know the offering of alternative Christ-based clothing is still relatively new and have many pondering the validity of the concept in a still mostly traditional, evangelical Christian-base of people that live in North America and who in certain generations many times make mountains out of molehills...and trust me, my personal, especially past record does not exempt me but I do try to keep a dual perspective when it comes to debatable issues that bare little or no relevance to the foundation of my Salvation in Christ because I know many of us interperet thing's a little differently sometimes (hence the fact that we have hundreds of mostly divided denominations within Christianity) and that our maturity levels in Christ also differ from one another. Read Romans 14-15. I know many would like to buy the clothing but fear the quick judgement and condemnation from their parents who might not look into the designs first before jumping to conclusions about them and their validity in helping spread the Message relevantly to this generation but I pray that will change...God willing! Here's the email and my response. Thanks for your comments and feel free to ad your 2 cents either way! Peace. Jason. Email: "Hey I like your clothes designs and I would love to support your company but I wanted to know why do you guys put skulls on your shirts? I have noticed every designer Christian or not has a skull or some hidden skull on their clothes. And as being a Christian and a potential buyer I am letting you know that's a "turn away". Skulls represent death. I don't understand why people would want to wear DEATH on them. I have seen shoes, hats, shirts, belts, wallets, jeans, hoodies and coats that look so sweet but I look closer at the design it's a hidden skull on it. That's the first thing I now look for when I buy clothes. Your company would be a lot bigger in the Christian and Secular market if you didn't have skulls on shirts. Just a idea to put in your mind. Hope I have helped and not hurt" My Reply: "It's a worthy question that I've pondered and the imagery of the skulls represents to me the mortality of our human body and that we are destined to die and that we should be taking every opportunity to spread God's Word during the short time we are here on Earth. Even Christ physically died so we could live and even had to climb up Golgotha: The Place of the Skull to be crucified. It can also represent sin that leads to death without Christ, or the fleshly nature and our need for Christ to help us overcome our fleshly desires by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Also representing the death of our old lives to the new one in Christ. To me it's abstract imagery and art that must be looked at in the context that it's in and because I try to back my designs up with scripture or a story behind the design, I feel it's up to the person wearing it to know and understand the design to be able to tactfully explain in their own words when they're led to or asked about the design, what it means to them in relation to their faith and testimony in Christ as a witnessing tool to the unsaved. It can't be that much different than looking at an image of a blood-drenched, bruised, beaten, nail-pierced crucified Christ that we're so desensitized to, you know? I personally find a lot of the shirts with slogans like Jesus Christ instead of Orange Crush within an Orange Crush logo and things like that ineffective as witnessing tools and actually make me kinda cringe as they do others, since they are more self-serving designs than they are outreach and will spark more conversations with Christians than those we seek to lead to Christ. I would be happy to be persecuted over my faith but not over a cheezy shirt which makes others cringe over the design and not necessarily the message which is exactly what those other shirts do and actually makes Christianity appear even more unattractive to the unbeliever and preaches at them when they may not even want to engage in that type of conversation at that moment. There is a place for them in certain parts of the body but there is a need for more culturally relevant witnessing tools for younger people to use to spark conversation with people of world without compromise. That's my take and I hope this makes sense to you and helps you understand my take on the issue a little better and the last thing I'm out to do is deceive anyone. I just don't go for the cookie cutter mold that traditional Christianity of the last 150 years offers either. If you have any other questions, please let me know and I'd be more than glad to respond and I thank you for your humble approach in posing your question. Peace and God Bless! Jason" 6:13 PM - 69 Comments - 88 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

	Evon~Oops...there goes my brain again!	I have bands that are friends that use skull logos and here are a few of their reasons too... It represents our having to die to self in order to live for Christ. It gets people asking questions. It represents that a Christian does not have to fear death. And of course sin leads to death. And I do agree with you about those corny shirts making people including myself cringe. I myself am not a t-shirt wearing person...but my son wears a lot of these and does get a lot of questions that lead to some great conversations. Keep up the good work and keep people asking questions!! Posted by Evon~Oops...there goes my brain again! on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 9:39 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	James	Well, said. The majority of people won't understand our approach to using these relevant ministry tools though...Just like the majority is set on the fact that Christian rock is of Satan. But Christ said we'd be persecuted for His name and all we can do is our best and leave the rest to God. God Bless! James St.Ama Posted by James on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 9:42 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	†<><§k ¥><>†	I will answer you blog w/ my blog...lol firstly people need to look at your demographic.. the post modern emergent church movement...the kids that love and buy your clothes..the traditionalist need to see that there is plenty of straight edge stufff out there, but the saved ones of this generation see things on a much more broad perspective theya re studing the word of GOD they are lineing it out for themselves they are drawing so near to Jesus THE REAL JESUS..not the cookie cutter that we have been taught, that they,,,we have this very real picture in our mind about what our salvation has brought to us and the things that we idenify are not always, kittens, flowers and catchy slogans...the world is DARK....JESUS IS THE LIGHT!! but we are not into sugar coating out feelings abouta corrupt world...and when we choose to wear our faith LITERALLY on our SLEEVE (pardon the pun) we come to designers like you becasue you put a face to our perspective of this world that IS DYING you put a image to the whole "DEAD TO THE WORLD ALIVE IN CHRIST" mindset....mad love to you Jason... you got it RAW...and for those that dont get it ...wellt heres plenty out there for them too :) so heres a blog my hubby wrote... "CRISTIAN'S, GOTH's AND DEATH...oh my" I was recently faced with defending this sub-culture. I wouldn't consider myself a 'Goth", but I'm sure we could find plenty of issues to discuss. Firstly, that outward appearance does not determine inward hope.Jesus disciples were not clean cut and dressed to the nines like the Pharisees. The people Jesus taught were not the upper crust of society. Some were selfishly rich, some were terribly poor, some were sick, and I'm sure some may have been in some kind of Bible times sub-culture. They were outcasts of society. The point is that Jesus has a message for everybody. To say that a 'Goth' (or anyone ) can't be a Christian is to deny the very sacrifice that Christ made for us. The First Church of the Living Dead and Christian Goth.com are on the same core mission denomination or Christ -centered ministry. They teach about, talk about, walk about, Jesus. They don't use a perverted form of the bible, written by some Gothic poet. They use the Word of God to bring them together and have church just like any mainline denomination. The major difference being they don't look like any old mainline denomination. The last time I checked I saw nothing regarding black eye-liner interfering with one's salvation. Furthermore, there's the attitude that these Goth's are servants of Satan. Christ said it himself, "a house divided against itself cannot stand."; Matthew 3:25 How could they be teaching about Christ's love, from God's word, and be calling on the powers of the dark prince to do it.1 Corinthians 12, 3-7 (NIV) has this to say, " therefore I tell you that no one speaking under the spirit of God says 'Jesus be cursed' and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit. There are different types of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good." God's world is so vast, and diverse, and intelligently designed. God made it that way on purpose. So why would every church need to look the same. Why would every believer need to look the same. Some of (possibly the majority of) believers in sub-cultures, like Christian Goth , possibly don't feel comfortable at other "normal " churches. Possibly by some of the attitudes they've seen on display there. Possibly even being told they couldn't worship God there dressed "like that!" It wouldn't surprise if attitudes like that break God's heart a little. To see people that say they've given there lives to Him, looking down on other who have done the same. I'm a Christian Dj/ Christian EDM producer/hopeful minister. I am not Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, Calvinist, or Non-Denominationalist. I'm a Christian, a Christ-follower, a prayer warrior, and a Father. I try to follow in Christ's footsteps' and live by God's Word. How I, or any other Christian look is pretty insignificant. A Christian Goth is no more or less sanctified than a Christian rocker, Christian raver,, Christian comedian, Christian body builder, Christian actor, Christian Dj, or Christian rapper. When God calls you to be all you can be, for Him, you don't disagree. Are you going to argue with God over who gets into His kingdom. Or are you going to except the fact that A) not all Christians look alike, and B) Heaven is going to be a very exciting place to retire! Romans 12,3-6 (NIV) says this, "for by the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us have one body with many members, and all these members do not all have the same function. So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. The secular Goth's center there lives around death, depression, poetry, darkness, and Vampires. They romanticize death as an escape from their depressing existence. The Christian Goth's have seized an opportunity to reach out, to start a spiritual friendship. They have a common denominator. The Bible actually has word's on the matter. Philippians 1, 21 "To live is Christ, To die is Gain." As Christians we should celebrate death, because we know eternal life is to come. As good Christians this should give us common ground to stand on. Leading the way with a positive view of death, by securing your faith in Christ And sharing that hope through your life. Posted by †<><§k ¥><>† on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 10:06 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	andROO	man i totally agree with you and just want to encourage you to continue in your ministry and just always seeking after what God has in store for you. i am an art major at my university and i love to get chances to serve God, and i just want to share with you something that someone asked me recently. i doodle pretty much all the time and i even realized that a lot of the stuff i drew came out to be skulls or skeletons and people would ask why, and i didn't really have a response, but i knew that i didn't feel bad about it, and i wasn't doing anything wrong. after spending some time in prayer about it i realized that i find the skull and the skeleton as something beautiful, a testament to God's awesome power of creation, and actually what you said as well.. that we are designed to physically die, and it shouldn't be anything we're afraid of if we have placed our hope in Jesus. i think the people that are afraid when they see skulls and skeletons are in a sense afraid to think of death.. death is something that will be glorious if you're a christian, i've even looked forward to it at times (in the sense of seeing Jesus, not in a sick way). so pretty much i just wanted to let you know that i do agree, and i think you're stuff is awesome, and i'm glad there are people out there using their talents to further God's kingdom Posted by andROO on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 10:27 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Forgiven Design/FD clothing co	I CANNOT WAIT TO DIE!!! Because i will sit by my father's side and rejoice in him.As long as i have been able to reach all that i can in this life! Extremely well said! We get alot of flack for this as well even though we have only one shirt design of our own that has a skull on it. And people sometimes dont even make it past the skull to see the statement below that reads "THE WICKED SHALL BURN". I know its a very bold statement but we as christians have to face the truth, If we live wicked lives we will perish! So many christians only want to believe or face the bright side of faith yet they ignore the accounts of GOD's PUNISHMENT in the bible. And i love the Christians that refuse to talk about how real HELL is or even better how amazing GOD made SEX after marriage to be! It is a clash of centuries, our younger generation is trying hard to find all means necessary of reaching to the world. GOD gave us these tools and talents and we are using them to glorify him and reach others! Dont EVER mistake that for being wrong. Be blessed and keep producing your great work! Rory Lawrence Art director Forgiven design Posted by Forgiven Design/FD clothing co on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 10:32 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Josh	The skull is but a portion of our external selves, that which is left behind when we leave the material world for our Father's kingdom. In this way, the skull - and the rest of the body, for that matter - is nothing more than... an article of clothing for our soul. A shirt, if you will. To fear, or to label as disgusting/evil, the components of our own bodies seems rather absurd to me. I can't say that the skull has any particular value to me in a stylistic sense, but it most certainly does not serve as a detriment to those that do. Posted by Josh on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 10:33 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Stueytheround	I think that your designs are thought provoking and aesthetically pleasing. However, If it weren't for your clear and concise explanations for the designs, many could be confused for secular designs. I found myself in a similar position with a T-shirt i designed myself. On the back, I quoted: "I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist" from Marilyn Manson's "Fight Song" (Gasp! Horror!). Interestingly, Christians ALWAYS got it (a. God DOES exist and b. I'm Not His Slave I'm His Friend) but Non-christians or churchians often got offended! Once or twice this has led to interesting conversations, but I have found that it's more something I wear to Church these days. In the end, perhaps that is the purpose of such designs: to mark us out to other christians, like others wear a fish or a cross. Jesus said "This is how they will know you belong to me: that you love one another." I don't believe that what we wear makes much difference at all. It's how we live. Wear a witness T-shirt and act as the world acts and your witness is utterly pointless. Having said all that, I like the designs and I'll be buying them when I have some spare money!! Posted by Stueytheround on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 11:00 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Michael	I think a lot of Christian forget that Christianity isn't all warm and fuzzy. Becoming a Christian is like joining the Marines. Once you've accepted Jesus and your lord and Saviour Satan declares war on you. One needs to put on the full armor of God and arm themselves with the sword of God's word. It amazes me how many people don't realize this. They sugarcoat and the water down the message because they are too afraid of offending someone. Yes God is loving and wants to forgive you of your sins but He is also an angry God because now His creation that was once beautiful is now tarnished by Satan. There is death but there is life through Jesus Christ because He paid the ultimate price. He defeated death so that we can have life. Posted by Michael on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 11:19 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	~Julie~	Amen, Jason!! Thank you for addressing a very common question regarding "alternative" Christian apparel. My daughter wears quite a few t-shirts with skulls and bible verses on them, and the reactions she gets are always interesting. I agree that wearing clothes like these can open up opportunities to witness to people who otherwise would have no reason to talk to a Christian. As Peter said "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you..." (1 Peter 3:15) Just wait until she gets a tattoo... Posted by ~Julie~ on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 11:34 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Three One Six	I heard a sermon by a great Swedish pastor named Magnus Pearson.. his message was that Christians need to take back what has been stolen from them and re-claim it for the glory of God. He talked about things that have been used as tools by satan which are commonly thought of as "bad" by conservatives.... dancing, music, movies and more. These things were created by God and should be used to glorify Him. This could also be applied to artistic imagery such as skulls, death and such. Christians should not be afraid to use anything available to them to convey a message. God Bless. Posted by Three One Six on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 11:41 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Ronnie A. Gonzalez®	That's an awesome and refreshing view of it. Too bad most traditionalist Christians refuse to see it that way. Me and my band performed at a church and just because my bassist had a skull on the body finish of his bass, they excommunicated us from ever performing there. Posted by Ronnie A. Gonzalez® on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 11:53 AM [Remove] [Reply to this]

Love no matter how much it hurts

I agree with you Jason. I have had many more conversations stemming from a shirt with a guy who has a hole in his chest saying something’s missing, than from a shirt that says Jesus died for Pedro. I think in today’s culture it is more effective to explain something’s meaning than have it be glaringly obvious on your chest. Sometimes the cheez smells and scares people away. Posted by Love no matter how much it hurts on Sunday, August 05, 2007 at 12:35 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]