can an emo be catholic...

original post date: august 26th 2007

This past Saturday I was at church with my family when from nowhere a small Asian girl sits down in front of us. Now, there's no significance to the fact that she was Asian - aside from it's the truth. I studied what she was wearing and quickly decided she was an emo.

She had black square rimmed glasses and ebony greasy unwashed hair that covered at least 3/5ths of her face - at an angle. She was wearing a black shirt that had safety pins that went directly up the center of her back – pinning the shirt tight to her body. She was wearing black and white plaid shorts that were fairly short and definitely not church appropriate… until – you noticed that she was wearing bright purple tights (in the middle of a hot Texas summer). For shoes, she had these elf-looking periwinkle blue ballet-like things that had purple accents on them. Hey, at least they kind of match the tights… right?

I'm not going to lie, I didn't get it!

She wore a navy blue choker along with a green large-bead wooden longer necklace, about 50 sting bracelets, and she was sporting the traditional emo white belt. Which help me out, I know the white belt has some kind of significance but I don't remember what it is… I'm obviously not up to speed on my emology…

Now to the point… can you be an emo and Catholic? Traditionally, emos are a self-loathing group of mostly middle-class well-off kids who find imperfections in their life and create a ridiculous, depressing melodrama around each one. They often take anti-depressants, even though the majority of them don't need them. They spend an exponential amount of time wallowing in their imaginary quagmire of torment.

In case that didn't draw a picture for you, I found this funny comparison between Goths and emos…

Emos hate themselves,
Goths hate everyone
Emos want to kill themselves
Goths want to kill everyone

All that being said, I really think it's a huge oxymoron for an emo to be in church. I couldn't help but think…

If the other emos knew you were here, would they shun you? I'm thinking yes…
Are you a reforming emo? Can you even BE a reforming emo?
Maybe she was a confused emo and wandered into a Catholic church? No, she took communion – that means she was at least baptized and took Catholic classes…
Maybe she was an emo poser? But then why would you choose to wear that nonsense?
Can you be ½ emo? But she's wearing the white belt… I think she was in it to win it?!
It's possible that she came from a rich family and was acting out?! But she had to have been old enough to drive herself to Church as she was there by herself… 16 should be old enough to know better, right? (I personally think she was closer to 20!)
How can you be emo and pray to God? Aren't you supposed to be at home angry with God for giving you a family of people who "just don't get it"?

The thought crossed my mind that I should pull out my camera and take a picture. The glitch… my camera makes that fake "click" noise and I couldn't figure out how to make it turn off. I realized in that moment, that while I was choosing to be fascinated with this girl, others were trying to get their God for the week. I put the camera away and seriously wished that I knew how to use my phone better!

What it all boils down to is this… I didn't pay attention to one thing that was going on in church and I still have no idea of the answer to this mysterious quandary! I can't shake the thought that you can be both. You have to be one or the other, right?