Converse revealed a new limited-edition collaboration with fashion designer Rick Owens' brand, Drkshdw, earlier this week. The sneakers, which come in a variety of designs, include a pentagram in lieu of the classic Chuck Taylor star.
In a quote posted by Converse, Owens
said he has “been using this pentagram for a long time because, obviously, it
has adolescent occult associations.”
“But I like geometric diagrams like
that because, in a very primal way, they are a culture’s grasp for control,”
the 59-year-old designer explained. “And a way to organize thoughts and
systems. And a pentagram, in this day and age, with all of its associations … I
like the fact that it refers to an alternative system. And that suggests
openness and empathy. It suggests the pursuit of pleasure, this pursuit of
sensation. But one of the main things that I think it suggests is empathy and
consideration of systems of living that might not be standard. So that leads us
to be more accepting and tolerant of other systems, which I think is a good
thing.”
Owens told WWD that his design style
is bombastic and “a little grotesque.”
“I always think of it as kind of
corrupting something that exists,” he told the outlet. “And I don’t mean that
in an aggressive way.”
According to the designer, his
“aesthetic gesture has always been about spreading the concept that ideal or
traditional beauty can be quite severe and cruel,” and breaking boundaries
“signifies tolerance for alternative ideas.”
Owens' work with Converse comes just
a few months after rapper Lil Nas X announced his own relationship with shoe
customization company MSCHF. The business refitted 666 pairs of Nike Air Max
97s with 60cc of crimson ink and a drop of human blood in the soles. MSCHF
additionally embroidered a reference to Luke 10:18 along the sides and a
pentagram pendant on top of the laces.
There is little doubt that the
secular push has become a shove in recent years.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s,
many Americans' sole exposure to the pentagram occurred when school districts
attempted to ban the Satanic emblem from schools across the country. In the
mid-2000s, a federal court decided that the First Amendment protected the
rights of two student teachers in Indianapolis who wished to wear the Wiccan
sign while at work.
It is now being pushed in popular
society.
As Christians, we recognize that we
cannot expect the unbelieving world to behave in the same way that we do. We
may and should, however, be saddened by the transition we are experiencing,
since it will have repercussions.
The normalization of spiritual
darkness is not taking place inadvertently. There is a significant moral slide
in culture, and wicked spiritual powers are taking advantage of it. That is why
the Apostle Paul exhorts believers to “put on the whole armor of God, that you
may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11), and
Peter warns Christians to be “sober-minded” and “vigilant,” because “your
adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to
devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Non-believers are not immune to
God's flawless standard; in fact, they bear just as much responsibility for
their immoral acts as Christians do. One day, “every knee will bow before me,
and every tongue shall confess that I am God” (Romans 14:11). We are all
subject to God's law, as described in the Bible.
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