I had a friend ask me last week what I thought was behind all the immoral filth being thrust onto American society by its power brokers—the media, corporations (especially through their advertising), the entertainment industry, etc.

Part of the answer is in what Paul summarizes so deftly in I Tim. 6: 9-10: “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Another part of the answer is what Paul says in Romans 1 about those who are “filled with all unrighteousness,” and are “haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things. . .”

Specifically, Paul writes in Rom. 1:32, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

My pastor, Richard Jordan of Shorewood Bible Church, Rolling Meadows, Ill. (www.graceimpact.org) , explains, “You talk about the depths of sin; that verse right there describes it! They begin to delight in the satanic policy of sin, and they don't just do it themselves but they have pleasure in them that do it too. That's sadomasochism on a spiritual level.

“They know God's judgment is on someone who does these things and they go out and say, ‘Woo, look at me, I’m doing it!’ and have pleasure in the people they can enlist into doing the very things they know are going to damn them. That's sadistic, masochistic behavior.

“With ungodliness, you have pleasure in the things contrary to God because godliness is the standard and ungodliness is the corruption of it.”

Just this afternoon I got a phone call from a friend in rural Alabama who told me her 10-year-old daughter approached her the other night about wanting to “go Goth,” or wear all-black clothes to school.

When my friend asked where in the world she learned about such stuff, her daughter told her there’s a character in a network TV cartoon who's into Goth.

Only a month ago in the Sunday New York Times was a feature story (which I would classify as a mostly light-hearted look) about a group of teenagers in the Bronx who are part of a growing Latino Goth clique that already numbers into the hundreds.

The piece, written by Nina Malkin, begins, “FUN WORLD, a dingy game arcade atop a Taco Bell/Sbarro franchise on Fordham Road just off the Grand Concourse, is a playground for the children of the night.

“They flock there as evening falls, their black hoodies fluttering like bat wings. One girl has crosses drawn on her cheeks; a boy wears deep plum lipstick. The most eye-catching of them is Korpse, a sweet-faced 19-year-old with long hair and assorted chains and amulets; his tongue is pierced, and he wears safety pins as earrings.

“Being a Goth, a member of the subculture that celebrates all things morbid and occult, Korpse naturally tends toward the funereal. Scanning (his tarot) cards, he holds up the Five of Cups and announces gloomily: ‘Here’s my future. Misery.’ ”

Korpses’ peers include girls and boys who’ve given themselves nicknames such as Zombie, Hades Blood, Draven and Dark Fury. Dark Fury (real name Veronica Pazmino) is said to be “writing a novel—in longhand—a Gossip-Girl-meets-Anne-Rice saga about a teenager with supernatural powers.”

Hades Blood, who is said to go to the library nearly every day to do research on witchcraft, is the editor of a “zine” called “O! My Goth” that includes illustrations, poetry and book reviews from fellow Goths. Its logo is “a heart surrounded by horns, a halo, a tail and angel wings overlapping devil wings.”

Amazingly, or maybe not so amazingly, the Times piece ends with a semi-endorsement of Goth by Dark Fury’s mother: “So far, Ms. Lassalle is comforted by the fact that her daughter’s attraction to Goth hasn’t interfered with her ambitions—Veronica wants to go to college, possibly to pursue a career as a writer—or her behavior.

“And so the mother gives in when her daughter begs her to cross the border of the Bronx and take her shopping at Hot Topic—the H & M for the Goth set—in the White Plains Galleria mall.

“ ‘She’s not a kid who is using drugs or drinking,’ Ms. Lasalle said with a shrug. ‘She’s not out late at night. So I go. I don’t like it, but I go.’ ”