.
If you have a rosary that you like and find out that it has some
mark on it that's sinister, you can grind it off, or cut it off or use a
fingernail file to scrape it off. But the priest blessing your rosary
is what makes it okay.
Just as when we say our blessing before meals: the purpose is to
remove the food from the dominion of the devil. It's not "giving
thanks before meals." We give thanks AFTER meals. The prayer
before meals is to EXORCISE the food before we eat it! One of
the problems with false ecuмenism is that Catholics are starting
to act like protestants little by little, and one day they'll wake up
to find they have become protestant!
If you can't afford to buy a good rosary, you can get free ones at
most traditional Catholic chapels. They've got nice, oval plastic
beads strung on very durable nylon cord, with a solid plastic
centerpiece and traditional crucifix. You can even volunteer to
make them and help others out that way.
I know men who ONLY use those rosaries because they are
practically indestructible. And the fact that they're free is a bonus.
The gang and subculture necklace thing comes from the practice
of prison ministry people giving rosaries to the inmates. They wore
them as necklaces, then, and the rosary-necklace started to become
a kind of status symbol in the prisons! So when certain prisoners
were released, they continued to wear rosaries on the 'outside',
and then when they got back into their drug market and stuff,
they looked for fancier materials for rosaries. There are websites
that have rosaries made of gold and silver and precious stones.
You can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a "rosary necklace"
that doesn't even have 5 decades on it, but 4, because it "looks
better" that way. Many of those are not used for prayer but for
a fashion accessory. They might never get blessed.