On Art.
A while back in my design & visual language class, we discussed an article entitled “Can Offensive Art Be Christian?” via Relevant Magazine. This article led to one of the greatest discussions I’ve had in a while. We discussed the role of art in and around the church. …I’m about to get on my soap box, and give you a glimpse into this heart of mine. Now anyone who knows anything at all about me can tell you that creativity is what makes my heart beat. It is my passion, and without it, I would be absolutely lost. I believe that we, who are closest to the Creator, should have the heart of an artist more than anyone else. Why is it that we, as lovers of what is right and true, have given up our title as the frontrunners of the artistic world? Far too often, “plagiarism” has become the platform for all Jesus serving media. A while back, I went to a convention and heard Jon Acuff speak. he writes a blog called “Stuff Christians Like” about the sometimes unfortunate things that we as Christians do, and what those things reveal about our faith. He spoke a lot about how Christians are often guiltier than most of stealing artistic ideas from other people and places and claiming them as our own. Have you ever seen a shirt like the one below? If you answered “yes,” i apologize. This is not what we’re about. This is not how God intended our minds to work. This is not what we were made for, and this is not what we should be doing. Ever. There is no excuse for slacking when it comes to doing works for our Maker. He has given us our own minds, to come up with new ideas, and slowly reveals His beauty to us. In the doses that we can handle. He has made each of us unique, and put inside of us something unparalleled. Just for us. And beautiful. We, as Christians, have this unquenchable desire to create this beautiful, fictitious picture of the life in which we live. This is not Biblical. When will we, as a church, learn that life isn’t pretty sometimes? When will it be acceptable for us to create original art about the truth of what we are feeling; not the way we wish we felt? For goodness sake, when will we sing the correct words to John Mark McMillan’s “How He Loves?” Heaven never ever meets earth like a “loving embrace.” It’s raw, and it’s messy. Accept it. Let’s be like Jesus. Let’s not be scared to sing about prostitutes, and addicts. Let’s use our creativity and paint something dark and real. Let’s write about the unhappiest of things, and understand that it’s real. It’s truth. It’s life. And maybe through our honesty, someone will see what this is really all about.
