interesting
Each month I receive an issue of the videogame magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly. I enjoy the magazine not because I am a hardcore gamer, but more because it is well written, funny and offers a very in depth picture at an industry that is rapidly growing. One of the writers for this magazine is humorist by the name of Seanbaby. In the most recent issue, he is wrote a very funny article about the simply bad ideas that came out the E3 game show. One of these ideas that got the treatment from him was a Christian Worship rip-off of Dance, Dance Revolution, called Dance Praise. His quote concerning the game was; "In the end all I learned was that Christian anything sucks more than Regular anything. Which knowledge I think we all had before this ordeal of mine began". I would like to point out that Seanbaby's "ordeal" was pretty a heinous example of a Christian (or at least someone promoting a Christian game) being extremely defensive and judgmental, and I do not blame Seanbaby for his frustration. But that is not the point of this blog, what is the point of this blog; is Seanbaby correct? Is Christian art simply derivative drivel that insults the intelligence of its audience?
I am not sure. For the longest time I would avoid all Christian music like I avoid the Lifetime channel. It all seemed so phony. No one ever seemed to have any problems, and if they did have problems they all seemed to resolve the songs four minute runtime. Now, I do listen to it, mostly because I can relate to the theme of trusting an all-knowing God. However I must confess, that I have had to tone down some of my objective standards for musical quality to enter into the Christian music scene. With a few very notable exceptions, much of the music still rings hollow and a little disingenuous. Also some of it is just bad. I am not talking about lyrically and I am certainly not implying that I am offended by it. I mean it is simply low-quality pop, that is over-produced. But why is this? Shouldn't Christian music be the most vivid and the most honest music there is? When singing about an infinite God, shouldn't things to say be, well, infinite? When basing your life on Jesus, shouldn't your art be as edgy as he was? Wasn't he edgy enough to get himself killed?
A popular Seattle Christian music station brags about its music being non-offensive. I simply don't believe that is something to brag about. Jesus is offensive.
Let me repeat that, Jesus is offensive.
A living, breathing man saying he is God is an offensive concept.
A man who walks into churches and flips tables and drives people out by using chords as whips, is offensive.
A man who tells parables about comfortable, rich people going to hell for not taking care of the poor around them is offensive.
A man who tells you to get over yourself and that until you do your not fit for the Kingdom of God is offensive.
And if that offends us, it is time to get over ourselves.
Becky Manly Pippert is a popular Christian writer. I saw a video of hers where tells a story about telling a man on a plane that she is a Christian and him giving her a look implying that she as a result must not be very intelligent. This video was filmed in the 80's and I am not sure the intelligent piece is all that relevant anymore. Now I think it is about being interesting. I think it is the perception of the world and even the lie that Christians often believe about themselves, that the belief in Jesus makes us less interesting. That it is the work of God to remove everything that makes us unique and maybe controversial, in order to make us "good Christians". The lie is that God wants us to be "safe" and to "well-behaved".
Well I am sorry to say that is not what I signed up for.
When I relented to Jesus, it was because he was the most radical and scary thing I had ever encountered. And it is an insult to God simply try and "Christianize" the things around us. When we say yes to the freeing grace of God, our art and our lives should be the most vivid and real thing this world has ever seen. And I pray that by the grace of God that we get from wherever we're at, to that place soon.
4 comments:
Your posts are interesting, and =make me think. Thank you for sharing.
I totally agree with you. I too follow Jesus and believe that He, and a life following Him, to be the most radical exciting thing you can do if you choose to make it that way. We are talking here about a man who in the Bible is described as having feet like burnished bronze, eyes like fire, and who was willing to die for something He never even did just out of crazy love for people who don't even know Him! He was either a nutcase, or a genius. Personally i think a little of both never did anyone any harm ;-)
As a musician i also agree with what you're saying about music, although i have to say that i think Christian music has improved a lot in the last ten years. There seems to have been a lot of unrest in the Christian musical community at the wishy washy stuff produced on-mass, and the up-and-coming generation of musical Christians seem to be developing a huge heart and passion to create new vibrant exciting sounds which will match and even rival that of secular music.
Personally, i think that if you de-label all music globally, you end up with music that is good and music that is not. I don't agree with all the rivalry between Christian and nonChristian music. Musicians write music about things they feel passionate about and they strive to be as excellent as they can during the process. There should be no difference regardless of your personal beliefs. When i write music, if i'm feeling passionate about my boyfriend i'll write about that, if i'm feeling angry about something i'll write about that, if i'm feeling depressed or let down i'll write about that, and if i'm feeling excited about my faith, i will write about that - and in all areas i will try without fail to communicate it in as unusual, moving, and edgy a way as possible.
If someone who is passionate about God decides that they should 'learn the guitar' and communicate their passion via that instrument, i kind of admire their passion but think that they're coming at it the wrong way round - you should first and foremost create music because you can't not create it, because it's in you and it has to get out, because you have always had it in you and after hours and weeks and months and years of exploring it you finally come up with something so awesome that you have to share it with the world. I'm not against people learning instruments (obviously!!) i just mean that you can't zoom from zero to hero in a few months.
And i think that this is where the main problem lies - people who are excellent in their craft often feel put down upon by the church for being too 'performance oriented', and so the only people left to communicate the faith in this way are those with big hearts, but not much talent. And all too often, as soon as they begin to display real musical excellence or new ideas/sounds, the panic rises and they get bumped off, leaving them feeling confused and guilty over something which i believe is God given in the first place!
Personally i think that to strive to be excellent in the gifts God has given us is almost a duty, and that the better the performance, the less 'aware' of the actual music the listeners will be, and therefore more open to receiving the message behind it, rather than some halfhearted mistake filled effort which is continually distracting from its point simply because it's so awful. I think we owe it to God and to everyone who has to listen to us to be the very best we can be, just because we can, and because if that musical passion is in you, it needs to break out somehow!
I appear to have ranted for a very long time. I did not plan this and i do apologise lol. Anyway, in summary, i agree ;-)
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