It's an outrage to me that so much "Christian" art is in fact artistically inferior crap. Why? First and foremost, I don't think my Savior, the love of my life, would want His holy name spackled onto something so ham-fisted as most "Christian" music. Talk about violating the commandment of taking the Lord's name in vain! Jesus as the marketing equivalent of Adidas. A brand name. UNTIL CHRISTIAN MUSIC STRESSES ART OVER AGENDA, IT CAN NEVER BE ANYTHING BUT SECOND RATE. As a music editor at the Chicago Tribune, I have a responsibility to turn my readers on to the best art out there. And as a Christian, I have an obligation to tell the truth at all costs, as I see it. If it's bad, awkward, mawkish art that Nashville keeps shipping to me like so many day-glo W.W.J.D. bracelets, what choice do I have? I would rather be the voice of one crying out in the wilderness than win the approval of any cabal that is convinced--for all the wrong reasons--that the majority of "Christian" music serves a noble purpose.
-LOU CARLOZO, Music Editor for the Chicago Tribune
Ouch, what a scathing analysis. I must confess though, I agree. The whole area of arts in the church needs a new renaissance. The heavy handed amway-like sell, sell, sell is nauseating to me. But cursing the darkness is not the only response we should make. How about really engaging the arts from the stand point of artistic beauty and meaning. Can we embody truth in such a way that people are moved by the mere value of what it is vs. what it tries to say? Can we shout the gospel with our lives and with our art without words? Can people know us by anything other than our words?
1 comment:
"like so many day-glo W.W.J.D. bracelets" I feel his pain.
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