HM | The Hard Music Magazine

The Disconnect:
Why Evangelicals Make Bad Art
(Part the Eighteenth)
By Kemper Crabb

We’ve previously explored the question of why millions of American Evangelicals have failed to produce much quality art of any sort, and have seen that this is largely due to limited or distorted views of the Bible’s teachings (or a failure to act on or consider the implications of what they do know from it), despite the fact that Scripture instructs believers in “every good work” (2 Tim. 3: 16-17), which includes the making of art.
We’ve seen some of the destructive implications of shallow or distorted views of the Doctrines of Creation and Eschatology. To misunderstand the implications of God’s Creation of the world is to ultimately devalue the material world as the arena and plastic materiel of spirituality in history. To misunderstand biblical Eschatology (the doctrine of what God is shaping history toward, and of what His Purposes are to accomplish within and at the end of time) leads inevitably to a pessimism concerning history and its value, and seeing time as the domain of Satan, and therefore as only something to be escaped from, rather than something to be fulfilled and redeemed.

Then we turned to a consideration of the artistic deformation wrought by a sub-biblical perspective on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, seeing that a rejection or misunderstanding of the Three Persons of the One God destroys the possibility of any theological justification in seeing symbols as both carrying meanings simultaneously as well as unifying those multiple meanings.
We’ve also seen that the denigration of the Mystery of the Trinity is to minimize the reflected mystery in man who is made in the Image of God, reducing men to simplistic machines subject to quick-fix techniques.
We also saw that the Balance of Unity and Diversity, the One-and-Many Aspect of the Triune God, is the answer to the question every artist faces: which is more important, the artist’s interior vision or the perception of the audience? The answer is the balance of the unity of the artist’s vision with the diversity of the sundry perceptions of the audience, just as God’s Unity and Diversity in Balance is intended to be reflected in Creation.
A failure to see the Diversity which defines the Triune God as much as does His Unity leads to a view of man and the world which flattens both, reducing humanity to a uni-dimensional construct made for one mode of being, rather than inhabiting the nuanced, complex, multi-orbed Reality God prepared for mankind to reflect God in.
In the last issue, we saw illustrated the practical results of this theological defect by the story of a Christian record label’s rejection of a song (which both a popular CCM artist and the artist’s producer were pressing the label to allow them to include on a new project) not because the song was considered lacking lyrically or musically (in fact, the label thought the song was very good), but because the song lacked what they called “a happy ending,” by which they meant a conclusion in which the song’s narrator gets what he wants, rather than the thing God deems best for him.
This rejection betrays a belief that humans exist for only one mode of being: happiness (which is not the same thing as joy). This belief is shored up by a uni-dimensional view of mankind as the Image-bearer of the Complex Triune God.
This forces art by Christians into a singular promotion of a view of experiencing God as only wanting humans to be happy, rather than for humans to be holy, and of humans as those who should only experience happiness, instead of those who, in a fallen world, should also experience sorrow, repentance, and lamentation at their own sin and the sin around them, as well as sharing in the Suffering of Christ (I Peter 4: 12-19; 2 Cor. 7: 8-11).
Scripture, which overwhelmingly concerns itself with the relationship and experience of God with His Covenant People, reflects not only the experience of happiness and joy, but of sorrow, suffering, repentance, duty, malediction, and holy terror, as normative in the fallen world.
If Christian art does not accurately reflect the experience of Reality, which both believers and non-believers share, the Faith appears as an unrealistic, irrelevant belief fit only to be laughed at or angrily rejected by non-believers, and a source of disappointment and confusion to Christians who have not been taught a fully-orbed biblical view of the world. A return to what Scripture teaches concerning the Triune God and all that teaching implies is necessary to restore to the Church to a sound view of God, man, and the world, and to equip the Church to begin once again to produce meaningful art.
[kempercrabb.net]

The way I see it
Chris Wighaman

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
— Henri J.M. Nouwen (The Road to Daybreak)

Right now my best friend and wife Megan is sitting in the hospital with her mother. Her mom, seemingly out of nowhere, has lost all feeling and movement in her legs. There is a real fear that they will not work again. Her mom is active, young and a very kind person. She does not deserve this. Slowly, we are realizing just how little there is we can do. Megan has spent every day, all day, with her since we arrived a week ago. She feels helpless. Powerless. All she can do is pray and offer her love and presence to her mother.

The word compassion comes from two Latin roots: com (together) and pati (suffer, endure). Compassion is the willingness to suffer with someone as they endure circumstances that are too great for one person to bear. It is one of the least desirable ways we tend to deal with hard times in other people’s lives. It’s messy, depressing and asks so much – usually too much – of us. Far too often we are selfish and only worry about how this will all affect our lives. Honestly, I’d rather send flowers and say I prayed for them. Compassion is the example our God sets out for us. Look at the life of Christ. He entered into human existence to join us in our suffering. Psalm 145 says, “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.” The LORD joins in the suffering of all. He desires to be with us as we travel through hard times. This is our example.

Are you compassionate? Do you see suffering and run the other way. Or are you willing to, like Christ did, enter into the difficult times with someone and just be there for him or her?

Devotions
with Greg Tucker

My eyes have seen all this, my ears have heard and understood it.
-Job 13:1

A human ear consists of three basic parts – the outer, middle, and inner sections – and each plays a unique role in bringing sound to life. But the noise was not pleasant in 1995 when a young physician at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital successfully grew a human ear on a mouse. Referred to as the Vacanti Mouse (after Dr. Joseph Vacanti), once images were released on the Internet, animal-rights activists shouted their objection.

The structure on the creature’s back was actually a piece of crafted cartilage, so even though it appeared real – and pictures prove it did – there was never hope of sound getting through. This ear, by design, was deaf.

When God “knit man together,” as it says in Psalm 139, His creation included two complex and delicately made ears so sound could make its way to the brain. But catching vibrations doesn’t always mean getting the message. Recently that fact came to life when I recommended a particular song for a friend’s football video. “Are you serious?” was the shocked response from everyone in the room. “Do you have any idea what that song is about?” Evidently I didn’t.

The tune in question was a classic, delivered by one of the greatest bands in rock history, and I suspect it’s been played on the radio hundreds of thousands of times. I’ve always liked it, always hummed the tune, and usually mumbled some of the words when they rolled around. But I had never actually listened.

Turns out the whole song is about “gallivanting,” shall we say, with the girl next door, and the description is amazingly – almost impressively – graphic. The writer should consider a career in medicine. I was amazed that even the words I did know were dirty, once you put them in context. I felt like such a boob. (Pun intended.)

Satan knows that his seeds, once planted, will yield a garden of bad actions and wrong attitudes, eventually costing a man his very soul. Many Christians are too far along to give-in to major temptation, so the enemy is content whispering things – delightful tales of sin found in songs and jokes and everyday conversation – and he does it so quietly that a lazy listener never realizes he’s being painted from the inside out.

Solomon laid out the best plan in Proverbs 4:1, when he directed us to not only listen, but pay attention as well. Shake your head and open your ears, for both sides of the spiritual battle are sending messages through the very sounds you hear.

[Greg Tucker Greg Tucker is president of Tucker Signature Films. ]
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Tags: Chris Wighaman, Greg Tucker, Kemper Crabb