Today, as I was doing some Christmas shopping, I stopped into the "Capital of watered-down Christian Merchandise" that is the Family Christian bookstore...not because I necessarily like anything in particular there, but because they do have a nice selection of Christian Music Artists (two or three of whom I mildly enjoy), and I had my mind set on a possible gift idea for my parents from its vanilla-coated shelves. Now, on my way in, I noticed the rather obtuse and hawaiian-shirt-loud advertisements for what at first glance appeared to be a "Guitar Hero" controller. This seemed odd and out of place at the white and sparkling shelves of FCB, (Rock music here? Surely not!) so, I took another second to look at it. Sure enough, I was right.
The advertisement was instead for a new video game entitled "Guitar Praise!" (exclamation mark included) and lauded itself for being a "healthy and safe" alternative to the popular multi-console game.
Seriously?! Is this what Christian culture has come to? Not only can we not create anything of our own, nor anything of quality, but now we have to pawn off sub-par versions of things from popular culture simply to fill the void. I have multiple problems with this:
First: Christian culture seems not only bent on, but even possibly entirely incapable of having a single original thought when it comes to anything mildly effecting. When is the last time you have heard of a Christian movie or video game actually being made with quality? (and don't bring up Passion of the Christ...that has it's own barrage of theological problems that we really would to better not getting into). Can you name one? Ever? See my point? Even good Christian artwork is difficult to come by. The last instances of really good Christian art that I can think of were a couple centuries ago...and most of that was rife with Catholic theology and at times even mysticism.
Secondly, and relatedly: If Christian music were good enough quality, it would've found its way onto the regular version of Guitar Hero, at least in an add-on. The World as a whole doesn't really care what the message of a song is, they just care that it is well written. I mean really, how many Contemporary Christian songs have you heard that you said to yourself "Self, that song is so amazing and insane. I really wish I could play that on Guitar Hero!" See my point? For the most part, "Christian" music is sooo far behind the curve musically, that aside from a small part of the Christian population, no one actually listens to it. Just go and listen to some of the new bands on the scene (and for goodness sake don't listen to pop), and listen to what they're doing musically, and I bet you will have a difficult time finding a single Christian band that can compete. And we wonder why secular culture laughs at us. Now remember that I am talking musically, and am not even broaching the subject of content. That's an entirely different debate.
Thirdly: Whatever happened to us being different? If the best we can show for culture is to mimick the world's culture, than what are we? Those of you that know me, know that I feel very strongly that Christians should be heavily involved in culture. In relevant, necessary, changing culture. However, that does not mean we just conform to "what works" or "what sells." The way we do that is to stick to our principles and make the best art we possibly can, in any way we possibly can. Remember that everything we do, we are supposed to do unto God, so please to God let us at least endevour to make it worthy to be tagged with His name.
So, the problem with modern Christian culture is threefold. First, it tries do hard to do what it sees working and selling in the world before taking into consideration that it makes us look dependant on secular culture for ideas. You see this in the books, the games, the t-shirts, the more "progressive" Christian bands, etc. Secondly, in the ways it tries to be different, it succeeds only in making a mockery of Christianity as a whole. This is hugely apparent in realm of the more popular Christian music and movies. Our culture in this case is so backword and unthoughtful that it is seen as completely irrelevant as a whole. Finally, add to this the complete lack of quality on any scale whatsoever of anything with the Christian name on the front of it, and compile this entire problem with the view that Christians are just happy Jesus peddlers who have silly and stupid thoughts about life in general, or, worse, we are viewed as fundementalist Bible bangers who don't know when to shut up and wouldn't know culture if it swallowed us whole....which is just what secular culture intends to do.
So there you have it....it's probably better I don't go shopping more often.
6 comments:
good stuff. I appreciate your thoughts/candor.
You are right on about almost all of the above.
Your second point might be a small tad off. Ron Hamilton (patch the pirate), Herbsters, and a few others have done some good Christian music lately. Of course, my standard of "good."
And, not that I was a fan, but "Saving the Giants" wasn't a bad movie.
I think any video game/movie has a hard time being Christian....but that's a different discussion.
Anyway, let me reiterate -- good stuff! :)
Hmm. Don't think I've heard of Ron Hamilton...I might have to check into him.
Ah, touche. Saving the Giants wasn't bad. I guess I'd sort of forgotten that one. It certainly could have been better, but it is more along the lines of what I think Christians should be striving for. Now....we coudl start an interesting discussion on whether or not it is the place of a local church to fund that sort of project or not....but perhaps for another time.
Thank you very much for your comments, I as always am interested in feedback. :)
Hey, I'm so totally with you here. I could have written this article, and it would have been very similar, only probably more sarcastic and bitter. In fact, I have been known to rant about many a similar thing.
One thing that always has made me groan is the "Christian" label. Seriously, what makes an album or band "Christian", as opposed to "non-Christian"? Does every song have to be specifically about God? Does it have to be written by a Christian? Does it have to be positive? For example, if a Rastafarian writes a song about non-violence and loving God, and yet never references any Rastafarian beliefs, would this be considered a Christian song? What if a Christian writes a praise song, but uses the word "Jah" (the Rastafarian derivative of "Jehovah") to reference God? Is that Christian? What if a Christian writes a positive song expressing Biblical values that uses some coarse language or coarse slang? (see also, "Does God only love the rich, white, upper-class?") In short, as far as I can tell the common definition of a "Christian" artist is an artist that churns out "Christian-themed" parodies of pop-music that I probably didn't like the first time through, effectively covering up swear-words with Jesus stickers.
I remember once a month ago or something some dude handed me a "Christian" rock sampler CD. I'd like to think that I have a pretty broad range of tolerance when it comes to music (I tolerate everything from flat-out white noise material to, I dunno, Justice). Alas, I was mistaken. Admittedly, I thumped the stearing wheel to a couple tracks, but nothing got a rewind. Most of the time was spent impatiently waiting for the track to end ("Maybe the next one will be better?"). Eventually, I just started skipping after about 1 or 2 minutes. What I heard: crappy imitations of "non-Christian" artists with lamely phrased "Christian" messages injected. Ah, the definition of "Christian" music.
To be honest, I haven't watched it in a long time, but wasn't "Facing the Giants" that football movie where the underdog against all odds wins, with a Christian message randomly inserted? Or did I just describe (minus the randomly inserted Christian message) every single other sports movie in existence? Now I don't want to sound heavy-handed or overly critical or anything, but from a movie-making perspective it wasn't exactly flattering. Personally, I think "Facing the Giants" is an excellent example of what Talon is speaking about: a sub-par "secular" idea with a "Christian" message rammed in, executed like a high-school project.
Some self criticism: I think ultimately we must remember that "Christian" is a brand name that can be applied to anything. Like modern punk bands, the Christian music world is just doing covers of everything else and then going platinum. We can keep on whining or we can just accept that the word "Christian" is rapidly losing meaning and there's not a whole lot we can do about it. Words change. I guess this is just one change that not many expected.
:O You haven't heard of Ron Hamilton!?!? . . . . lol Wow. . .
Mostly, I agree. I'm not entirely sure what you're meaning with being involved in culture though. I definitely agree that as far as music goes, there's a ton more being produced that's not worth anything than that is. (Specifically in the "Christian" realm.)
I have to agree with David about Christian video games and movies. They're generally used for relaxation and/or escaping reality - not exactly a Biblical goal.
Lastly, it's nice to have you back. :)
Yeah, I think I'm on more or less the same page as Talon and Michael (as far as I can tell they aren't mutually exclusive).
For movies, I don't really watch movies, so I wouldn't know.
For video games, I'm pretty sure that at least fora while the general idea among many more "conservative" Christians was that video games were evil.
For music, I've never really liked Christian music, at least what I've heard about it. It all seems forced to me; these sappy songs and lyrics written not for musical or poetic quality, but instead designed to elicit an emotional response. You could say that I often feel as though it's trying to manipulate me whilst I listen. Of course, it could also be that I'm incredibly paranoid and should not listened to in the least.
Heirron
Ditto
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