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Fear of the Label: Being a Christian and an Artist

5/6/2014

9 Comments

 
I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m getting older, or if there’s something specific to the way NYC has been shaping me, but I’ve recently been thinking a lot about being able to just be who I am. At this point, while I will always continue to change and grow, I am settling into the woman I am and the way I’ve been shaped. The process of questioning myself doesn’t end, but there are some things I know, and I want to have the ability to just be. 

Specifically, I’ve been thinking about this in relation to art, and to being a Christian. I am much less worried about being a Christian than I have ever been before in my life, and that strikes me as encouraging and also kind of embarrassing. This is who I am, and yet for most of my life (and there are still many moments) I’ve been worried about how people will treat me, or what they’ll think, or how they might misperceive my beliefs. But I’m starting to believe deep in my core that it’s okay to just be. I am a Christian. It’s who I am. It’s okay.

And I am an artist. This post is about why I am starting to question the label “Christian artist.” This is not the first time I’ve questioned it, but it’s the first time I’m putting it into words. Questions about it have crossed my mind several times recently, most recently when I came across this article about Switchfoot and their contention of the label “Christian band.” (I know this is an old article. But hey, I’ve been busy.) When asked if they are a Christian band, their lead singer, Jon Foreman, says:

"To be honest, this question grieves me because I feel that it represents a much bigger issue than simply a couple SF tunes. In true Socratic form, let me ask you a few questions: Does Lewis or Tolkien mention Christ in any of their fictional series? Are Bach’s sonata’s Christian? What is more Christ-like, feeding the poor, making furniture, cleaning bathrooms, or painting a sunset? There is a schism between the sacred and the secular in all of our modern minds. The view that a pastor is more ‘Christian’ than a girls volleyball coach is flawed and heretical. The stance that a worship leader is more spiritual than a janitor is condescending and flawed."

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with calling oneself a Christian artist. But I agree with Foreman that there are certain unfair expectations that arise with the label. Like erroneously expecting a pastor to be more pure than his congregation, expecting an artist who is a Christian to only ever create art specifically referencing Christ is severely limiting. Would you expect a bank teller to make a Jesus reference to every customer who comes up to his booth? Or a journalist to work a Biblical narrative into each byline? And yet Christians who are artists are often unfairly expected to reference Christ in every piece of work they create.

The genesis of this, I believe, is complicated. I would argue that it is partly cultural, and partly theological. Culturally speaking, it’s closely tied to the fact that in many parts of the West, and certainly in the United States, the cultural consciousness surrounding art is unhealthy. I’ve written about this before, but because art is considered a luxury, only as good as its entertainment value, and primarily an industry--not as a way to share stories and therefore an integral part of life--artists tend to feel the need to heavily justify their decisions to be artists, whether in a monetary sense or otherwise. 

Theologically, the matter is complicated by the fact that most art in the West during the Middle Ages revolved around the church. In addition, during the Reformation Christians developed the idea that any kind of art during worship needed to be heavily justified, and as art became more important outside of the church, this trickled down into art outside of worship as well. Today, these cultural and theological pressures often take the shape of artists telling their Christian friends that they are pursuing art so that they can either “bear witness in a secular industry,” or use their art as a platform for proclaiming the name of Jesus. Neither of which is a bad thing. But, I would argue, neither of which should be the primary goal in being an artist.

As Christians, we are called to bear witness first and foremost in every aspect of our lives. That is certain. But that is true for every Christian, no matter what profession, and it does not always take the form of explicitly naming the name. In some fields, like my father’s field as a physicist, it never does. The great thing about art is that it can take that form. But it doesn’t have to.

There is no need to justify a career in the arts any more than to justify a career in plumbing. Art is inherent to humans, and storytelling begins as soon as speech does. As Christians, sometimes we speak in our daily life about how much we love Jesus, and sometimes we speak about how much we love coffee. Artists should be free to speak about either as well. And really, there is a lot of laziness that has come about because of the concept of “Christian artists.” There are many beautiful pieces of sacred art, or stories about Christian experiences that are heartfelt and important. The Biblical narrative is woven through all of us, as Christians, and it should come out of our pores. But there are also plenty of pieces of horribly lazy art and stories with the name of Jesus plastered on simply because there is a market for it. 

Artists who are Christians cannot be lazy. They cannot rely on a market, as many have. It’s much more difficult to tell a diversity of stories, some of which specifically name Jesus, and some of which don’t, and it’s difficult to interact at all times with a world that holds different beliefs and values and find ways to create and converse with artists outside the Christian faith. But it’s important. It’s a command, to all believers. 

In the same way, Christians who are not artists must refuse to be lazy as well. It’s much easier to rely on a Christian label or art industry to provide entertainment and enjoyment, for us and for our kids. But we are called to engage in the world, and to feel the pulse of its heart. Doing the work of evaluating art--by artists who are both Christian and not--is important. Some of it you’ll have to throw away. Some of it will touch you deeply. And that’s good.

The bottom line is that we are Christians first, and that changes the way we think, speak and breathe. But once it gets into our blood and marrow, we as artists don’t need to be constantly questioning our profession. We fix our eyes on Jesus, and trust in the process of sanctification. Sometimes that means we’ll create art that speaks intimately of Christ’s sacrifice for us, and sometimes it means we’ll write a comedy sketch about the bus stop. Whatever project we’re working on, let’s not be afraid to just be.

~Ruthie


*My brother Daniel recommended a book called Art and the Bible by Francis Shaeffer to me recently, which apparently speaks directly to this. Worth checking out!
9 Comments
Ash link
5/7/2014 12:29:47 am

Love this Ruthie! You bring up some amazing points and articulate them very well. A lot of these things are issues I've thought about a lot, and this was a really big deal for me when I was deciding whether to study theater at NYU or at Azusa Pacific, a Christian college in California. What is boiled down to for me in that instance was that doing theater in a "Christian" setting was no more worshipful, intentional or educational than doing theater in a secular setting.
Sometimes I wonder who I would be if I'd gone to a that Christian college. How would that have affected my relationships and life choices? But I will say that being an Christian and an artist outside of the safety of Christian artist circles has shown me the holes in my own faith. I've realized the places in my life where I don't trust Him fully and where I relied on the strength of others to lead me into a time of worship or into intentional time spent pursuing Him. I'm not proud of my college meandering, but I feel like divorcing my faith from my art has no longer become possible. After all, every act of life is an act of worship. To be an artist is to be a refraction of the Master Artist, our Creator, to focus life into something intangible and beautiful.
My favorite example of this is the woman who washed Jesus's feet with her hair and perfume. At first glance to me, this seems like some odd piece of performance art (which someone should totally make...). But this act of beauty, of art, of praise, of service that was not intended to be anything more than that, has become a lesson for all future generations, immortalized in story and in our hearts.

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Ruthie
5/7/2014 03:21:31 am

Yes yes yes. I love this example--the story of the woman. (Have you heard Jennifer Knapp's song "Hold Me"? Beautiful recounting of that story.)

One of the things I have loved most about being an artist is that it's given me a really clear perception of the fact that our lives are not seamless, but are tapestries. And whatever happens, we can't wish experiences away or wish we could redo them, because the sum of everything that has happened is what makes us who we are. The beauty of the fact that God loves these crazy tapestries, takes us exactly as we are, and then continues piecing into that tapestry with increasingly beautiful bits is just amazing.

So obviously we're going to create a piece of theatre over the summer about the woman who washed Jesus' feet. :)

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peter link
5/7/2014 02:46:45 am

Well said!

Personally, I find the self-conscious nature of the mainstream church culture to be quite limiting for Christian artists. Art cannot be limited to the use of soft language & themes. Art cannot ignore dark themes or adult situations. Art cannot hesitate to openly & intimately struggle with shortcomings and fears. Yet Christians avoid all of these, sensitive to our many layers of role-modeling: to children, to the world, to other Christians. We are crippled by our self-conscious desire to inspire others towards Christ.

Rather, as I think you're pointing out, true art has the courage to explore and create, disregarding how it may be negatively received or perceived. For the Christian, this requires hard faith in the redemptive work of Christ in our lives--faith that the truth of Christ, when revealed in any context, needs no defense.

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Ruthie
5/7/2014 03:14:55 am

Agreed. And I think that's often a component in people leaving the church--because they have not encountered a version of Christianity that addresses the reality of what they see inside themselves, and in the world around them. Art is one of the best ways to explore and express those realities.

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Dave Snoke link
5/7/2014 02:58:53 am

Hey! I saw my name referenced in there. I would disagree with the statement that in my field, Jesus never comes up. It does, to a degree that can lead to persecution. In biophysics, there is the question of intelligent design. As a Christian I find myself much more open to those arguments than the typical non-Christian. There are also the uses of quantum mechanics to justify new-age religion, the origin of the universe questions, whether one believes in multiple universes, etc.

I would say that there is a strong degree of overlap of my work with that of non-Christians, so it is not like I have to do everything completely differently. But I would say that a Christian is called to be a skeptic about what the world presents us. We should be the best skeptics, not just questioning the church but also questioning the secular world. So many young Christians seem to me to only be skeptical about the church and never question the advertising/sitcom/comedy-news world view that they hear daily. In physics this means being skeptical about evolution-stories oftentimes. In art, I think there are things to question that the world tells us too.

I basically like the approach of saying "this is who I am, I am a Christian," and then doing what we like, whether that is distinctly Christian or not. I think too often the Jars of Clay approach translates to being a "crypto-Christian", i.e. one who never lets people know "this is who I am". If you find yourself hiding your Christianity, you have slipped over the line.

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Ruthie
5/7/2014 03:13:19 am

Haha thanks for clarifying. After putting your name in there, I realized I probably couldn't say that for sure, but since it was part of a point it stayed.

I agree with being skeptical, and I think the flip side of that is extending grace. We should be gracious of what Christians present to us, and we should also be gracious of what the world presents us. Because as Christians we are forbidden from going to extremes, we have a more challenging responsibility of evaluating everything--the church and the world--through both a skeptical and a gracious lens. It can be exhausting, but only, I think, if we approach it with fear, instead of with the perception that God has given us these things to explore, and he will also give us his Spirit to guide us.

I think when it comes to the "crypto-Christian" it gets complicated, because my sense is that groups like Jars of Clay have gotten pretty burned out by the industry I talked about in the blog, and perhaps have also felt like their calling is shifting in terms of who their music is aimed at. Artists have a difficult job of understanding their audience, and figuring out how to address them. As a Christian, I know that sometimes I will have an audience that is prepared to receive a piece of sacred art. Many other times, I know that if I want truth to be conveyed, I have to change my rhetoric, otherwise it will just be discounted. It's complicated, and while I agree that Christians should never be afraid to create art that speaks explicitly of what they believe, it's tricky to judge artists when their work is often not explicit.

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Daniel link
5/7/2014 04:47:00 am

I think you bring up the idea of “worldview” in your article. As Christians, we have a different lens, or worldview we see things through. This should effect how we see, but often times in our art we look at the same things non-christians look at. i think young, immature christians, have a correct sense that somehow their art should be different, but they don’t know in what way it should be. So, in our over “production-oriented” culture, they think their art needs to accomplish something… and what does the christian church tell us is more important? making everything about the story of Jesus. so art becomes a propaganda tool. I don't say this to blame them. I think this comes from a small (but not false) worldview and a lack of discipleship from older christians… AND a lack of terms by which to evaluate art. The more tools and terms we have, the less pressure we feel to make each individual aspect of our art a propaganda piece.

Schaeffer talks about, in his book, Art and the Bible, 4 ways that we can judge art. they are 1) technical excellence 2) validity 3) content and 4) integration of content and vehicle.

today, we criticize artists a lot on technical excellence and on content, but we neglect the other two. I think by paying more attention to the other two, christians can relax more in their art and “be”, more like you were saying. i think #2, validity, has particular use for what you are arguing in the article. Schaeffer's definition of validity is that valid art is art that honestly represents the artist’s worldview. we can be non-valid by selling out to patrons or the opinion of critics. in the secular world, i think, we are more attune to this… no one likes the sellout who does stuff for "the man”. when christians become preachy they are selling out to a shallow worldview that only has significance when evangelizing. when christians sell out to the secular world, they are hiding their real worldview.

simply, as christians, our worldview says that our identity comes from Christ, but we are constantly hiding or selling our validity as artists. somehow we’ve bought into the lie that portraying an honest, and whole, christian worldview is not a valid expression in art. we need to broaden our worldview to include humor, despair, joy, anger, lostness, silliness, seriousness… but we also need to be, as Schaeffer puts it, “valid” in how and why we create.

so yes, being “me” in art is not just a feeing feeling to come to, but it’s also vital to making good art.

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Ruthie
5/7/2014 01:19:46 pm

Yes. :)

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Hannah
5/10/2014 11:20:11 am

I don't have a whole lot to add on art side of this discussion, but I do think a lot about evangelism. I'll just throw this out there (and it's a thought off the top of my head FYI) - I would venture to say that a lot of the problem is a weak understanding of evangelism in the church. Most American Christians are totally illiterate when it comes to knowing what evangelism should look like and how to do it. I think we've been been mushing together our general status as image bearers and our call to evangelism and this is part of the confusion in the arts. Christians know they are supposed to "share their faith" but they really don't understand what that even means. We've attempted to professionalize evangelism in America. This means that if you're not a pastor, a "professional," then the only option left for you to share your faith must be through whatever your profession happens to be. Because we don't know what it means to engage in true community, pursuing people through relationship, we limit our expressions of our faith to whatever our profession is. I totally agree with you - our professions should be deeply influenced by who we are, and we should be confident in being Christ's, without feeling like everything in our professions must scream Jesus in explicit terms. But if that's the case, then I believe the church needs to do a better job at helping people understand what it does mean to engage evangelistically.

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