Most Christian Art Sucks: Truth Over Agendas
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Facing the Giants was a full blown phenomenon at my Christian high school upon its release in 2006. I was a freshman at the time; ever impressionable to peer pressure, constantly freaking out about girls, and perpetually confused about the difference between being a Christian versus being like Christ.
I think I understood how to be a Christian. I couldn’t pin down all of it, but I knew for sure it consisted of most of the following: hating liberal politics, never, EVER saying potty words (I said crud well into my teens), comparing gay people to animals, denying sexual desire, reading a daily devotion, disassociating from “obvious” sinners, praying before eating food, listening to only AIR-1 music and/or angry, conservative talk radio, etc.
This is obviously a caricature and a stereotype, but it’s what my 15 year old self gathered from 15 years of church, homeschooling, and private schooling.
The reason I knew it so well is because I didn’t measure up to it. I hated daily devotions (because they were so boring), I really liked the stoner/skater/“swearing” kids at my school, felt intense anxiety even hearing the name Rush Limbaugh, and there was no chance in hell I could deny my sexual desire. I was doing… the m word quite a lot at the time, and I found myself sexually desiring girls I knew that only years before I thought were the worst.
So when everyone and their mother started raving about this football, Jesus movie set in the south, I wasn’t curious about it in the slightest. And being forced to watch it a few weeks later didn’t help the matter either.
This blog might be off putting to some of you. The notion of Pureflix, Air 1, Christian podcasts, etc. may be a place of comfort and refuge in a worldly context of despair, disarray, and a disregard for living a Godly life.
And you know what? That’s completely fair. Sometimes songs swear a lot just to be more “edgy.” Movies often have a lot of sex which leads to a lot of lust. Everywhere we look or listen, it seems there’s a lot of sin and darkness present in popular media. After all, cheerful, uplifting, Christ saturated messages fill us up spiritually far more than gritty, “realistic” stories of the hard knocks of life.
Yet, I can’t keep giving Christian art the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it’s because I just don’t believe in the idea of Christian art. Or in “Christian” artists, for that matter.
Let me explain.
Let’s rewind just a little bit from that hoaky Focus on the Family sports movie. At the tail end of 2005, a relatively unknown, grungey, “authentic,” musician came out with a famous song.
But this wasn’t a top 40 song. “Godless” heathens probably never heard it. In fact, it wasn’t even the guy that wrote it that made it famous.
I’m talking about the song “How He Loves.” We in the faith world are still recovering from it being way overplayed both on Sunday and on Air 1. But for a struggling, insecure, apathetic “Christian” teenager, it lit a fire that seems to blaze all the more as time goes on and as the teen became a man.
But wait a minute. What’s the difference between the movie Facing the Giants and the song “How He Loves?” And why do I respect one, acknowledging how it singlehandedly changed my walk with God, while claiming the other discouraged my faith journey, confirming I just didn’t fit the mold of a proper, born-again Christian?
Again, let me explain.
John Mark McMillan is one of my favorite musicians. Period. The guy writes music which immediately hits me in all the feels even after one listen. While this may be due to the fact that I’m a type 4 and he is too, I think it’s mainly because he sings in a few lines what I never could write in a dozen books.
The quality of his artistry, particularly when describing humanity’s relationship to God, is absurdly good. There’s a rawness present, a sincerity which reminds me of my favorite Psalms and of my favorite movies.
He tells the truth through song, both when it’s beautiful and when it’s ugly.
And herein lies my problem with Facing the Giants and similar “Christian” media.
First things first, the themes of these stories are usually great. The adversity experienced in Facing the Giants is definitely accurate to many people’s stories. Courageous was courageous in its heartfelt depiction of sudden family loss. Fireproof dared to show the struggle of porn addiction (if not say many profound things in the process).
Yet there’s my grievance with these kind of movies. Although I admire that a bunch of inspired amateurs from a random church attempted to make films with Christian themes, those same themes were overtones, not undertones. There’s no subtlety in their stories or character arcs or plot structures. They are films made by Christians for Christians to reinforce Christian values.
For an unbelieving, increasingly “none” or “done” secular audience, these films do nothing. Many similarly overt worship songs do nothing. Many culturally Christian forms of media aren’t interested in telling a good story or complicated characters or engaging plots. They don’t care about exploring varied song structure, differing guitar chords, or lyrical complexity. They are only concerned with preaching a sermon.
But I go to church on Sunday to hear a sermon. I don’t need one when I watch a movie or listen to a song or hear a podcast (unless, it IS a sermon).
This is why most Christian art sucks. When an artist is more concerned with conveying an agenda instead of compelling you of the truth, the general audience won’t appreciate it. They get a whiff of the forced motifs, the blatant themes, the bland characters, the boring plot structures and they ignore it favor of actually good storytelling.
This is ironic, however, especially when we look at the history of the arts made by Christians. Including the Bible itself.
More confession time; I don’t really like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Definitely striking out on appreciation of conventionally understood “Christian” art. But it’s not because of its lack of artistic integrity.
C.S. Lewis was brilliant in the way he weaved an allegorical story of the life of Christ in an engaging way. As a whole, The Chronicles of Narnia are a masterclass of using a kids story to communicate adult themes in both nuanced and simplistic ways.
So then, why don’t I like The Lion book? Well, just my personal preference speaking, I don’t like how allegorical it gets in the narrative. I appreciate it as a way to introduce children to the concept of Jesus death and resurrection, I just wish it was a little more complex in its approach. Further, because of its overt nod to the Jesus story, the story got deeply appropriated into the “Christian” label. This cements why it’s my least favorite Narnia book.
And yet, the six other books in Chronicles don’t suffer with this problem. They all tell compelling narratives that have deeply Christian themes explored in a wonderfully nuanced way. A person who doesn’t know or love God could read the books and glean something from them. They aren’t sermons. They are simply stories that have Christian themes because they were written by a Christian person.
C.S. Lewis himself said “we don’t need more Christian books. We need more Christians to write good books.” If there’s a synopsis of my entire point, that quote is it.
And yet, I’d add this caveat; we need more quality art from Christians. We need a lot less agenda’d, shoddy, uninspired sermons disguised as “art.” Finally, we need to open our eyes to see Christ in all art, for He is the author of all creation.