I’m a Christian. And I’m also a creative artist. In my opinion, both of these aspects regarding myself should strengthen each other — my faith to support and inform my creative mindset, and for my creative mindset to better understand my faith. And yet it seems that in the modern evangelical world these two should not meet. Sometimes, due to my perceptions of the Church’s view of me as an artist, it feels as though my desire for Christ and my desire to be creative are supposed to be at odds with each other.
Perhaps I should take this moment to clarify that I am a born-again Christian who believes the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and salvation is in Christ alone. So this isn’t some article regarding a deconstruction of Christianity, a wavering in my own faith, or a condemnation of the Church. This is simply an open letter of frustration. The Church could be better at supporting artists within its own body and it’s worth addressing. I look around and I can’t help but feel that there is a strained relationship between artists and the Church, like a child with a too-easy-to-displease father. And I can’t help but wonder if there is a way for us to change this.
It’s honestly rare to meet another creative artist who is also a Christian. And yet it is quite common to meet another creative artist who grew up in the Christian faith, only to later abandon it or choose to follow an altered version of faith that’s no longer Biblically-based Christianity. I wouldn’t at all say the Church is solely to blame for the individual choices people made, but I am curious if some of these creative artists could have been better influenced to not abandon but instead stay strong in their faith had they been in a church that engaged with them and acknowledged their artistic inclinations.
Now I’m not going to pretend that only the Church can be misunderstanding of creative types. Virtually every person who pursues a creative career has friends and/or family members who don’t seem to quite understand or fully support their career choice, because pursuing a creative profession is unlike any other career path. So imagine what it must be like for the artistically inclined Christian who feels misunderstood by others…only to also feel misunderstood by the Church because so many Christian communities don’t seem to approve of the desire to make art.
“Hold on a second,” some reading this might think, “Of course the Church supports the desire to make art! Just look at all the Christian music and movies and other Christian art that exist!” But there’s a difference between art and Christian art, isn’t there? Somehow it became a widely viewed idea in the Church that if you are a Christian and an artist, then you should only want to make Christian art. Now how does one define this? Let’s make sure we’re all on the same page of what is meant by the term “Christian art.”
Art itself can’t literally be Christian, it can’t give its life to Christ. So does Christian art mean any art that’s made by a Christian? Typically that is not what is meant by that term. Chris Pratt for example is a Christian, yet no one would specifically label him a “Christian artist” because he doesn’t act in Christian movies or play Christian characters. However, that’s not to say he’s acting in anti-Christian movies or playing anti-Christian characters. Anytime the word “Christian” is used as a moniker regarding something artistic (e.g. Christian movies, Christian artist) it is usually to describe that the content associated with it is marketed to a particularly Christian audience. A singer like TobyMac is considered a Christian musician because he is with a Christian music label that markets to a particularly Christian audience, whereas the band Switchfoot (whose members are Christian) is generally considered a secular music group because they are signed with a secular music label marketing to all rock-loving audiences regardless of their spiritual beliefs.
Somehow art being labelled Christian or not seems to define the artist as one thing or the other. Of course that’s not actually true, but that is the general perception at play. I’ve already mentioned Chris Pratt and Switchfoot as artists who are Christian but don’t cater to exclusively Christian-specific audiences, and there are plenty of other artists who profess to be Christians who are/were this way, including but not limited to: JRR Tolkien, Denzel Washington, Tori Kelly, Kendrick Lamar, Skillet, Mark Wahlberg, Johnny Cash, Chance the Rapper, Bob Dylan, Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Jon Voight, Kevin James, Tyler Perry, Flannery O’Connor, Carrie Underwood, Tim Allen, and Charles Dickens.
It’s no secret that there is a whole genre of Christian art — Christian movies and Christian music being two huge examples. But it’s also no secret that a lot of Christian art is seen as mediocre and trying to follow the culture and respond by being the Christian version of something secular that already exists. I can think back to growing up in the 2000s and there was a Christian version of all sorts of popular music at the time. And when it comes to Christian movies, it’s no secret that most are really sermons disguised as entertainment.
How did this happen? How did it come to this that Christian art can be acceptably sub-par? Is it merely for the idea that it’s all for the “right reason” to be mediocre?
Somewhere along the way we became convinced that God-approved art is supposed to be family-friendly. That’s not to suggest art shouldn’t be family-friendly nor that art should be graphically explicit, but there’s not much range for what’s allowed in art by the Church, unless it’s The Passion of the Christ. That’s the one widely accepted R-rated film because it’s about Jesus. I think part of the reason why so many Christians think Christian stories need to be PG-friendly is because they still have a child-level view of stories in the Bible. As Christians who grow up in the Church, we go to Sunday School and learn all sorts of stories from the Bible, and then we get older and suddenly stop learning Bible stories. I think this sets up a lot of Christian adults to have an Aesop’s Fable-level view of Bible narratives, and as we grow older we don’t get deeper into a graduate level of learning Bible stories, but instead keep seeing them through the lens of elementary feel-good stories with a clearly applied lesson. This sets up a lot of Christians themselves to have a knowledge of the Bible that doesn’t go that deep. And thus Christian art tends to come off very surface-level and leads nonbelievers to think that Christianity isn’t so profound. A lot of nonbelievers will only see Christians who choose to wade in the shallow end, not realizing there is a high dive available and if they’re willing to take the plunge and dive deep, they’ll never want to come back up.
There seems to be this assumption at times when meeting other Christians that because I’m a creative artist, I must want to make specifically obvious Christian-marketed art. I find that a little ridiculous. No one meets an architect who is a Christian and assumes they must only want to build churches. Why is it assumed that a Christian who wants to pursue a creative career must specifically want to make that creative career a ministry? No other career pursuit is given that expectation amongst Christians in the Church. And I wonder if this is one aspect that turns some artistic people away, a perceived ultimatum that if you don’t want to act in only Christian films, or write only Christian novels, or dance in only Christian dance groups, or paint only Christian paintings — then something is wrong with you and God is displeased.
People who believe in a Creator should be the most creative people of all. And as of now we can be doing better in the Church. I’m not saying churches need to throw their support behind Hollywood, I’m saying churches should be aware of its artistic congregants and be more supportive and engaging, or else some of these people growing up in a church environment may very well leave as soon as they feel their artistic inclinations are ONLY appreciated elsewhere. These are men and women who are extremely creative and are in need of Godly leaders to see them, engage with them, and disciple them — acknowledging their creative gift and diving in deep into the Word with them, so that they may be strong when entering the artistic wilderness.
To artists who profess faith in Jesus: We have an obligation to not conform to the ways of this world, for we are baptized into the family of God in the name of Jesus. Our entire being is in Christ, and that includes our imaginations. The Church emphasizes so much focus into what we do in our art, but it’s who we artists are that is firstly important. Who we are will have an effect on what we do as artists, whether it’s directed for a Christian market or not. Because if we are in Christ, then we are blessed with a baptized imagination. But don’t assume you can go down this creative path alone without any Godly guidance. The artistic wilderness offers tempting fruit with twists on truth that sound convincing, and if you are not relying on God’s truth for guidance, you will fall. When Jesus was out in the wilderness and He was tempted, what did He do? Every single time the Devil tried to twist truths to Him, He quoted scripture, relying on the Word. He held fast to the Truth and after that encounter saw through carrying out what’s now the greatest story ever told. So stick to the Word. Find a church that will support you as an artist and strengthen you as a believer. Thank God for the gifts He’s given you. And use your baptized imagination. The world needs it.
