By Rich DuBose
The primary language of today’s culture is best understood within the context of the arts. Hollywood has mastered the art of story-telling. Every song we hear is essentially a story about some aspect of life. Poetry uses word pictures to intrigue, compel, and warn us to listen to truths about life that none of us wants to hear.
In order to have a conversation with culture we need to understand and speak the language.
We can all relate to story-telling because we have our own stories. Most will agree that authenticity and honesty are key to effective communication.
If you want to rise above the mediocre entertainers and story-tellers of your age, tell the truth! But be truthful in ways that are compelling and winsome.
Jesus used story-telling to initiate his mission in the first century. The Gospels featured allegories and stories that conveyed universal truths that literally transformed the hearts of those who listened and understood what was being said.
Contrary to what many think, there is a place for art that is non-religious? A painting of a landscape is non-religious, yet it can be highly spiritual. Religious art becomes a problem when the church uses it to say things about God, reality, and the future that Scripture doesn’t back up or confirm.
Twisted Messages
In the 80’s and 90’s there was a church in mid America that was infamous for their online videos that delineated what they believed "God hated." They used media and other creative forms of expression to convey their religious belief that God didn’t love the world, at least not everyone. Their message was that God hates sinners —at least certain kinds of “sinners.” They carried signs that said, “God Hates Fags.” How tragic! Those who embrace the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12) need to counter messages like this with God’s promise of love and mercy for all? (Text)
In the West we are steeped in what is known as the Protestant Work Ethic. This means America’s religions have been closely associated with taking care of business —which should not be confused with the Lord's business. I'm talking about the marketplace, productivity and the entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism. In fact, we are so smitten with productivity and turning a profit that we’ve reduced much of what we do down to two questions.
1) What is it?
2) What is it for?
If we cannot answer these questions with definitive answers, whatever it is, we dismiss it as frivolous and of no value.
Much of what gets created in the world of art falls outside the realm of usefulness. How do you deal with the idea of pouring your life into something that may not be perceived as utilitarian or of monetary value? What value does a beautiful sunset have? What is it for? How can it be exploited?
Visual Media has become the driving force with how we communicate and learn. Smart phones, cameras, web technologies, including AI, have taken art out of the realm of physical objects we can touch and hold (DVDs, CDs, vinyl records, paintings and other works of visual art) and reduced them to pixels and files that are emailed and streamed via the web —a non-tangible realm of ethereal concepts and ideas. Which means the internet promotes a surreal ethos that at times seem like non-reality and make-believe.
If everything you have produced is online and suddenly goes away, was it ever real? For example, if you are a digital photographer who puts all your photos on a website gallery that suddenly goes dark, or off-line, you have nothing tangible to show for all the effort you put into creating your art. Your digital camera, which is a physical object, is a transformer of sorts that turns physical realities into pixels, or non tangible data that in turn gets transported to an intangible world of visual apparitions (the internet). All of which begs the question, what is real?
The Anatomy of Beauty
Ray Stevens had a hit song in the mid 90’s titled, “Everything is Beautiful.” Do you remember it? It started out with a few lines from the children’s song,“ Jesus Love the Little Children.”
The chorus and the first verse go like this:
Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world
Everything is beautiful in its own way
Like a starry summer night \
On a snow covered winter's day
And everybody's beautiful in their own way
Under God's heaven
The world's gonna find the way
The dictionary defines beauty as, “the quality or group of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or the mind” (Merriam-Webster). Obviously the definition of beauty will be different for each person. When I typed “beauty” into Google’s search field, I immediately got an AI assisted collection of photos of European looking, white women, like you might see on a fashion magazine cover. This is Google’s and Hollywood’s interpretation of what a beautiful woman looks like, which can end up being harmful because it becomes the filter that many women, and little girls use to view themselves through. If you are not a white, air brushed diva, are you beautiful?
Why do we gravitate toward things and people that we think are beautiful? I think God puts a longing within each of us for beauty.
Years ago I was visiting La Jolla, California (near San Diego) in the late afternoon. And guess where I found a large crowd of people? On the rocks strewn along the ocean’s edge, scores of people were standing and sitting, with their eyes riveted on the setting sun. And most of them were holding cameras. When the sun finally dropped below the horizon and into what appeared to be the Pacific Ocean, everyone started clapping. It was a dramatic moment of communal celebration of nature’s raw beauty.
God is a lover of beauty. Think of all the beautiful things, places and people in the world you’ve encountered. God is often referred to as the Master artist who created it all. And in the book of Genesis, the first book of Scripture it says we were created in God’s image, meaning we have similar characteristics and qualities to his. Our ability to create things and make beautiful art is not an accident. We were created to create. Our DNA compels us to be like our Maker.
God’s creative ability is far superior to ours, but we have the capacity to echo his works with our own expressions that uniquely mimic what he does and continues to do in the world.
What About the Spoilers?
Of course creativity can be used in negative and destructive ways. For centuries humans have used their abilities to create implements of war that have caused carnage, death, and destruction. Instead of using our gifts to create beauty and things that benefit society, we can contribute to the demise of civilization and sling divisiveness and hate wherever we go. Some take delight in seeing how much destruction they can “create,” which underscores the notion that something is broken in the world. As the Eagles sang in their timely song “Hole In the World,” after 9/11, “There’s a hole in the world tonight” God’s original plan to create a world that celebrates peace, kindness, and shared life has been attacked by someone who obviously wants to destroy it. I won’t take the time with this essay to talk about this, but the world is definitely engaged right now in a struggle between good and evil, civility and incivility, truthfulness and lies, life and death. As many use their gifts to promote life, right-doing, community, and compassion, others engage in calculated acts of destruction, using dishonesty, division, greed to try and tear it all down.
Let me just say this, ultimately God, with his life-giving Kingdom of mercy, righteousness, communal compassion and justice will have the last world. The days of darkness and incivility will come to an end.
So, if you are an artist, photographer, graphic designer, painter, writer, or musician, I challenge you to use what you have to counter the darkness. Use what you have to tell stories that promote healing, grace and forgiveness. Use what you have to bring good to life and make the world a better place.
Rich DuBose writes from Northern California. Photograph by Matt Hardy, with Pexels.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.