Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Being Christian & Being Mediocre



"When I first started writing songs ...  I started off thinking I wanted to change the world, and most kids experiment with sex and drugs when they’re teenagers and I was really interested in religion... What I found is that, instead of maybe me changing the world, it really changed me. I found out through that whole process that I wanted to learn how to write songs and make music better than I had before, and I realized that a lot of the fundamentalist people didn’t care about that, or were judgmental about that. It seemed that they had a very utilitarian view of art. That art was only to serve one purpose, which was to get across their point of view, and I didn’t agree."-Sam Phillips

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Due to some weird problems at blogger last month, the post I originally wrote to accompany these photos (actually, the writing came first) never came back.  But fear not, I have not forgotten what they represent.   Now let me attempt this again.

Why, I ask you, do Christians seem to have some sort of genetic compulsion to imitate?  Let me start with the two images above.  I used to love a band called the Altar Boys (this was before the catholic abuse scandals, so don't even think it), a Christian rock band, and they had a song called Life Begins At The Cross- I assume that's where the above clip-art image originated.

That was all fine and good- until much later, when I heard the XTC song called "Life Begins At the Hop".  Awfully close title, yes- but also, the chorus sounds almost identical.  What had sounded to my naive mind like great creativity had in fact nearly been outright artistic theft.  Now, all artists borrow from one another, faith aside.  But that feels a little too close, to me.  We're not talking about a riff of music- we're talking a whole hook, lyrics and all, practically.

But it's not just the Altar Boys.  It's T-shirts that say "God's Gym" and copy the graphic design of Gold's Gym down to the font.  It's a culture that's artistically always one step behind and derivative.  For that matter, why is there a Christian pop-culture, anyway?  Bible study guides and faith-specific merchandise, sure.  But why are there Christan diet plans?  Christian record labels?  Christian book publishers?  I'm talking about the Christian boy-band that comes out the year after NSync has a hit.  I'm talking about "Turkey Soup for the Teenage Soul"- I made that one up, but you know what title I didn't make up?  A series of books called The Yada Yada Prayer Group, by Neta Jackson.  If you're not conversant with the book world, that would be a direct ripoff of "Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood".  That lack of thinking for ourselves is what makes the secular world condescend to us and think of us as idiots.  Honestly, can you blame them?

There are exceptions.  Hammock.  Don Miller.  Artists that are simply going in their own direction and are Christian as a matter of personal choice rather than professional stance.  Sam Phillips is a great example.  Julie and Buddy Miller had some connections to Xian music once, but now are simply known for the high-quality music they make.  Period.  (PS- you know who else was a Christian musician?  Katy Perry.  Too bad we couldn't have kept her in the fold, eh?).  And of course, if you ask me, the prime example of all:  U2.  Biggest band on earth, perhaps.  Christians.  But instead of the Yada Yada prayer group, you instead see the rest of the world copying THEM.  That somehow sounds a lot more Christlike to me.....

THAT is how it should be, whether we're authors, plumbers, painters, guitarists, or whatever.  It's not that Christians need to be these super-great wonder-artists.  It would be nice, but that's not what I'm saying.  But I do not believe that it does any kind of service to Jesus if we're given some sort of cultural "pass" because we're creating for a religious subculture.

And it doesn't just apply to artists.

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"I think that love is always the most important thing, and what I felt a lot about the fundamentalist doctrine and their behavior was that they became exclusive, that they were excluding people who didn’t believe in the same thing, or they were excluding gay and lesbian people, basically excluding a lot of people, and that didn’t feel like love to me. Love is always my gauge in anything, or any kind of philosophy or group, whether it’s religious or political, if love isn’t apart of it I have a dubious view of it... I feel like I am closer to having a spiritual life rather than a religious life."
-Sam Phillips