Cheap Knockoffs & Artistic LamentSeveral nights ago I watched a group of visiting high school students at our church's youth night lip sync and perform dance and drama to a dozen teen-oriented "contemporary" Christian songs.
Each time, song after song, cheesy reproductions of secular music were paired with ghastly, uncreative, untalented, shameless dance routines and pantomined scenarios.
The music was so trite, so shallow, and the messages so blatant, unsubtle and juvenile... my wife and I sat in our seats, uncomfortably waiting for the time to pass so we could leave and breathe some refreshing "secular" air.
The real tragedy of that evening was not the performances themselves - in fact, youth groups across America routinely perform these "Human Videos" at schools, churches, homeless shelters, senior centers... anywhere they're allowed. The
REAL tragedy (and I say this emphatically) is that we have convinced these kids that
this is EFFECTIVE ministry in our world. That this is
reflective of the Kingdom of God...
...perhaps most detrimental: we've taught them that this is artistic expression. That corny lip sync has beauty.
Once again, the Church has made a pitiful carbon copy of the world, slapped a Christian label on it, and "called it good."
But it isn't good. It's lazy. In fact,
MOST Christian-labeled arts and entertainment are just that:
lazy.
Instead of making something new, something beautiful, transcendant, provocative and evocative and even (dare I say)
sexy, we've sold ourselves short. We've sold our kids short. We've sold the Kingdom of God short.
There were a bunch of very chubby high schoolers up on stage, dancing around, trying to catch their breath between songs. I felt no sick humor in watching the spectacle. I only wanted to slap the parents and youth directors who allowed them to make fools of themselves on stage with reassurances and false encouragment.
Kingdom: can we get to a point in Christian art where realistic criticism and honest opinion can be tolerated and welcomed in love? We shouldn't have to humilate these kids and justify it by saying that love allows them to do what's in their hearts.
That's not art. That's
enabling!
I really sound like an asshole in this post, I know... I feel really badly for the kids. I'm in no way trying to mock them or show distrespect toward
them, but I hate this little microcosm they're growing up in. Youth ministry in America is in such dire need of radical change...
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at
http://emergingchristianity.blogspot.com
Forgive me for seeming political. I hope I would be just as hard on misguided Democrats (and I think I am).
