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BULLETIN BOARD
Newsletter_20_E-mail
CHRISTIAN
COMIC BOOK MINISTRY SPEAKS
Subject: On Christian Arts
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000
From: Hal
David, Concerning your question on why evangelical Christians
tend to veer away from images:
As
the President of Soldier Ministries, Inc., a ministry dedicated
to taking the gospel to the world of comics, science fiction,
fantasy and role gaming, I have spent the last 13 years studying
and evaluating this very question (not to mention the question
of why the Church won't support ministries such as this one and
Rox35Media more) and the answer, while somewhat complicated, is
based in a few simple concepts.
1.
Association with the "iconography" of the RC Church - In the congregationalist
ancestry of most of American Protestantism, there was little support
for the arts as there was in the "counter reformation" of the
Roman Catholic church. There were some altar pieces and some gothic
architecture there, but in the transition to America, pictorial
elements simply played a less important role here as in Europe
in the church, and so, was never fostered there. Instead, graphics
were early on relegated to the areas of educational materials
(even if derived from religious sources, they remained primarily
for educational purposes and the pictures were seen as a way of
appealing to children, not to adults in this context), newspapers,
portraiture, and as accompanying text in books. Just as we rather
"Americanized" our Christianity, and related it to our nationalism,
we relegated "imagery" to the "secular realm" while holding our
religion "in our hearts" to be "taken out" primarily on Sundays
and, eventually, special religious holidays. Therefore, just as
our "religion" rarely interferred with our business decisions
and work, it also had little influence on our art from the late
18th century until the late 20th century.
This
resulted in the condition Schaeffer refers to as "Addicted to
Mediocrity" for, whenever the Church did impliment the arts, it
was primarily for tracts and other utilitarian purposes; a concept
Schaeffer states as having been derived from a "communist" view
of the arts in the church, but one which really predated communism
and could be seen as utilitariarian. However, if one is excercising
his or her personal gift in the way the Bible says we should,
as "before the Lord" then the effect would not be mediocrity,
but excellence the world could not dream of achieving. The old
masters, many of whom were patronized by the Roman Church, were
able to best develop their skills because they were essentially
paid to do so. Many of the greats of the Pre-Raphaelite period
and afterwards were either "breaking the molds of convention"
or else were already somewhat well off. There was a demand for
ornamental works of art, and their experiments fulfilled those
demands.
2.
The Second Commandment - Most "hard core" Christians, who believe
and live their daily lives according to God's word, tend to take
the letter of the Old Testament as seriously as the New. Therefore,
on account of the 2nd Commandment (Exodus 20:3) they tend to view
"graven images" as something God does not approve of. And, quite
frankly, they are right. For the past 6,000 years (give or take
500) the enemy has used the arts as his primary PR tool. Most
visual mediums have been so profusely used by the enemy that the
Church doesn't see any possibility of redeeming them. I won't
go too deeply into that here (I am authoring a book on the subject)
but I will say that what these Christians fail to recognize is
the redemption of the arts God lays forth in His Word by His Holy
Spirit. God sets forth exacting, if few, examples from the Word
of how the arts can be redeemed: the makers of the Tabernacle
in the Wilderness (who, by the way did NOT enter the Promised
Land, the builders of the First Temple (who had to be taught the
arts by a half-Phoenician, half-Hebrew man from Tyre), the prophet
Ezekiel who drew an image of Jersalem on a stone slab and representively
"laid siege" to it, and
Jesus
Himself, who drew in the sand. Below is a recent accounting of
that the Lord had me give the Christian Comics e-group during
a discussion on nudes: Jesus drew. Do you realize that? When the
adulterous woman was brought before him by the Pharisees, he drew
in the sand. The scripture doesn't say he WROTE in the sand, but
that he DREW. The woman was an adulteress. And, despite the law
and their purposes for being before him that day, I can imagine
every nasty thought that must have been going through their minds
about her that day. She was caught in the very act!(One has to
wonder what they did with the man, which was probably nothing)
They were ready to KILL her. But Jesus drew in the sand, contemplated
their hearts, and rended them wide open with one small statement
that fulfilled the law without denying it; "Let him who is without
sin cast the first stone." They had all been guilty of this crime,
at one time or another, or another sin just as heinous. Jesus
wasn't drawing nudes in the sand, but if he were, the likenesses
of the men might have been remarkable, though not permanent. He
drew in sand. He didn't give the importance to the 'art" itself
as we did, but He did use it to communicate. If Jesus were an
art student today, would He draw nudes, or constructive figures?
The prophet Ezekiel was also prone to draw, apparently, and with
his vivid and fertile imagination, for God had him make an image
of Jerusalem which he then had to lay siege to in the public square
by lying on one side against it for a period of time for Judah,
then to flip over and do the same thing for Israel so many days.
3.
"Comics are for kids" Don't you KNOW that? (sic) In America, at
least, comics have always been viewed by the majority of adults
as being for children. And, despite the proponderance of evidence
and fact to the contrary, most adults still blindly think that
way; giving we Christian "comicists" a duel battle to wage. As
Nate's statistics, which you quoted in your article, reveal, comics
are the most read literary form in all the world: except in America;
and that goes for Christian comics as well. If the "adults" of
the Church won't accept the medium, those of us who engage in
this battlefield can't gain the support we so desperately need;
and therefore, we work on what we can, as we can, which creates
slow growth, when God is raising up so many talented individuals
for this cause. I hope you realize the societal impact comics
have had. The NASA program was, early on, manned by scientists
who grew up reading 'Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon." Without
EC comics in the 1950's, there would have been no Stephen King
as we came to know him, and his myriad of clones, from Wes Craven
to Clive Barker, wouldn't have given us all those "wonderful"
flicks that have added so much to our culture. George Lucas, Steven
Spielberg, Anne Rice, and many, many others have been influenced
by the comics they read, and many have returned the favor by doing
at least sporadic work in the medium. That's one reason so much
of what is on television and in the movies today resembles what
what one sees in the comic stores. They are one and the same.
And comics, when it comes to children, generally only appeal to
the brightest and most creative.
The
flip side of these observations comes in Frankie Schaeffer's book
"Addicted to Mediocrity" in which he makes a statement that seems
to practically give God's favor on any art ever produced when
he says, "Art requires no justification." To which I have replied
to Mr. Schaeffer and many others over the years, "No, art doesn't
require justification, it requires REDEMPTION, just as our intellects,
wills, memories, emotions do, so our creativity must be REDEEMED,
for it came into this world as corrupt as we are!" For this reason,
the fact that most, though certainly not all, Christian artists
think the same way about their art worldly artists do, God has
not blessed their endevors a great deal as a whole. But, as I
have stated, He is raising up a HUGE pool of talent to redeem
these arts. But first, the Church MUST be educated and awakened
to their need and value. The creative process goes on; organizations
are being formed, we keep talking it up and praying about it and
keep pounding away at the doors. Fortunately, we have guys who
have been doing this for 15 years, fighting to gain ground in
this area that has, for the most part, been the enemy's playground.
And we have guys like actor Frank Vitalo and singer Carmen who
see the need for progressive visual arts by Christians.
I
know this is long. I hope you even take the time to read it, but
this is how I finished the nudity discussion. Especially the last
part bears a great deal on the subject we are discussing here:
Nudity
serves its purpose on earth and has no effect in heaven for there
are no males and females nor procreation there. The purpose on
nudity here, in the male, anyway, is physical lust and attraction
that leads to sexual activity. If we truly examine this purpose,
as established by the Creator of all mankind, we have to evaluate
the purposes of this thing we call Art. Understand that in the
garden, before men fell, we were, in Adam and Eve, like innocent
children who had no concept of sin. After the fall, the first
evidence of it was Adam and Eve's realization that they were nude.
And they were ashamed. The enemy accomplished this by getting
them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of GOOD and evil instead
of the tree of life. His tricks have not changed. The scripture
has much to say about calling good evil and calling evil good;
and it clearly indicates that those who do this are deceived or
walking in error. It seems almost nothing is taboo to us if we
do it in the name of "art". "Art" has become a god that tends
to cause us to call evil good and good evil just because it is
"art" and because it is perceived as "good" or beautiful, or well
done or whatever, but what it is is dead works that have no life
in them and which are reserved for the fire of God's judgement.
We may perceive nudes as well done, as beautiful, as "good" but
they are not, they are a violation of God's spiritual laws as
well as the physical ones because they play to the mind of man
and cause him to put something in this earth before God's laws.
As those redeemed in Christ, we must eat from the tree of Life,
which IS Christ Jesus, and not the tree of the knowledge of GOOD
and evil, which leads to sin and death. The enemy will use the
good side of the tree to get you to eat from it; because it isn't
his goal to keep you from ignorance, it is his goal to keep you
from eating from the tree of Life only and thereby live forever.
Nothing has changed since the garden. Just because Adam and Eve
ate from that tree, and just because all mankind has continued
to do so over the centuries doesn't mean that God wants us to
continue to do so. God still wants us to eat exclusively from
the tree of life and to eschew the tree of the knowlege of good
and evil. Not all knowledge, even "good" knowledge is truly "good"
because it brings us into disobedience to God's eternal kingdom,
which is based on Christ Jesus, who is the tree of life. Eat from
that tree, and when it comes to your artistic studies, you will
see the standards of the earth melt away as God redeems your talent
to His glory in ways that you never would have imagined. Forget
the things of the world and start building on Christ, and not
on human devices and contrivances. A time is coming when nothing
we have learned from this earth will benefit us at all, but what
we eat of Him will build eternal life within us, to His glory,
forever.
Blessings in Christ Jesus, Hal
THERE
IS HOPE IN THE NEW GENERATION
Subject: visual images
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000
From: Rev. Chuck DeGroat
I'd
like to offer some hope. I am an ordained minister in the PCA
(Presbyterian Church in America), a conservative Reformed denomination
with roots in the very text based Calvinist tradition. As a denomination,
we are still extremely text heavy. However, I find that my generation
of peers (I am 30) graduating from seminary (particularly Reformed
Theological Seminary in Orlando) are much more eikon-conscious.
This is reflected in a deeper appreciation of the visual arts,
particularly manifested through multimedia. In addition, I've
found that my senior pastor is excited to learn from his Gen X
staff members and add visual art in decorating, the use of movies/videos
in worship, drama, advertising and more. I think my generation
may be the first to truly "get over" the centuries long fear of
images. I don't disagree with the Reformers - they were reacting
to icon-mania...Jesus had been lost. But I think we're excited
to say that the God who became incarnate, the image of the invisible
God, the logos and eikon in one, is being worshipped through the
use of art, poetry, literature, and more these days. I think that
when you are secure in your theology, when the word is being preached,
when the fundamentals are set, you can play a bit. Jesus was the
master illustrator. He was the Master Illustration. Take heart,
because we hope that there is a new day for the eikon dawning.
Rev. Chuck DeGroat
Orlando, FL
THE
MEANING OF PURPLE
Subject: Newsletter and Images
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000
From: Jack Kelly
Hello
David, I am beginnning to become a big fan of Hollywood Jesus
and regularly recommend your reviews to my students. As a Catholic
I know the rich visual and symbolic history of my own tradition.
The purple colours in Unbreakable are the traditional colours
of the vestments during Lent. They signify repentance and turning
back. They are also the traditional colours of three of the candles
on an Advent wreath. I pray with you that individuals in other
Christian churches will re-discover the wealth of images in the
Christian tradition, not as points of idolatry, but as windows
to see some of the glory of God.
Blessings of the season! ttyl
-- "Let justice flow like water, and integrity like an unfailing
stream" Amos 5:24
Jack Kelly, School of Hope Religious Studies
JUSTIFICATION
FOR CHRISTIAN ART
Subject: Christian Art: a Response
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000
From: Dr. Beverly Busch
Assoc. Prof. English, Zarephath Bible Institute, NJ, USA
To
Dave Bruce: I was so gratified to read your newsletter challenge
re: Christians and the visual arts. Enclosed is something I wrote
last January (2000) for a class I was teaching at Zarephath Bible
Institute in New Jersey. We were reading some of the "greats":
Dante, Chaucer, Milton. There had always been art associated with
these, yet the source had seemed to dry up. Why, I asked? This
was a response I formulated just to get my own perspective in
place. Hope you find this useful. I'd like to know your opinion.
Finally, thank you for your wonderful website in the service of
Christ. What you are doing is important.
Justification
for Christian Art
We
in the Protestant Christian community have a proud tradition,
dating back to the Reformation. Starting with Martin Luther, moving
through John Knox, Charles Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards and into
the present day, Christians have reacted to what are perceived
as excesses of the Catholic Church, a church wherein art became
more important than the people, the faith they carried, or the
God they served. Many cathedrals, friezes, and statues were in
some respects overdone at a great cost to the parishioners, a
cost many could ill afford. People came to worship the images
as idols, a practice strictly forbidden in the Ten Commandments.
Abuse within the church is well documented. It was pervasive,
severe, and ungodly.
It
has taken us many centuries, then, to deal with this perception
and, I would argue, we have not looked at it squarely yet. However,
I would suggest that perhaps we ought to stop and moment and consider:
have we thrown the baby out with the bath water? That is to say,
have we, because of the perceived misuse of the artistic medium,
thrown out all that is good about that creative part of us?
We
serve a God who created the universe. He spoke a word and land
parted from the sea. He set the stars in the heavens and named
each one. He formed Adam from dust and breathed life into him.
He takes care with all He has made. He plans and executes each
creation with precision and with great love. He is satisfied with
what He has made. Did He not form us in His image? Did He not
create us to be creators as well? Do we not have the same impulse
toward beauty, toward working with our hands, our minds, and our
faith to fashion something pleasing? Yet, in the area of the arts,
Christian have been strangely silent for hundreds of years. What
has been the result?
We
have left the artistic arena empty. First and foremost, we ourselves
are impoverished. The world we live in is diminished. Our architecture,
clothing styles, our furniture and our homes distinctly lack beauty
or any touch of God's hand. They are plain, utilitarian, yes,
ugly, and few have complained! Secondly, our creations are ugly.
Our museums are full of art that takes up a huge amount of space
at a great cost. It is cumbersome, ridiculous or worse, obscene,
as evidenced by the recent display of a sectioned cow set in formaldehyde.
Leave
a room empty. That is, remove any artistic impulse, any creation
glorifying God. Sweep the room clean. Clean out any former art,
any references to the Madonna, or to baby Jesus, or to God. Clean
it out and demons will rush in. Matthew records, "When the unclean
spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places
seeking rest, but he finds none. Then he says, 'I will return
to my house from which I came.' And when he comes he finds it
empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and brings with him
seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and
dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than
before" (Matt 12:43-45). You cannot leave the creative room of
the soul empty; it must be filled with something, if not with
God's presence, then with Satan's demons. And that is exactly
what has happened with our world of art. Into this vacuum we created
Satan has rushed with his demons. He dominates our airwaves in
music; he chokes our videos. He has claimed our cities and made
them wastelands and prisons. He has taken our suburbs and made
them strangely void of life. A spirit of death in all that is
artistic is pervasive.
What
has been the Christian response? Denunciation. Righteous indignation.
Anger. Frustration. Ranting and gnashing of teeth. What has been
the impact on the world? Nothing, of course. Satan laughs. We
are reacting to his rules now. We are playing his game and he
is winning.
What
can be done? First, it is time to recognize the error of our understanding.
God created us to create. We procreate. And we create, fashion
things. We may use the gifts of music or poetry or drawing all
to His glory. The things we denounce, say video or dance or music,
are merely tools of artistic expression. Like anything, they may
be used for evil or they may be used for good. A book is a tool.
It is neutral. If I pick it up and throw it at somebody, I am
using that tool for evil. If, however, I pick it up and read it
I am using it for good. God leaves the choice to us.
We
have let Satan do all the using. We have given him all the power,
all the tools he needs, all the funding, the theaters, the museums.
We have let him fill them up with garbage, literally, and he continues
to do so. Decrying the condition will get us nowhere because we
are not in the arena, defining the terms of the argument. We are
locked out, screaming ineffectively often about meaningless things
like the purple dinosaur, Barney, or most recently, the Teletubbies.
That makes us look ridiculous, narrow and ignorant, and does nothing
to glorify God.
Let's
storm the Gates of Hell and take back the arts to the glory of
God! Let's give the world something to talk about! What if? What
if we once again lived in a world guided by Christian principles?
What if our architecture were beautiful as well as practical?
What if our clothing styles were proportionate in form and color:
pleasing? What if our artwork did not consist of a jar or urine
holding a crucifix? Imagine the beauty we could create and enjoy,
something truly luminescent, to the glory of God. What if our
poetry reflected what is a distillation of His truth that is within
us? What if we filled up these museum spaces and cities and airwaves
with work that pleases Him (Prov 16)?
We
need to repent of our self-righteous reaction to the filth around
us and instead pray for the Holy Spirit to flow us, enabling us
to create as He did, create things full of truth and beauty. Wouldn't
this be a richer, fuller, and better world if we did?
REGARDING
THE PROBLEM OF IMAGES
Subject: Regarding the problem with visual images
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000
From: Jim Kane
David,
I commiserate with in lamenting the dearth of visual images in
the faith. But, I was at a location here in Indiana attending
a CCN seminar on worship and it was pointed out that symbols and
the more liturgical services are becoming very important in worship
again. I think that the Biblical issue of idolatry is one reason
and I think that the strong anti-establishment roots of our nation's
first religious groups is another reason that we have this arm's
length attitude toward the visual. Another reason is the early
20th century fundamentalist views on cinema and art which has
influenced evangelical Christian thought and practices for a long
time. I think that we are in the midst of a communication revolution
much like the printing press and the Gutenburg Bible. However,
the church is not leading it. It is following it! Just my 2 cents
worth. Thanks for helping us see the story behind the celluoid!
Jim Kane
Kendallville, Indiana
REGARDING
THE PROBLEM WITH VISUAL IMAGES
Subject: Regarding the problem with visual images
Newsletter_20
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000
From: Jim Kane Kendallville, Indiana
David,
I commiserate with in lamenting the dearth of visual images in
the faith. But, I was at a location here in Indiana attending
a CCN seminar on worship and it was pointed out that symbols and
the more liturgical services are becoming very important in worship
again. I think that the Biblical issue of idolatry is one reason
and I think that the strong anti-establishment roots of our nation's
first religious groups is another reason that we have this arm's
length attitude toward the visual. Another reason is the early
20th century fundamentalist views on cinema and art which has
influenced evangelical Christian thought and practices for a long
time. I think that we are in the midst of a communication revolution
much like the printing press and the Gutenburg Bible. However,
the church is not leading it. It is following it! Just my 2 cents
worth. Thanks for helping us see the story behind the celluoid!
Jim Kane Kendallville, Indiana
Response:
You are so right about the Church is lagging behind culture.
JESUS
MINI SERIES STAFFER SPEAKS
Subject: Why do you think the visual arts are so shunned by Protestant
Evangelical Christians?
Newsletter 20
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000
From: "Gianmario Pagano"
Dear
David,
I am Gianmario Pagano, the guy who is one of the staffers that
made "Jesus". Do you remember? (Yes, my dear
friend, you know I do! -David)
I
have a personal idea about the question you suggested in the last
newsletter: why the protestant Christians are so resistant to
the language of the images. I think that it is a very old issue
linked to the history of the Christian Reform. But in brief (I
don't want to judge the faith of anyone, I want to point to this
problem considering it as a matter of fact, as a cultural issue):
a lot of protestant Christians keep an "iconoclastic soul". The
original problem that could explain their diffidence for sacred
images is the same diffidence that some of them today have for
the language of the movies trying to speak about God. For some
of them is simply impossible. They deny this chance before they
start. (You are so right -David)
Anyway,
I had the privilege to work with very clever and wise Protestant
Christians and in my personal experience, working with them for
many years in the "Bible project" (that you know, and, thanks
God, a lot of people in the world begin to know), I realized that
they often seem to have an unconscious resistance to anything
that is not "the word of God" as it is, literally, in the Bible.
(Sometimes, for some people, the Bible becomes
an idol, and it takes the place of God -David)
Just
to give another example: we put at disposal of a Canadian company
all the scenery we made for "Jesus". This company is producing
a very interesting "Visual Bible". In other words: they are making
a "word for word" Gospel on the screen. I can understand their
purpose, but the result, in my humble opinion, will be good anyway,
but not good for a large audience. I mean, good, but not "popular".
Because is very difficult, for people that have not a special
interest to the matter, to stand a movie that do not observe those
simple rules that are at the base of a script of a popular tale!!
(Narrated documentaries are okay, but narrated
dramas never seem to be very effect. You are right. Protestants
can not seem to get past the printed black on white words, even
in a film. It is so sad -David )
In
synthesis: I mean to say that Protestant Christians could have
lost their Renaissance!! They lost Michelangelo, Raffaello, Caravaggio
and others... our "catholic" fathers able to use very "human images"
for presenting the divine. Instead they developed other aspects
of the art (music, literature). (Martin Luther
gave us the printed word, and the Wesley gave us music. But, we
have dispised the visual image. It seems so strange. -David)
Now,
with "the seventh art" (cinema), that is a resume of all the arts
(it is impossible to do a movie without music and a good script)
we could be useful each other like never before in the Christian
History! (Yes, yes, Gianmario you are on to
something here. -David)
A
similar problem I found with Orthodox Christians. They have nothing
against images, in general, but for them the problem is the opposite.
They tend to refuse any image that is not immediately showed to
the eye of the viewer as "sacred". Do you know what I mean? They
don't understand immediately the human side of the divine, in
the sense that they remain linked to their (wonderful, anyway)
tradition of the "holy icons". But the figures depicted in those
icons are super-human, super-natural. They cannot be part of a
drama, of something that requires imperfection and lets be possible
a kind of transformation and development.
Christian
Catholic are not better than the others, that must be absolutely
clear. But they have a much more available culture for the images
(pictures) in general, and then, consequently, they are apt to
show a better disposition to the language of the motion pictures.
(You are so right, I get so frustrated at all
the eggs that I get thrown at me because I go to see movies. Care
for an omelet? -David)
By
the way, I want also to let you know that the "international"
version of Jesus (director's cut) in DVD (English, Italian, German)
will be available in Italy (EU), and in some European on-line
stores, from the 10th of December. For example, you could find
it in www.dvd.it.
It
is a special edition in 2 disks with a lot of extras (a long interview
with the director, interviews with the actors, backstage, teaser,
and so on). The only problem for North American customers: it's
PAL (not NTSC). (Are there some techies out
there? Wouldn't a European DVD in an American DVD output in NTSC?
I really hope so, because I want that DVD. -David)
Ciao! Gianmario
COMMENTS
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