Apologetix and the Demise of Christian Art

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

“The confusion comes about because much so-called religious art is in fact bad art, and therefore bad religion.” -- Madeleine L’Engle


I have a friend who will only listen to Christian music. By that she means music that only uses explicitly Christian lyrics – Jesus, God, Bible verses, salvation, heaven, and hell – all mingled throughout.

However, she would also contend that her musical tastes aren’t marked so much by lyrics contained within the songs, as the words that are kept out of them. No cuss words ever darken the doors of her iPOD. Profanities, hate, vulgarities of any kind, are all blocked by an unassailable wall of Christian censorship.

Her favorite band is a group called Apologetix. They make their living by taking popular songs that everyone likes on the radio, making the lyrics palatable to those within the evangelical/fundamentalist subculture, and then peddling them as a more spiritual alternative to the “world’s music.”

A few years ago a group named Smash Mouth came out with a song called “All-Star.” The song began:

Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me
I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed
She was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb
In the shape of an "L" on her forehead

Apologetix took that song, re-wrote the lyrics and re-titled it “Pray Now.” Here’s how the spiritually revised tune starts out:

Somebody once told me the Lord is not your roadie
You ain't the star so do it yourself
I said look it's kind of dumb if there's things I need done
It's a shame not to call on the Lord's help

As I read Apologetix’s re-write, I’m struck by two things:

1. Avoiding profanity and vulgarity is a important thing to do as a Christ follower.

2. Expunging profanity and vulgarity from a song, or a poem, or the walls of a dormitory does not necessarily make what replaces it art. And it most definitely does not make it Christian art.

The Sistine chapel. Mozart. Paradise Lost. The Pieta. These are examples of great Christian art.

Juxtapose those pieces with Apologetix, and the fifty kagillion Thomas Kinkade paintings in evangelical homes everywhere, and many of the poorly written books sagging Christian bookstore shelves across the country.

Just because something is labeled Christian, doesn’t make it so.

To me something is “Christian art” if…

1. It is done with excellence.

2. It is done with beauty.

3. It captures some piece of the human experience.

4. It points to something greater than the artist who created it.

Art doesn’t become “Christian” simply because someone throws in evangelical buzzwords, and it certainly doesn’t happen when someone high-jacks someone else’s body of work and makes it palatable to a certain audience.

Art becomes “Christian” when those who view it, read it, or listen to it swear to themselves that they can see fingerprints left from another world.