Liberate the artists!

Naked Pastor once again is giving us food for thought.  Thanks David.  He reminds us why the arts seem to fail so miserably in religious settings.  We need to be offended – challenged – provoked – enraptured – delighted – and revolutionized by artists.  And we don’t often find this kind of art done by the Christian community. 

The church is generally a censorious community. In this environment art is sanitized, tame and conformist. It is still art, but functions as a reinforcement of the system. Expression is controlled and edited from start to finish. This kills art because it kills creativity because it kills freedom. Instead, allow people to be free without scrutiny. (I even hate the word “allow” because it assumes it needs to be given when it is already ours.) In due time, after people begin to realize that they are loved and accepted unconditionally, the creative spirit will surface and artistic diversity will abound. This is the harder but more genuine way. It means taking care of the roots. If the root is unfettered freedom, then fruitful and artistic living happens. It is the diversity of human expression of personality that makes the artful life. Until this is nurtured art will be repressed.

Two trailers I’ve seen lately counteract this tendency, and are examples of the power of film to unsettle and inspire.  One, from Terry Black in Cambridge, is a delicious and bold film that is not an art film, it’s film as art.  Terry takes his considerable skills as a painter, and paints the screen with living images of the Grand River over three winters.  He showed me his 17 minute trailer in his studio in March and by the end I was an emotional wreck. 

Then emerging filmmaker Trevor Meier showed me clips last month of his documentary on Rwanda, called Hope Rises.  Rather than the typical horrific accounts of genocide which we’ve come to know through other films, you encounter people who are resilient, who have dignity, and whose hope literally shines forth.  Watch this blog for screenings which I’ll announce here.