Tough All Over: Doing Art as a Christian

Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
on Monday, March 05, 2007
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I've spent a fair amount of time here and elsewhere writing about the problems faced by a Christian who decides to pursue art as an artist rather than a propagandist. In addition to the struggles any artist faces, he takes on the added burden of functioning in a community that misunderstands the nature of his work. In general, his co-religionists pose three problems: (1) They don't understand the nature of the task; (2) They have radically different expectations; (3) They sympathize in theory without being able to recognize specific achievements. Instead of illustrating these with examples, I'm going to point you to the feedback received by Christianity Today's film reviewers. These reviewers are producing some of the best film criticism in the evangelical world. I don't always agree with them -- but then, that's the nature of the beast. I admire them for thinking things through and, more often than not, applying the right standard of judgment. Do they receive appreciation? Some. But what they seem to receive most from their fellow Christians is resentment.

It tracks along the three lines I mentioned above. Read the letters and you'll see there are some folk who just don't understand what a review is supposed to be. They're dismayed that anyone could like a movie they hated, or hate a movie they liked. Others have radically different expectations from the reviewers. Instead of an aesthetic consideration, they want an inventory of objectionable content, thinking that a Christian reviewers job is somehow to "rate" movies for the evangelical audience. Then you have the people who sympathize with the reviewers' approach in general, but have written in to tell them why they're wrong on some particular.

Now this is a snapshot of how difficult honest criticism can be in an evangelical context, so you can imagine the complications involved in doing honest art. But you know what? Things are tough for art all over. Given the church's past patronage of the arts, I suppose I hold it to a higher standard than the world in general. Somehow I'm more frustrated with Christians who are indifferent to the arts than I am with the average man. That's not really fair, I suppose. I want more understanding from them, so I suppose I should start extending some.