Creativity and the Christian

Tony Rivers
Sep 2, 2018 · 12 min read
Courtesy of Unsplash.com

From The Edify Others Blog at edifyothers.weebly.com

In our day and age, there is a great lack of creativity. Okay, let me re-iterate this so you don’t think I’m a troll with nothing else to do. In the Christian community, there are some creative and not-so-creative products that are made by people like you and me who worship the Creator who made us, the world, the cosmos, the stars, and infinite galaxies with intricacy we can’t even describe in the diverse languages the world has to offer. Being an illustrator myself, I find that creativity is one of the most valuable assets God has given to each and every one of us as the pinnacle of His creation. Ephesians 2:10 in the NRSV says “For we are what he (God) has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Now, the “good works” Paul intend may include evangelism, leading a God-fearing family, being a pastor of a local church, making a difference in our communities, and such, but it can also mean expressing ones self so as to praise God for his creation, what he has done in the world, and to express how we feel or ideas we have. From an article on the website crosswalk.com, Ryan Duncan, the editor, loves to watch ballroom dancing because he is fascinated by the dancer’s “natural grace”. Putting this into context, he comes from a background where dancing was frowned upon and was treated as a dangerous influence from a counter-cultural world. To put it in a similar perspective, it was like the early 60’s when rock was considered a product of the devil by some groups including the late, great, televangelist Billy Graham, who was a man that ran a group called World Media and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (God rest his soul). That’s the level I’m describing. “I think what really captivates me about dancing,” Duncan remarks, “is the creative expression. There is a certain wonder and imagination you can only find in art, and it’s something we Christians have often struggled to duplicate.” When comparing this statement to some (not all) of the Christian films, contemporary music, TV shows, and animated cartoons and films for children that have come out in recent times, it’s hard to miss. Creativity in this field more or less describes how well you can rip off an already existing property or story or how long you can milk a secular trend past its due date of popularity to get your money’s worth and wrapping it up in a Christian package that makes it past the TSA of parents’ scrutiny. Now to calm your aggravated nerves, yes, I do highly support such scrutiny. The problem I have is the laziness of this product made by us Christians that the parents are scrutinizing. The point is, we can be better than this if we humble ourselves, listen to creative people who know better, and do the best we can.
Being one of the most influential mediums we have, the possibilities of music are endless when creative people get together and make it. Some would object that the early days of contemporary Christian music was more spiritual. And for some…….they’re right! Think of the old hymns like “Blessed Assurance,” “How Great Thou Art,” “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” amongst a plethora of amazing Spirit filled hymns that are almost oblivious to our knowledge nowadays. Take the early days of Michael W Smith, for example. His earlier songs like “A Way” or “Friends” were amazing, inspirational masterpieces. Signs of a budding, yet beautiful musical ministry. What’s sad is 20 years down the road, you hear trancy, emotion-driven, and repetitious stuff that’s a world away from what we used to hear from him. Pretty soon, Newsboys, Jeremy Camp, DC Talk, Audio Adrenaline, Casting Crowns, Phillips, Craig, and Dean, and all these once amazing artists…started to sound the same, with the same beat, the same message, the same themes, the same…everything.
What happened?
If I remember my Bible correctly, did Paul say not to conform to the world around us? “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Rom 12:2) Think of all the artists that you knew when you were younger like Rebecca St. James, Newsboys, Third Day, or Jeremy Camp. Where are they now? Have they changed their style (and if they did, what things have they done differently)? The industry that is the modern contemporary Christian music industry has a tendency to suppress the artist with so much restrictions like not being open about past personal struggles as Lecrae (who is a Christian) does or being depressed and needing God’s grace like what Red and Demon Hunter (who are Christians) do. Sometimes these “struggles” are made more ambiguous and vague by CCM artists by the use of words such as “desert,” “ocean,” “waters,” or natural elements like “storms,” “wind,” or “rain.” It’s been said that what’s wrong with the CCM industry…..are the Christians. CCM has evolved from being a humble ministry of bringing people to Christ by music to a selfish industry pleasing a particular demographic-themselves. What remains of this humbleness thrives in Christian independent genres, rap, hip-hop, metal, hard rock-all genres that are often feared by mainstream Christianity and Christian parents because of the negative connotations of these genres. Hip-hop and rap are often associated with drugs, prostitutes, gangs, and violence. Metal, rock, and it’s hard variant is associated with violence. Because of this, they get pushed back to the lowest man on the totem pole and treated as questionables. Questionables that often gets called “sellout” or “pawn of the Illuminati.” Oftentimes, you would see a secular artist team up with a Christian artist like Lecrae because he respects who Lecrae is or is a fan of him, like Ty Dolla $ign, a rapper whose songs are littered with sex. For people in the know, secular co-ops like this are everyday. Eventually that gets artists like Lecrae pulled from Christian bookstores and catalogs because of “familiarizing ones self with the world.” This begs the question: Are they accusing the artist of being salt in the world…which is what Jesus calls us to be? (Matt 5:11–16) If so, then are we becoming more and more Pharisaical? Most of these hip hop artists in these genres come from a background where they didn’t have much in a third-world neighborhood, yet they were able to overcome their previous circumstances and give the glory to Him for saving him or her in song. Yet Christian parents ignore this and focus their attention on songs that please themselves written by songwriters that are as broken as the Christian rappers and metal-heads are. Making sense?
Often called a language and art along with photography and illustration by some people including myself, film has the ability to immerse ourselves in new worlds, inspire us, and even tap into our emotions in what makes us human. With these mediums, it’s not just pointing a camera at a person and pressing record or just painting a guy behind a blank screen. “Anybody can point a camera and snap a picture,” as my Grandfather once told me. A photographer, cinematographer, and illustrator with a passion for the art uses lighting, color, sequences, mood, interesting landscape, and angle to his or her advantage for storytelling. Most Christian films, TV series, and direct-to-video programs (excluding Passion of the Christ, Silence, amongst a medium sized group) has a reputation of being lazy, logically fallacious, stereotypical, poorly executed, poorly written, poor in attention to detail, poor in realism, oversimplified, and self-praiseworthy bordering on the verge of propaganda. I know it’s a mouth full, and believe me, there is more. ​ The thing is, people don’t usually like a speech, sermon, TV show, cartoon, or movie driving a message down a person’s throat. If you’re a guy like me, you know that isn’t comfortable. It teaches the person what to think and how to act, which disrespects the adult audience by treating them as children. On the other hand, a more effective method is digging for the subtle meaning or theme by allowing the audience time to think and letting the audience’s past experience make the lesson easier to learn and remember. Think of all the parables Jesus taught that are retold constantly in one way or the other: The Sower, Wheat and the Tares, The Good Servant, The Prodigal Son, The Fig Tree, need I say more? For the most part, most of these Christian films’ plots feel like they are taken straight out of a sermon, which feels out of place in a cinematic experience. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, but if the sermon does itself justice without visuals, why invest money in making a film that fixes what isn’t broken? In fairly recent times, there has been a KickStarter campaign for a CGI Pilgrim’s Progress film. To me, I love the idea of there being another Pilgrim’s Progress film being made, but can the animation technique be something other than what has been the norm for the past 20 years? How about using paper animation for the characters, special effects, and setting? There was a famous Nick Jr. series that starred a blue dog, a shovel, a mailbox, and a pail that looked like they were made using construction paper that a kid got his hands on. That worked. Then again that was the 90’s and early 2000’s, but still, you get the picture.
One subject that often goes fairly unnoticed is the subject of video games. In the retro gaming community, there is this one Christian company that stood and still stands out like a sore thumb in terms of unlicensed Bible games, and that was Wisdom Tree. Before the time Bible Adventures came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES for short) in 1991, Nintendo had a strict licensing policy regarding games made by third party companies such as Acclaim, Konami, Kemco, and Hudson Soft. Under these restrictions, all religious symbolism or blood and gore is removed when developing games. This was because since they were the ones responsible for making video games “rise up out of the ashes” after the 1983 video game crash, all their games were to be fun for everybody despite religious backgrounds. It was a great business model to rake in the cash, but as for third-party game manufacturers, they were forced to comply with such rules. Dan Van Elderen, chief operating officer of Atari, remarked that “the way Nintendo did business was like Ford introducing a car that could only use Ford gasoline.” Wisdom Tree’s story began with the company Color Dreams in 1988, when they were the first company to get around the lockout chip in the NES console. It was a gatekeeper of sorts to only allow licensed games, preventing piracy. Companies like Camerica and Tengen succeeded by reverse engineering the key dubbed the 10NES chip for playing games on the North American and European versions of the console. More often than not, these manufacturers were caught by Nintendo and got sued for infringement of copyright, but later on, they eased the restrictions to allow more freedoms. Still, if you wanted your game on the NES, you have to get it licensed by Nintendo. By 1991, revisions were in place to provide room for the developers, but some developers including Wisdom Tree found success in other companies like Sega, Nintendo’s arch-rival at the time. Almost by coincidence, Konami, (the Contra people) one-upped Wisdom Tree by releasing an official NES game entitled “Noah’s Ark” in 1992. Although it wasn’t really faithful to Genesis 6–9, it was released in Europe only a year after Bible Adventures. I have personally played Bible Adventures for the NES and I really enjoyed it, but one thing that bothered me was the absence of the Nintendo license. You know how you feel inside when you bought something legally without any shenanigans? After I played it, that feeling was gone. I was thinking “What example does this lead? We are to pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but we aren’t paying the appropriate fees for a game we want to make.” It’s like buying a house from a realtor, but instead of paying, you let God take care of it when you have enough money in your pocket. Let’s say I’m the devil’s advocate and know that Color Dreams was a poor company. Through all the name changes, one would expect the company under the name change to clean up their act and get licensed, thus winning the approval of concerned Christian parents. Contrary to this statement, in 1994, Wisdom Tree once again didn’t pay license fees in their only Super Nintendo game that wasn’t sanctioned in the US by Nintendo themselves entitled “Super 3D Noah’s Ark.” Where’s the accountability in that?
Perhaps I’m being Bobby Buzzkill and should lighten up. And I will.
If you really think about it, constructive criticism is essential for making ourselves…..better. Better at being more efficient in work without being lazy or tiring yourself, at swimming skills, at communication skills, or at operating things like machinery. Believe it or not, some of the things we do without thinking took quite a while to master: how we can do that task faster, slower, or carefully without causing so much of a mess.
To say I dislike Christian media is a falsehood. There are great things that come out of it, and I’m sure plenty more will follow suit if time allows it. For good films that have come out, Believe Me is a funny eye opener that preaches against money hungry wolves in sheep’s clothing and warns us to be discerning folk when buying into anything Christian or Christian related. The Passion of Christ is a beautiful, raw rendition of the crucifixion of our Lord. Silence, although based on a novel and directed by a secular director, is a well produced and executed historical drama about missionaries that visit and spread the Gospel in Japan and are persecuted for it during the Shimabara Rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate. For the children’s video market, classic VeggieTales stands tall, and will continue to stand tall for years to come for top-tier quality content made by creative people. In the music industry, there are more and more stations owned by a particular church that are popping up that primarily focus on the less loved genres of Christian music like rap, hip-hop, and flavors of rock, which is a start, but yet if people are willing to pay or donate their pledge to their station to be uplifted by the same Top 40 or 100 playlist that’s on repeat every single day with the same humdrum songs, the same message, the same everything, there’s no stopping the stations for gettig their money’s worth of sameness.
Part of the reasons why I’m writing this essay is out of love for the Christian media in that I want it to thrive, prosper, and be the best it can be. Without love disguised as criticism, people will know of its petulance, shy away, or even make fun of it, which has happened to some. As faithful ambassadors of Christ, we are to be salt in the world and to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Since we are to “speak truth in love”, critique should never be abusive or harsh, but because you want the best for the person in whatever mode that would benefit the person later on like a mother reminding her child to clean his room. I’m proof of this.
I cannot help but reminisce when I was learning how to use a weed trimmer. I was bound determined to learn by myself without help, and well, the rest is history. I treated such criticism as a discouragement and would cry about it, which only made it worse. It was until I finally humbled myself all these years later and observed how everybody else, including my Dad, trimmed. I was soon practicing and remembering how every stroke of the head can trim at least 3 inches in diameter and it’s a good idea to keep the head tilted when dealing with concrete edges. Over time and even today, I’m still finessing my technique, but by the grace of God I’ll get better.
To wrap this whole thing up, there is one thing I want to leave you with: Creativity is a God-given blessing he bestows on each one of us, but let us not run it down to the point that we are all obstinate to the point of childish petulance and exist in our own little world. We can all be better by humbling ourselves, heeding fellow believers’ advice who are more creative, do our best at what we do, and “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:31)
I hope and pray this helps.

Sources:
https://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/christian-trends/why-god-wants-you-to-embrace-your-creativity.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLA_d9q6ySs
​Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America, All rights reserved. Clarification by the author.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_3D_Noah%27s_Ark
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_Tree
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah%27s_Ark_(video_game)

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