'If your crap is Christian, I'll eat it' - a rant

[SarahBelle]

Only my second post here--long time lurker.

I just had to post a response, because this has been one of my soapboxes for a very, very long time. I'm a Christian, but I can't stand "christian" products. When I was in college, we read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Addicted-Mediocri ... d+the+arts , which makes pretty much the same argument you make, Burris (more or less). I am so sick of the terrible, terrible "art" that is marketed to the Christian contingent. I just don't understand why they buy in (literally and figuratively). The beliefs of the artist are totally disconnected to the product they create. Of course, many of the people who buy in to this mentality haven't been exposed to anything else, which is really, really sad.

[jenny_islander]

The library I work in has the music CDs shelved by genre, including a little section for Christian music. I was helping a lady find some CDs once and one of them happened to be in that section, and she exclaimed, "Oh, you have a Christian section! So my tax dollars ARE going toward something good!" As if anything labeled Christian automatically = good, and anything else = not good. Whatever. I kind of wanted to tell her "Well, actually, YOUR specific tax dollars went toward our collection of Richard Dawkins books." :twisted:

I'm willing to bet that her definition of "Christian music" excludes everything by Bach. Just like I tried to find a volume I was missing from a series of deeply Christian novels--and the local Christian bookstore couldn't even find them in their database--because their database showed only books from publishers that put Christian symbols on the spines, and this series was from Mysterious Press.

Come to that, the same bookstore told me that they didn't carry anything by Bach because they only had "Christian music." The clerk tried to sell me somebody or other breathlessly crooning hymns I sang in church with better accompaniment.

[Burris]

OP (is OP still around? lol) I LOVE YOUR AVATAR OMG MORLA FTW <3

Yup. Still around.

[Lady_M]

I'm not sure right about now whether to laugh or cry at that... :doh:

[Lady_M]

The library I work in has the music CDs shelved by genre, including a little section for Christian music. I was helping a lady find some CDs once and one of them happened to be in that section, and she exclaimed, "Oh, you have a Christian section! So my tax dollars ARE going toward something good!" As if anything labeled Christian automatically = good, and anything else = not good. Whatever. I kind of wanted to tell her "Well, actually, YOUR specific tax dollars went toward our collection of Richard Dawkins books." :twisted:

:lol:

[sparkles]

The "Christian" label will forgive anything, from treacly music and laughable entertainment to abuse and murder. As long as you claim to accept Jesus, you're in the clear!

I guess the only good thing you could say about most Christian "literature" is that come the second or third generation of home schoolers, most of them won't be able to read anyway so it will hardly matter if it's on the level of Shakespeare or Jackie Collins.

My taste in tunes runs to Massive Attack and Arctic Monkeys so I'm not one that would have too many nice things to say about Christian music but I do have a couple of songs that I enjoy. Jars of Clay's Flood is a favorite of mine that never once mentions god or Jebus and can have meaning to both Christian and secular audiences, plus it's just a damned good song. Of course, it's sandwiched in between Lady Gaga and Yeah Yeah Yeahs on my iPod which I don't think would make them very happy...

[B5SnowDog]

[kunoichi66]

It's a shame, because some of the best music in the Western world has been Christian music. I am a little crazy about Requiems, which follow the basic structure of a mass. Beethoven's Agnus Dei is stunning.

edited because I had two different songs mixed up

AGREED. I have a whole boxset of Christian religious music - I love it with the fiery passion of a million sons! Beethoven is good, and the works of William Byrd.

[fakepigtails73]

Whoever thinks that "Forrest Gump" is too risqué for christians to watch deserve all the dreck they get in "Courageous".

I can't believe how lame, vapid, sappy, culturally irrelevant fundie movies and books are...

The last movie of that kind I've had the misforturne of watchine was "End Of The Spear" (I think that's the title??), an awful movie based on a true story about Evangelical Protestant American missionaries who pestered a Central American Native tribe living in the rain forest (I think that it was in El Salvador, but I'm not 100% sure. Sorry. :evil: ) to have them abandon their beliefs and ways of living because "God wants you to know that you're savage heathens but hurray! You too can become annoying like us if you convert!". Natives ended up killing some missionaries, which was the only part that I enjoyed (bad, of me, I know). Some of that tribe eventually converted to fundieism, sadly. Film ends like this, 2 hrs I lost forever.

[infooverload]

I have End of the Spear on my Netflix que right now and only put it there since it recieved a half way decent 3 star rating. I also have Fireproof, but that is reserved for Margarita scale view. FYI Margarita scale is how many margaritas does it take me to sit through this crap. Oh and I was having this similar discussion with my husband about Christian music the other day. I told him I couldn't take anymore of the crappy Christian pop station he was listening to. Then I went into a rant about how if it were any other genre he would expect higher quality. He did admit there were some Christian pop he thought sucked. I figured okay an admission that some Christian entertainment sucks is a start. After all some discernment is better than none, and as already pointed out lots of Christians lack discernment.

[Lady_M]

AGREED. I have a whole boxset of Christian religious music - I love it with the fiery passion of a million sons! Beethoven is good, and the works of William Byrd.

I'm totally into Mozart's Requiem. I also really like Handel's Messiah, I've sung it so many times in choirs that I can pretty much hear any part and start in, and I just love the "Amen" chorus that ends the piece. Mendelssohn's Elijah is another huge favorite of mine.

I'm also very partial to John Rutter. His arrangements of the Christmas hymns are some of my favorite music any time of the year, along with "Gloria" and "Te Deum". That being said, I've met some people who don't like Rutter because he's not Christian enough for them (Rutter describes himself as a "friend, fellow traveler, and agnostic supporter of the Christian faith" in an interview in 2009 with Alan McFarlane). To them, I say that it's their loss, they don't get Rutter's beautiful music to listen to.

[LostSamurai]

Jesus Is My Boyfriend is now the name of my imaginary band...

[Maul the Koala]

Ah. It's very much like Linda from the 19 Kids and Counting Facebook page. She fawns all over the Duggars because they are 'godly and Christian'. Just 'cause you slap the God label on something doesn't make it 'good'.

[PennySycamore]

I was going to see if someone brought up Franky Shaeffer's excellent book on contemporary Xtianity and the arts. I read it years ago when my husband checked it out of the library. I don't know that he read it as he still listens to that awful music, but I thought it was spot on. No wonder the evangelical and fundie crowd hate it so.