I’ve talked recently about why Christians should care about art, in this new series I’m going to talk about why Christians should specifically encourage each other to work in secular art fields as well as overtly Christian ones
Reason 3: Christian entertainment by itself will kill itself off
I pointed out in my last post in this series that “Christian art” (Christian-themed novels, worship music, church art, anything on that spectrum) can only say certain things.
Christians need artists who will say those things with their work, and if possible they should make a decent living from their work.
So, if Christians have the freedom to do so, they should build and organize markets for “Christian art.”
However, you can only have those kind of markets in countries that have legally-protected religious freedom. You can’t run a Christian publishing house in a country that censors religious expression.
Further more, you can only get and maintain that kind of religious freedom in a country where religious people always make positive contributions.
You can start out with a country whose legal framework allows for religious freedom. But anyone can justify evil actions as being religious duties, so religious freedom truly only covers religions that clearly bring something positive to societies.
So, if religious people who cause more problems than solutions in that country, if they gain reputations for not caring about anyone except themselves, then lawmakers and other citizens won’t continue to grant them religious protection. Somewhere along the road, the line gets drawn and the rest of society decides that religion is unhealthy.
So, responsible religious people must find ways to contribute to their societies.
This means doing the kind of things the early Church did (caring for people no one else cared about, trying to leave peacefully with everyone). It also involves taking whatever practical or artistic fits a person has and using those to benefit everyone.
Thus, working in “secular art fields” is not just one way Christians reach out to provide help and hope to others. On a practical level, it’s a way Christians ensure their beliefs are respected and they can create resources for themselves.
Ironically then, Christian art markets need a healthy number of Christians working in secular markets in order to survive.
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G. Connor Salter 