Where Are All the Artists?
Like many people around the world, I was watching the Academy Awards show on Sunday night. It was quite a production. I was glad to see Slumdog Millionaire win it all even though I have yet to see the film. From what I have heard and read, it sounds to me like it is one of the more redemptive movies of the year.
One of the more intriguing moments of the evening came during Sean Penn’s speech after winning the Best Actor Award for his performance in the film, Milk. Milk is about homosexual activist Harvey Milk and his rise to political office in San Francisco in the 1970s. During Penn’s speech, he commented about how unjust the recently passed Proposition 8 (banning gay marriage) in California was and how ashamed the people who supported and voted for that proposition ought to be. They will be ridiculed by their children and grandchildren, according to Penn.
Immediately after he made these comments, the audience at the Kodak Theater erupted in applause. The cameras panned the audience and I couldn’t see one person who was not enthusiastically clapping. Penn also made some remarks about some people who were holding “hate” signs outside the theater before the guests entered. These folks were likely Christian activists who were protesting the social attitudes of many in Hollywood, particularly when it comes to the homosexuality issue.
It was pretty much at this point in the broadcast that I turned to my wife and asked a question that I have been pondering for quite a long time… Where are all the Christian artists? Now, it might very well be that Hollywood is the sort of place these days that you couldn’t make a public statement about your disagreement with the homosexual rights agenda without getting blacklisted. It might also be the case that there were a lot of people in the Kodak Theater who did not agree with Penn’s statements and I just couldn’t see them refraining from clapping. But, it might also be the case (and likely is) that there really aren’t very many people with a Biblical worldview who mix with Hollywood’s elite. There just aren’t that many Christian artists who are engaging the film community with the Gospel.
The “Christians” who are “engaging” the film community are simply holding signs telling them how wrong they are for believing what they believe. While the content of their message may have elements of truth in it, I wonder how much love there is in the speaking of that truth. Where are the Christians who are commending the Gospel to the artistic community by producing great art, living great lives, and preaching the greatness of Christ? Why do we so easily resort to holding signs instead of doing the far more difficult (and noble) task of loving our neighbors with a view toward speaking the truth to them?
In the end, my heart was simply saddened by all the lost people who walked a red carpet last Sunday. My prayer is that the Lord would raise up hundreds of great artists who will go to what is so clearly one of our great mission fields.
#1 from Simon Brown on May 05, 2009
As I read this posting with my wife, it occured to me that Hollywood makes films to make money, not necessarily to propogate a particular point of view. This requires certain production values which will bring mass audiences to view their product and many of these production values are at odds with the Gospel. So the question in my mind comes down to this; are we asking to make films with Hollywood production values to propogate the Gospel and engage these artists as equals on their territory, or are we asking for people to take a wider view of what it means to be a neighbour and engage these people with the Gospel even though we may not be artists ourselves?