Is there a conspiracy against Christian art? Do atheistic gatekeepers conspire to suppress the Christian message and keep it from mainstream 
audiences? Are Christian artists unjustly targeted for censure in ways that others aren’t? Is there a double standard in the marketplace when it comes to religious and “secular” (or anti-religious) rhetoric? Is “agenda” just as prevalent in the general market as the religious market?
Or are Christians full of it?
It is not uncommon to hear “horror stories” from Christian artists about what they feel is discrimination. I recently received a comment from someone who referenced two Christian authors, both of whom were asked by general market publishers to remove explicit Christian content from their stories. They refused. Result: Goodbye general market. Do things like this really happen and, if so, what say you about it?
Nevertheless, even if there is a conspiracy against Christian art, it does us little good to complain about it. In fact, the conspiracy may be one of our own making.
Barbara Nicolosi founded Act One, a program to train screenwriters and Hollywood executives to produce quality films that connect with audiences of faith. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, she made these observations:
“Honestly, I didn’t start out to fix Hollywood,” said Nicolosi, who has a master’s degree in film from Northwestern University. “I started out to fix the church in the arts.”
After two years of “reading hundreds and hundreds of horrible scripts” at a Catholic movie production company, Nicolosi concluded that Christian screenwriters were their own worst enemies.
“They had nothing but arrogance and ignorance, and self-righteousness to boot,” the outspoken Nicolosi said. “They were screaming about how Hollywood was persecuting Christians. I realized Christians were not being martyred in Hollywood; they were committing suicide.
“We were being embarrassed by Christians who were writing works that were substandard and saying the Holy Spirit inspired them to do it.”
Christians commonly assume that the secular media is out to silence them. The perception that publishers, celebrities and Hollywood execs are anti-Christian is status-quo in many faith communities. Which makes Ms. Nicolosi’s opinion all the more interesting.
I’m not one to cede conspiracies, but I happen to believe that positive religious themes and traditional values do not get a fair shake on prime time. But does this justify our belly-aching? In this way, Nicolosi’s observations are helpful. In fact, I wonder that most Christian artists would be better off — even if they believed a conspiracy was alive and well — by acting as if it were NOT true.
Let’s face it — it’s much easier to pin the lack of “Christian witness” on the presence of atheistic gatekeepers, rather than the absence of a quality product. And Hollyweird is an easy scapegoat. But, according to Nicolosi, the absence of a “Christian presence” in the arts may have less to do with a conspiracy, and more to do with mediocrity.
Could it really be that “Christians [are] not being martyred in Hollywood; they [are] committing suicide”? The same could be asked of Christian artists in any field — music, literature, theater. Have we deceived ourselves into believing we are not at fault? Are we too eager to blame our “bad fortune” on the godless gatekeepers? Are we “writing works that [are] substandard and saying the Holy Spirit inspired [us] to do it”?
How one answers those questions is important. The person who’s convinced the system has it out for him, will often spend as much time bitching as working to improve his craft. Perhaps it’s time for a tactical adjustment. Instead of fretting over some satanic cabal, we should strive to produce the highest quality art possible.
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Question: Do you think there is a “conspiracy” against Christian art? Do you think there is a double-standard in the media toward religious-themed work? Or do you believe, like Ms. Nicolosi suggests, that we commit “artistic suicide” and worry far too much about conspiracy and not enough about quality?
I highly recommend the book “The Christian Imagination” by Leland Ryken for those pondering this topic. A must for Chritian writers.
Great post and conversation! I am an artist and I recently completed a series of 12 contemporary paintings on “The Church”. Exploring the different conditions of the church, which were inspired by the 7 churches in Revelation.
I would love to get feedback from anyone willing to take a look. Thanks!
squidoo.com/churchandart
I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about the possibility of ‘Christian Art’ and, more specifically, Christian Literature so I naturally found this article interesting.
First of all, I don’t believe there is a conspiracy against Christian fiction per se, but I do believe that contemporary North American Christian culture is putting itself at a disadvantage when it comes to producing good artists.
First of all, there is the prohibition against swearing and describing sex.
Nearly every secular novel published today is full of both swearing and sex. Since many contemporary authors want to accurately describe modern people doing modern things, their descriptions and depictions will invariably (even necessarily) include sex scenes and swearing. The reason Christians were able to become successful writers between c. 1800 and 1950 is probably due, in large part, to the fact that, at that time, swearing and open talk about sex were not as common as they are now. If swearing and open talk about sex is frowned upon, there’s no need for a novel’s characters to swear profusely or for an author to go into great detail describing sex.
Today, however, nearly everyone swears without a second thought while sex and nudity are no longer ‘closet matters’. So, for writers to accurately depict modern social life, they feel they need to include swearing and sex-talk. Not to do so makes for weird, prudish, and unrealistic characters (hence the turn to Amish fiction, where swearing and talk about sex are able to remain hidden).
Secondly, contemporary North American Christian culture has latched onto a relatively narrow idea of what it is to be a man or a woman. I get the impression that Christian men ought to be confident, physical, and unemotional. Reading is a feminine activity, fighting and hunting are manly activities; painting is for women, engineering is for men. Now, I know this is overly simplistic, but have you wondered why there are so many famous Christian UFC fighters and so few notable Christian male novelists? Is it that MMA fighting is more Godly? Or is it really that Christianity today discourages men from pursuing the arts? This is something we need to consider. Moreover, as anyone who has read about an artist will know, artists tend to be much less emotionally stable than others. Perhaps, then, these less emotionally and psychologically confident individuals are ostracized from a church that demands (at least the pretense of) stability, growth, and confidence.
Finally, do we really need a ‘Christian Fiction’ genre anyway? Did Dostoevsky or Waugh or Greene or Eliot publish with Christian publishers? Do Christians need their own brand of fiction? (Do they need their own brand of hockey gear? furniture? clothing? automobiles?) Perhaps Christian fiction publishers are, in the end, only hurting Christian artists who want Christ to shine through their art and without being guided by more or less arbitrary standards as to what constitutes ‘Christian’ and what does not.
I’d have to say, there’s one Christian film-maker who has proven, multiple times, that this is definitely the case; Mel Gibson. He has directed outstanding quality Christian films like Hacksaw Ridge, and The Passion of the Christ, and they have gone on to receive outstanding critical review and box office success, much more than many films he has acted in, so it’s not just his name alone that sells these films, they are amazing films. Audiences crave good story telling first and foremost. If the storytelling is poor, it doesn’t matter what the world view of the writer/director is. Of course not everyone has the resources or budgets for films of that scale, but there’s plenty of terrible Christian films made which aren’t terrible because of their budgets.