I’ve been re-reading Dan Simmon’s epic story, the Hyperion Cantos (four books worth), and thinking about how appropriate secular entertainment is for believers. There are two issues that immediately come to mind, regarding the value of secular books, movies, and music:

The first is about Truth. The full unadulterated truth comes from God’s word, his specific revelation. Books about the Bible, Christian fiction, musics and movies, all have more of the Truth reflected in them than other entertainment, but are still not 100% the Truth. The more we delve into secular stuff, the further from the Truth we get, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find hints of the truth somewhere in there.

The problem here is having to sort through all the garbage to get to that small kernel of truth, whether it be praising self-sacrifice, or showing upright moral behavior. We recently watched Gran Turino, and there are several good qualities to the actions of the main characters, but there was so much that they did wrong, it almost negates what they did right. The same thing with the Hyperion books. Again, self-sacrifice and “love-conquers-all” are major themes of the books, but so is distorted philosophy and a corrupt version of the church. When I’m reading, I’m constantly telling myself, “Well, that’s not true…that’s not right.” It’s a lot of work.

The second issue here is worldviews (a nod here to Del Tackett). Even if there are no overt issues with a secular book, movie or song, the underlying worldview gives everything a subtle bent toward the deceptions of the modern world. Many of the best science fiction novels I enjoyed when I was younger assume evolution, assume there is no God, assume that the “stuff in the box” is all there is to this world. Even if they don’t say it, the assumptions are there, twisting the knife a little bit more.

Why the rant, then, about secular entertainment? Why not just stick with the stuff made specifically for believers? Again, two reasons.

The first is quality. I’ve looked (and will continue to look) for Christian artists who have the high quality of story-telling and command of the medium (whether words, images, or sounds) that many secular artists have. I think music is pretty much there. There is a wide variety of positive music, from rock to rap to R&B, from many talented people. Movies are catching up, but I can still name on one hand the films that are strong, pro-Christian flicks. And books…my favorite medium…I don’t know. There’s a lot of fiction out there, but it seems geared toward the simple. Is it just me? Or do the authors want to keep the message simple enough, understandable enough, so the readers get the point, or get the connection to Christ? I know there are exceptions to this, but I haven’t found enough.

The second reason to continue experiencing secular entertainment is connection. We are aliens in this world, but we do live here. If we cannot connect to the people here, we will have more difficulty reaching them. We need to be “with” them, but “apart” from them. So any foray into entertainment needs to be approached as a debate, a challenge. We need to be transformed, and not conformed.

My final thought is about us as Christian artists, and it has to do with the quality issue again. We need to be excellent. We need to devote our lives to serving Christ through our art, and it needs to shine brighter than the “Twilights” and “Harry Potters,” it needs to move people more than the “eminems” and “50cents,” and it needs to enlighten more than the “Hotel for Dogs” and “Brokeback Mountains.”

Is that asking too much?

Rom.12:2

Me again. Amy.

Forced again into making blog posts. Mom’s computer was down for a week (I think Ben had something to do with that ) and so I was sneaking in some FB posts and such. Then we went on vacation for 10 whole days at Aunt Sylvia’s, and I didn’t get to do ANYTHING online. Bummer.

Now we’re back, and I can’t believe summer is almost over. I go back to school in a week. I don’t know what’s worse, being bored at home, being bored at Aunt Sylvia’s, or going back to school. To be fair, I got to do a lot of reading at Aunt Sylvia’s, and Ben was WAY too occupied by video games to be a bother. Auntie has a collection of antique (at least 8 years old) game consoles and games, and Ben was in heaven. She also has a killer collection of mysteries (sorry), which is how I spent my time.

Yesterday, I got to hang out at the pool with Beth and Clara, and we simply melted in the dry heat. We tried to pay attention to the older boys and their antics, but it was too warm to concentrate. I forgot how hot it gets here. We’ve lived all over, and spent a lot of time in the Midwest (nice, when it’s not muggy), and of course last summer we were in England (where everything is always green). But everything here in Cow-ifornia is very brown, killed by the sun.

After that, I read a fun and quirky book, all in one sitting. “Alex and the Ironic Gentleman” [link here]. A little below my usual reading level, but I liked it anyway. Mom picked it up at half price from a little bookstore that was going out of business. I hate it when bookstores close. You would think more people would read, then we wouldn’t have this problem.

Oops, gotta go. Clara’s texting me about meeting for ice cream. Yum!