The Ultimate Artist

I've taken up a Sunday ritual that replaced church for me for a while. I made myself a good breakfast, put on a Peter Kreeft lecture and played video games. I find Peter Kreeft very stimulating. Not just mentally, but spiritually. My two favorite ways to be fed. If we include breakfast it's the most full I've ever been.

This morning I was listening to "Shocking Beauty" which in a very roundabout way discusses the importance of art in religion. I think one of the Devil's latest tricks is to try and drive art out of Christianity. I think this plan is starting to fail (thank God).

In my own lifetime I've seen something that I've come to abhor very much. It is a message from several churches throughout America and possibly the World (couldn't say....not much of a World traveler). The message goes like this.

"Dear Artist,
We welcome you to our church, but religion demands sacrifice. In this case, we demand you sacrifice your artistic ways. Cease to be unusual. Please conform and fit in. We want our church to be looked on with favor by other churches and your off the wall ways might have the opposite effect.
Your friends in Christ,
The Sane People"

I feel like I've heard this message and it's something that has kept me, though not entirely away from, at an unhealthy distance from Christianity. From Christ. From God.

I quite agree that religion demands sacrifice. I remember first reading these words from a list of Gandhi quotes on a wall in my mother's office and as soon as I read it I said "Of course. I knew it was always so." Even when I didn't live out those words.

However, to sacrifice unusual manners that are not sinful is, I believe, a sin in itself. I don't believe God favors conformity. It was said of the angels that each individual angel should be looked upon as it's own species. Is this a God who favors conformity? Doubt it.

I think there is an error. We think unity and conformity are synonyms. It's a total lie. Conformity means that we are merely the same type. Unity means we are all together. Toast, eggs, coffee and bacon are not of the same type, but when they are unified they make breakfast! Fantastic!!! I have many Christian friends who differ in many ways. Our lack of conformity does not make us weaker. It makes us stronger. Strengthening the body of Christ. In fact, body is a perfect metaphor. My hand and my liver are very very different. If I went into the doctor and asked him to have my left hand and my liver switch places I think I would get weird looks. Rightfully so. They weren't built to perform the same functions.

Same with us.

I've tried, in vain, to try and live a suburban-styled life. I've failed. I love the weirdos. The people who lack sanity. Who dress funny. Who talk funny. Who think odd things and smell weird. It's my favorite place to be. It's not that suburban-styled life is bad. I was just a hand trying to be a liver. We need both.

What's the point in saying all this? It is a plea. Art is a necessity to Christianity. Not a decoration (and this is where I'm really ripping off Kreeft). When you have a bizarre artist amongst you who says they are a member of the Body of Christ.....you have a choice to make. You can say one of the two things. They start the same way.

"It is wonderful that you are a member of the Body of Christ. Now, lose the nose ring, cut your hair to an appropriate length, wear something more clean cut and bathe more regularly."

"It is wonderful that you are a member of the Body of Christ. How splendid you chose to be among us. We are now closer to complete than we were before."

I think the latter is the right thing to say. Simply because God, in his creation of us, is the Ultimate Artist.