B A M B O O S O N G

It all started as I was posting a brief comment on Dale’s blog. He has some of the most thought provoking posts that I just can’t stop. See here, and here. It started with his post on the new Prince Caspian movie, what his expectations are and I started thinking broader about entertainment, music and movies specifically and why it is that our safe Christian circles just want safe movies. CS Lewis said that Aslan wasn’t safe!

It is disappointing how the Christian market can put so much advertising and promotion into something that is mild and bland. (I’m not referring to a specific movie here, but the Christian market in general. It is so predictable too.) The sad thing is we take the bait, and get caught seemingly happily as we are numbed to bland performances and mild plots about happy walks through endless blossoms of cleanliness and perfect plastic smiles.

This is a reflection of our society today; we expect life to go smoothly, easy and comfortable, without hardships. Why have we allowed these perceptions, especially for Christians, let alone American Christians who have it much easier than those in other countries? In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul says that we should be glad to boast about our weaknesses, to take pleasure in our weaknesses, insults, hardships, “persecutions” (not much of an issue here) and troubles that we suffer for Christ.  Life is hard, but God is our strength.   Much in the same way that some (not all) Christian music is cheesy, so are movies targeted at Christian audiences.  They think that is what we want.  The reality is we probably learn more from those controversial movies that we are so against by creating and generating discussion about why we believe what we do. Hmmm.

There is something about war movies, movies like Schindler’s List, Paradise Road, and The Pianist that resonate with me, not because we like the violence, which I don’t nor do I watch these types of movies on a regular basis, but because it takes us out of our safe little holes and shows us that people faced with tragedy and horrible conditions can survive, not because they are strong, but I believe it is because God sustains them in their weakness. In Paradise Road, there are no lone survivors; they survive together, as a community.  It reminds us of the spiritual warfare that is real and goes on whether we face it or ignore it.

As much as I appreciate not putting disturbing images into my mind…there are certainly big gaps between great performances and safe performances.  The problem we have to address is how to make great performances that don’t sacrifice content for quality.

Thoughts?