I've been thinking about the nature of media and the Christian responses to it. I realize that I'm jumping into a vat of controversy here, especially since I think the way that most Christians view media is... well, misguided. Or just outright wrong. There, I said it. I think you're wrong. It's okay. I'm wrong a lot and Jesus still love me. He loves you too.
Here's the funny thing though. Jesus loves everyone no matter how "wrong" they are in our sight. How does this relate to how Christians view the world of media? Only everything, in my opinion. Because here's the thing, and I'll keep coming back to this. Christians are commanded to love God, and love their neighbor. Two biggest things. So a Christian says "I love God, that's why I don't listen to death metal/watch Jersey Shore/read romance novels." I think that's a dangerous sort of statement. It holds the connotation that God decreed that these things were inherently bad.
Now, I love God. I also don't listen to death metal, but it's because I really have no love for that kind of music, just like dubstep or anything harder than Evanescence really (ask my brother... he's always trying to get me to listen to his music and I just look at him like he's insane). Just like I don't like 99.9% of Country music (and that .1% is in deference to Carrie Underwood because I love her voice and most of her music doesn't make me want to claw my eardrums out). But I don't think that God hates people who listen to music that I don't like. So why do I get in so much trouble sometimes for what I listen to? Yes, I tend to only listen to "Christian" music selectively. Yes, I listen to music that talks about some interesting things, or swears every once in awhile. I even think music that swears can have a good message still. I mentioned in my posts about Fantasy as a whole and about Harry Potter that I find Jesus in many things. If it happens to be in a song that swears, I'm not going to freak out. That's just not my thing.
And again, I'm not going to get on someone for consuming media that I don't like because I think my personal tastes equal God's edicts. There's this whole to-do on Facebook about the dude from Duck Dynasty. I don't even know exactly what he said, but I know that people on both sides are up in arms about it. And every conservative Christian is railing at A&E for their reaction. I'm not going to go off on a rant about it all, because I don't understand the issue well enough and frankly, I don't care that much. Except for this point. Whatever it was he said pissed off a lot of people, who already mostly hate the Church because we've been such jerks to them. This doesn't seem to me to be a very great example of the love of Christ for everyone. That's all I have to say about that.
It's the same basic concept for all media. When you broadly denounce a whole genre or artist you automatically put everyone who follows that on the defensive and when you tell a kid that listening to non-Christian music or reading a book about witches or watching a movie with sex in it will lead them straight to hell you introduce a whole world of guilt and condemnation where there should be none. "Therefore, there is then no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1. I've quoted it before and I will continue to because I was condemned a whole lot long after I had dedicated to living in Christ Jesus, and it's why I get so uppity about these issues.
I wrote a short story awhile back that was published in Metonym Literary Journal, the second issue. It was called "The Real Me" and it talked about my journey with appropriate language and being told that my very being in a lot of ways wasn't "appropriate." So this isn't my first rodeo with this topic. I've been here awhile.
The thing is, when you have "Culture Wars" (a term I hear a lot, with various different meanings) without love, you just get people mad. Mad people don't listen. They also don't feel like you're loving them. When you call them stupid because what they listen to is "inappropriate" think about your definition of appropriate and how you enforce that. I'm not saying that everyone should totally go out and listen to anything, read anything. Please, don't go out and read 50 Shades. Not just because there is sex, and not "appropriate" sex at that. Because it's just written badly and even people who are supportive of BDSM don't like it (I've mentioned Laci Green? She had a whole rant about it). But if you are a Christian, recognize that there are people who read and love it and denouncing it as "of the Devil" may be true (in my opinion) but it's not going to win you a ton of friends. I'm never ever going to read Twilight ever again, but I know Christians who love it and I forgive them for their ignorance (again, I'm great at stating my opinion humbly...).
I feel like I'm repeating myself/getting off on rabbit trails. So here's my main point. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean that everyone else has to not like it. I feel like this is the most basic of life skills, taught in kindergarten. "Johnny likes green, but Julie likes pink. Johnny teased Julie about it and got in trouble because that's not very nice. Johnny's teacher asked him if he'd feel very good if Julie teased him about liking green, and he said he wouldn't. So Johnny apologized to Julie and gave her a pink flower. The end."
The problem is that Christians tend to forget this after we're in the Church. Or especially if you've been raised in the Church. We get confused because theology and opinion are taught so closely that you forget what's theology and what's opinion and then we get into trouble because God obviously hates sin and whatever we don't like gets superimposed onto our image of what "sin" looks like. Yeah God hates sin. But He loves the sinner. And if you go around denouncing everything that a person is doing because it's sin, they're not going to feel very loved. That's the main point.
Besides, God shows up everywhere. If I listen to secular music and hear Him in the middle of a Katy Perry song, I'm going to be horrified because Katy Perry (even if it's a great song... seriously. Unconditionally, look it up). But I'm going to recognize that God is there. If I'm reading pagan mythology, I'm going to recognize the parts that are true and the parts that are not because I've spent enough time with God to recognize Him there. In some areas it's clearer to me, in some places I can't. I let opinion get in the way. I just actually had a conversation with someone who loved Twilight because she saw Jesus in it, and the reasons she gave were very good and as much as it pained me, I had to admit that you could get that out of it. Do I agree that Twilight is awesome? Obviously not. But I respect that others can get Jesus out of it. I just ask that others respect that I can get Jesus out of some pretty weird places.
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