I thought there were some interesting thoughts in a recent article interviewing Billy Smiley, formerly of the band White Heart and now of The Union of Sinners and Saints:
Faith and spirituality can barely survive religion. Imagine how tough it is for art…
I listen to Christian music now and ask, “Where are the poets? Where are the questions? Where are the champions or thought? Where are the dreamers? Where have they gone? What are the mysteries around us that we still don’t understand and are willing to write about and question?” As Christians shouldn’t we be obsessed with humbly challenging the culture of today with the best music, art, and performance the world has ever seen? Why don’t we do that?
Making great music, being determined about creating something new, something different with an ever-changing culture is what art is all about.
Of course, a friend of mine pointed out the irony that the above words come from the person who penned a song about how “God made convertibles.” And in the video for that song below, we see a misguided anti-science quip made at one of their concerts. Plus we know that religion has inspired and funded a great deal of art down the ages. And so perhaps it is the conservative Evangelicalism that is Smiley’s primary context that is particularly hostile to the arts?
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