“Christians and Cultural Mediocrity”
December 20th, 2006
Check out this very perceptive op ed piece by Bill Barnwell, a Michigan pastor. Here’s a taste:
Much of the problem is that many Christians are told that the arts are evil and need to be avoided. I know that on a mass cultural level, however, that a gifted Christian artist can reach far, far, more people than can the average pastor (and I say this as someone who is a pastor). If you go to church, when’s the last time you heard a sermon calling Christians to the “high calling” of the arts? It’s not at all that I think pastors and missionaries serve no good purpose, but in this day and age those in the media and arts are more effective in charting the course and direction for our culture than the average preacher is. But unfortunately, this is a “mission field” that many Christians have abandoned.
Kelly Hatzenbihler on 
One Response to ““Christians and Cultural Mediocrity””
John Paul II often exhorted believers to take up the means of social communication, observing that they are “neutral” morally in themselves; it’s the use to which they’re put. He also pointed out the immense damage they can do. Here’s a passage from his 1981 reflection on the Christian family in the modern world.
“To this ought to be added a further reflection of particular importance at the present time.
Not infrequently ideas and solutions which are very appealing but which obscure in varying degrees the truth and the dignity of the human person, are offered to the men and women of today, in their sincere and deep search for a response to the important daily problems that affect their married and family life. These views are often supported by the powerful and pervasive organization of the means of social communication, which subtly endanger freedom and the capacity for objective judgment.
“Many are already aware of this danger to the human person and are working for the truth. The Church, with her evangelical discernment, joins with them, offering her own service to the truth, to freedom and to the dignity of every man and every woman.” (Familiaris Consortio, #4)