We live in a consumerist society. This reality is evident not only in the food we eat and the products we buy, but also in the way we approach media. Entertainment is easily accessible all around us. Whether it is reading, listening to music, or more often than not, watching videos, we consume content to such an excessive degree that we have become nearly insatiable.
I am as guilty of this overconsumption as anyone else. It is so dangerously easy to watch video after video, like eating an entire bag of chips with no regard for the calories. Consuming content is easy, it takes no effort and demands nothing of us other than our attention- and even that in increasingly limited amounts.
It is also easy to criticize, and once again I am as guilty as anyone else of doing so. Truthfully, I am probably more guilty than most when it comes to criticizing the popular content currently be produced for our consumption. By the grace of God and a well-trained mind, I am usually able to see through glossy production value wrapped around a depraved message or worldview.
It is good and important to critique the content being offered for our consumption, to encourage people to at least turn the bag around and take a look at the nutritional label before they continue to eat. But if all we ever do is criticize the works being produced, we will accomplish nothing.
We cannot win a culture war by being solely on the defensive. We must create. Cultures, civilizations, are built upon good art. And note this fact, the art we create, the content we produce must be good. Too often modern Christian media, particularly movies, have been concerned primarily, if not exclusively, with their message. The average consumer is not interested in that message if the story is contrived, boring, and predictable, told through poorly written, inane dialogue. We’ve become so used to this being the norm that we have become wary of Christian media.
However Christian movies, music, stories, and art do not have to be mediocre. When the explicitly Catholic movie, “A Man for All Seasons” was released in 1966, it won six Academy Awards, including the Oscars for best picture, best leading actor, and best director. It was a compelling story, well- told, with an excellent cast and a director who was concerned about creating something great. The result was a film of such high quality that it still enjoyed by viewers today.
Going further back in history we can look at the staggering amount of explicitly Christian art created during the centuries after the birth of the Church up until modernity. There is a reason that even atheists visit the Sistine Chapel when in Rome. There is also a reason why many of them don’t remain atheists after that visit. Encounters with beauty, goodness, and truth will always lead to God for those who are open and not actively resisting their work on their soul. This then is why it is critical that we create. People are going to continue to consume, and we must offer them something worth consuming, something of value.
My exhortation is this: write good stories, create good music, produce good films, make art that is meaningful and matters. The Christian story itself is inherently compelling and exciting. Stories or sin, grace, and redemption will always resonate with the human soul. Use whatever gifts you have to create as if the world depends on it, because in a very real way, it does.
Prose for the sake of Poetry 