With postings like this: “All Thumbs,” who needs my comments or thoughts.
I’ve been in a number of conversations lately that have discussed the rules/value and who’s who of Christian music.
What makes music Christian. If you compare a love song by Bryan Adams to “In the Secret” by Sonicflood, aren’t they basically the same song? But we know one as a secular love song to a girlfriend or a wife and the other as a cry to God, simply because of where we heard it. Had we heard “In the Secret” on a secular radio station, we would likely consider it a secular song.
Think about the song, “Every Breath you Take” by the Police. People have considered it a love song for years.
Personally I think its a stalker song.
Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you
Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I’ll be watching you
O can’t you see
You belong to me
How my poor heart aches with every step you take
Depending on how you view it, I suppose it could be a romantic love song, or a song about a stalker singing to his prey.
In reality, Sting wrote the song about an oppressive government that watched and censored everything it’s citizens did.
So if music can be viewed in numerous ways, what about design in general?
What makes a design Christian or not?
When I send a flyer or postcard to my singles group, what determines if the design is Christian or not?
I remember last year after the Janet Jackson Superbowl fiasco I designed a flyer that had a picture of a sleeveless girl on it.
My church staff wasn’t super happy with the idea because of the previous week’s fiasco. But was it because the design was un-Christian or was it because it suggested things that might not be Christ-like.
Isn’t the human body a thing of beauty, created by the All Mighty Creator?
When Michelangelo sculpted his statue of David was his thought, “I want to make this a Christian sculpture, so I’ll sculpt a figure from the Old Testament” or did he think, “I want to make this as un-Christian as possible, so I’ll scuplt David in the nude?”
Does it matter?
Is there really a difference between a Christian design and a non-Christian design?
When I look at the marketing and design work that “secular” companies put out and then I look at the flyers I get from my church or other churches, I see a definate difference in the design quality but what about the elements?
Should we be concerned about the design elements itself or simply the message it conveys?
