Images and Idols (Reclaiming Creativity) by Lister J. Ryan & Terry Thomas J

Author:Lister, J. Ryan & Terry, Thomas J. [Lister, J. Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 2018-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

The Idol of Creativity and the World’s Good

Idols are relentless. They won’t let go until they have all of who we are. The idol of creativity captures our attention with our own reflection and holds it there until all we can see is ourselves and our imaginative “genius.” The world fades into the background, and our neighbors are there only to serve our personal interests. Sure, we want to entertain everyone, we want the audience to love us, and we want them to follow our every move. But it’s often for no other reason than to earn their applause and ticket sales.

This is creativity’s post-fall hidden agenda: we serve only one master, and when that master is ourselves, we try to manipulate everything else to serve us. This includes our neighbor. We reduce everyone to a retweet or a like in our social media feed. Creatives sit on thrones of their own making, while their followers cast their time and money at their feet.

Over time, though, creatives trade artistic purity for its fringe benefits. As a result, their followers eventually become their leaders; the assumed needs of the audience overtake the creative’s initial love. As Flannery O’Connor argues, “Every day we see people who are busy distorting their talents in order to enhance their popularity or to make money that they could do without.” But what’s worse is when “we see people distorting their talents in the name of God for reasons they think are good.” 8

This particular curse haunts us as much as it does all of modern Christianity. Instead of leading the charge to great art, Christians often chase these same secular paradigms. At best, we make good Xerox copies. This is where modern Christian creativity tends to overlap with idolatry. Take much of the music we hear today on Christian radio, for instance. Many of these songs are to real music what idols are to authentic Christianity. Both photocopy the excellence of their source. And it works on us, because we are often too blind to see the real beauty behind the counterfeit.

What we think benefits other Christians as well as the lost, in fact, sometimes does the opposite. I (Ryan) remember being at a nationwide youth conference where the leaders challenged us to make a commitment to replace our secular music with Christian music for thirty days. They promised that if we did, we would never want our old music back. I took the challenge—which meant I spent a lot of money on music at the conference exhibitor’s hall (a nice little sales bump for the conference, I’m sure). And when the thirty days were over, I could name you all the secular musical influences the Christian artists replicated, and all I wanted was my old music back. Not because I loved its message but because it was qualitatively better music.

Here is what we know: cookie-cutter creativity doesn’t serve our neighbors; it bores them. It pushes them back into the store to find the originals. Today’s “boutique” generation has no patience for off-brand creativity.

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