Why We Cuss

As Steel Magnolias opens this weekend, I wanted to deal with something proactively and preemptively on the blog. There's some language in Steel Magnolias, and we've decided to keep it.

And while on this subject, let me go out on a limb and say this. Most of the stuff parading around the church under the banner of "art" just sucks...plain and simple. The problem with most church-produced art is that, in a noble attempt to be family friendly and model holiness, we strip our stories of anything sinful. We keep a careful account of bad words, violence, sex, etc. Surprisingly, God didn't seem to be as concerned when writing his story; have you read the Bible recently? The result is that we create flat, lifeless, 2-dimensional characters facing depravity deprived situations that bear little resemblance to real life. Then, we attempt to tell a story of redemption that is shallow because there is nothing to redeem our characters from. In short, we whitewash humanity and undercut the power of the cross. We fail to capture the true story of God and his amazing power to save humanity from the depths of sin.

As Dorothy Sayers would say, we "de-claw he Lion of Judah." And John Henry Cardinal Newman said, "It is a contradiction in terms to attempt a sinless literature of sinful man."

Which is more holy? To tell a story devoid of sin? Or to tell a story that shows the power of the cross over sin? And I'm not advocating here for art as a vehicle for a simplistic Gospel presentation; I'm advocating for honesty.

And while we are being honest, I'm not sure exactly where our convictions should lead us on this. I'm not even sure where I land on this personally. I believe we've got to respect the power of art; while art strives to imitate life, life also imitates art. So we must be good stewards of that God-given creative power. But I'd rather err on the side of protecting and showing off the holiness of God rather than fabricating a false holiness of man.