The Secular Side

A conversation started the other day in class pertaining to the word 'secular', and I would like to give my thoughts. And for the purposes of this conversation, let's just talk about how we apply it to art-music, film, etc.

Dictionary.com defines secular as "of or relating to worldly things or things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal".

Can I just start by asking, what determines if a piece of art is secular? Whether or not it comes from a church? Whether or not it portrays God in a positive way? Whether or not it contains profanity? Or maybe, we base this decision on the artist being a Christian or not (you know, because it's always so obvious).

I would also like to ask, who determines if something is secular? Well, actually, that's easy. Christians do. I mean, have you ever seen anyone get up and proclaim to be a secular artist?

We Christians also like to use the 'Christian' label; We listen to our Christian music, watch our Christian movies and shows, read our Christian books, and pretty much wallow in all things Christian, and it makes us feel good about ourselves, because everything we consume has come from Christians, has God's name is big flashing lights, and probably doesn't make us uncomfortable with profanity.

And so in this way, we draw a line between us and all things 'secular', not letting anything or anyone pass from either side. We stand on our side, which is just high enough off the ground for us to look down at the secular side, and tell everyone and everything,"You aren't good enough for us".

As I'm sure you all know, this poses a couple of problems. First of all, when this is our attitude, who will want to learn more about Christ? Who will even give it a chance if we present ourselves as arrogant, know-it-all goody-two-shoes?

Secondly, we will never grow if we continue to only expose ourselves to things that we know, things that were made for us. We will alienate ourselves and forget how to relate to others. We will forget that we too are guilty and deserve death, and that is was grace that took away our sin, not ourselves.

When we take away the notion of 'secular', we see that art is just people bringing their inner-most selves - their beliefs, their perspectives, their dreams and souls - out of themselves and projecting it onto whatever medium they prefer. And whether it is devoted to God or not, it is beautiful, because it is a reflection of their true selves. And even if the primary purpose of a piece is not to bring glory to God, that does not mean that it doesn't. As I'm sure everyone has, I've seen and listened to so-called secular art that seems to bring it a lot more than most Christian stuff does.

I'm sorry if this all seems like more of a rant than an actual thought-out argument, I just really have strong feelings about this. I also realize that I'm probably preaching to the choir, but I feel better having this off my chest. : )