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Re: they call this Christian?!?

categorization...

categorization.


i know enough about the word "dilemma" to know
that this is one, in that it defies a satisfactory solution.


i've always looked at the divider labels in cd shops with derision,
thinking, "yeah, so Dead Can Dance is now 'rock/pop', huh?"

..and our beloved Loreena McKennitt.

                                (sacrilege!)


no matter what something is, we label it.
it's in us to do this.
it sucks, but we have to label. otherwise it's all just one big mess.

  what if you didn't have folders in your computer?
       what if every file you have inside this box was thrown in 'c:\'
       out of rebellion or resistance to throwing on labels?
would we say to ouselves "wayull, at least i didn't categorize that stuff! 
there! ha!"?

what if the words "oak", "maple", or "dogwood"
didn't exist - but only the word "tree" ?



~ now about this element in us of humanness, of expression... ~

                    more specifically for now - music.

as irked as i am about finding Loreena McKennit in the 'rock/pop'
section at the local cd shop usa, i'd be a little more upset to find
that there's no categorization there at all, like, i might find her
nestled in front some a rapper or something! ack!

in turn, i'd be a fool to think that every cd shop is going to create
eleven hundred sections in their store just to -try- and satisfy folks
like myself. in fact, i'm sure that if you polled ten people to categorize
an artist, you would probably come up with eight to ten different
category names for each artist.
it's just not feasible. and it won't work that way.

so, we try the best we can to categorize by style.
similarly, many categorize by belief system.

i had the opportunity to play (as OtR did also - yay!) at the Inner Seeds
music festival in Georgia about six years ago... i remember watching
the Violet Burning before our set and being highly impressed with them.
the vocalist said something that has stuck with me - he was talking
about this very subject and how perplexing it can be.
he said something to the effect of:
"why do some get so hung up on labelling things as 'Christian'
and exclude all else? are we to only buy flowers from Christian florists,
and only drink milk from Christian cows?! some try to do this!"

as far as (deep breath - here we go) "Christian" music goes,
<snip>
nevermind, i don't even wanna...

so anyway, people are going to label music. it's an absolute.
you do it, and you'll continue to do it. it's how we communicate.
you can call the Newsboys rock, pop, alternapop, Christian,
or whatevertheheckyouwanto. i don't care.
(poor example, sorry. let's use The Choir instead, or Breakfast with Amy!)


                    moving on to - visual art.

i've looked at books of "Christian art", or "Religious art" before, yah.

question is - five hundred years ago when the confined establishments
of the church were the only solace for the artist, were those artists 
Christians?
(chuckle)

one of my favorite artists is Hieronymus Bosch, an early 16th cent Dutchman.
many of his scholars say that he was a madman, a syphilitic,
and an occultist. (i interrupt to admit that i do not claim to know
his heart, only God does, and i make -no- speculations on his salvation.)
most of his later works are equally beautiful and disturbing, but he
started out like most - with acceptable, palletable works.

the reason i tell this is to say that he made some paintings that people
would call "Christian art", with Christian themes. was he a Christian?
if he was, i've never found evidence of it. i see him as a brilliantly
disturbed man that had intense and fantastical visions.


                            finally ~

the scope of all the above words:

we will use labels to define the style of something, but we should
be a little careful when using belief system as a factor in this 
categorization.

mainly because it can be deceptive...

(we're fickle and deceptive buggers, aren't we?!)

mainly because we're humans that like to create things,
and those things should be mainly labelled by their form and style.


i believe the solution could go something along the lines
of what Lisa Walker (hello? you still here?? we miss you!)
said in a post of hers last August:

>I guess I see OTR as a group in which some of the members are
>Christians and glorify God in their lifestyle, which comes out in the
>words they write, while the mission statement of the overall band is to
>make music and reach people with thought and beauty

well said.

-very- well said.


i'm done now, thanks for reading...

edward jay

NP: Medeski Martin and Wood - _Shack-man_

"The devil's brand is on my bones, 
an' from inside the Holy Ghost groans"
David Eugene Edwards - 16 hp
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