Sheenar wrote:I'm just saying that we should be supportive of our fellow Christians.
If we're supportive of EVERYTHING, then no change will happen, people will not be motivated to grow better, and so on.
If someone is an artist and all they ever hear is "Good job!" or "You rock!" then they're never going to change, they're never going to get better, they're never going to grow. They're going to stay the same. Considering that Christian entertainment is already inferior in every way to regular entertainment, staying the same is not a good idea.
Say, if someone loved drawing--they put their heart in it, doing it for God --it was their way of ministering to people --and God used their art to change people. How would that person feel if a fellow Christian came along and said "Your art sucks". That would be pretty disheartening. Especially if it's something they really put their heart into for God.
Your fallacy here is that you assume that something that has inherent value to God also has inherent value to humans. This is completely untrue. Even if somebody put their heart into their art for God, that doesn't change the fact that their art might totally suck.
And I feel that's a problem with Christians. We're so concerned with being "nice" to everyone and not stepping on toes. I say no. If somebody sucks at something, tell them. Okay, maybe not in the sense of "This sucks, quit." But you could say, for example, "You know, I get the feeling that art really isn't your strongest talent. Have you tried other areas of creativity?" If they say "NO I LOVE ART IT IS MY LIFE" then whatever, they can't be helped.
I suck at singing. Even if I put my heart into singing for God, it still wouldn't change the fact that I sing like a dying cat. The difference is I don't release albums and try to use it to further my witness. Maybe I'll sing in the shower or under my breath, when other people can't hear it.
If a person sucks at drawing and they still want to draw for God, hey, fine, whatever. I'm just saying maybe they shouldn't be posting it on websites or public displays. Just keep it between yourself and God, eh?
By the way God can use things to change people that aren't good. God even uses sin to change people, that doesn't make sin beautiful. So even if God uses Apologetix's music or somebody's terrible art to change someone's heart, that doesn't make it good. I'm not saying that this band's music is sinful by the way. I'm just saying sometimes God uses terrible things to change us.
I'm not saying we shouldn't hold Christian art/artists to a high standard of quality--but that any criticism should be constructive.
I think constructive criticism has its place but again I feel we put too much stock in not hurting other people, and sometimes that causes problems.
We should tell them how they can improve the quality of their art.
Okay. These people can improve the quality of their art by making lyrics that don't make me want to break my headphones.