There’s a scene in the great cinematic masterpiece Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me1 where Dr. Evil and his son, Scott, whom he has just recently met, go to father/son group therapy. It’s only been five days since their reunion, but the two are already in the crosshairs about how Scott fits into Dr. Evil’s program of world domination.
Naturally, Dr. Evil expects Scott to take over the world after his death, but Scott has other plans.
“I kind of like animals,” Scott says. “Maybe I’ll be a vet.”
“An evil vet?” Dr. Evil interjects.
“No,” Scott says. “Maybe, like, working at a petting zoo—”
“An evil petting zoo?” his father interrupts again.
“YOU ALWAYS DO THAT!” Scott screams in frustration.
It might sound weird, but at one point in my Christian life, this scene was highly relatable.
My husband and I spent five years in a legalistic church culture, which harmed us both due to inexperienced, authoritarian leadership and unclear doctrine. For me, the damage stemmed from people’s failure to understand my complex testimony and the significance of the creative arts to my faith.
Remember that lady who told me that I needed to write about people coming to Jesus in order to truly please God? Yeah, that incident happened there.
It wasn’t just my writing, though. It was the kind of stories, movies, and music that captured my imagination. Art had always been a life-giving part of how I experienced my faith, and until this point, it had never occurred to me that there might be something wrong with that.
But suddenly, I was assailed with criticism. I was being too influenced by “The World.” I was consuming too much “media.” Worst of all, if these things were both true, it logically followed that I might not actually be saved.
I was an apostate at best and an infidel at worst. All because I wrote stories about sinners and liked Mad Men and The Clash.
To be clear, if you are a Christian, the decision about what kinds of media to consume is a grave one. Stories can do great good, but they can also be a tool for evil. Given that many movies, books, and songs tell devastating lies about our identities and the source of life’s meaning, we must be careful about these choices.
The problem is that many congregations go beyond biblical principles. “The Media” and “Entertainment” become dangerous conglomerates that no Christian should ever engage with, and doing so would surely jeopardize their holiness and maybe even their salvation.
There are multiple problems with this reasoning, but I’m just going to give you two of them. First, despite the terrible influences present in our contemporary culture, there is also a great deal of good work. Dismissing the artistic sphere as a whole is a massive overgeneralization.
Secondly, the question of what music to listen to or what stories to experience is an issue of conscience, not a salvation issue. Obviously, the early church didn’t have streaming services, so there are no commands against watching Netflix or listening to Taylor Swift.
Thus, Romans 14, one of the primary texts about Christian liberty, explains that concerning our individual decisions on these issues, “Each should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5b).
Of course, individual preferences can become a problem if we cause Christian brothers and sisters to stumble by not respecting their conscience in these areas (see Romans 14:14-15). But the reverse is also true. Unless there is a black-and-white violation of scripture, we are not to judge each other in the areas that God’s Word does not explicitly address (see Romans 14:3-4).
But the congregation my husband and I belonged to didn’t practice these nuances. To them, the only permitted music and films were those with a Gospel Message™ stuck into the storyline or an explicit mention of Jesus in the lyrics.
But given that the approved artists and titles weren’t exactly shining examples of great art, this was not acceptable to me. As a result, whenever I talked about my writing or a movie or music I’d recently enjoyed, I felt kind of like Dr. Evil’s son, Scott.
I imagine the following scenarios:
Me: “I wrote a short story and it won a prize from a major literary publication!”
Church People: “A Christian publication?”
Me: “Man, I saw that movie that won Best Picture, and it blew my mind.”
Church People: “A Christian movie?”
I once heard an author give an illustration that when you go to a dentist or hire a plumber, you don’t vet them to make sure they’re Christian dentists or plumbers. But for some reason, a lot of Christians go bananas when an author or filmmaker isn’t a believer or doesn’t use one of their characters as a mouthpiece for the Gospel.
We are told to exercise discernment, but too often, this command takes a backseat to paranoia, judgment, and control, none of which are biblical (see 2 Timothy 1:7)
By contrast, James writes, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).
In every area of our lives, we are each instructed to “examine yourself to see if you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). If the Spirit convicts you about whether to listen to a certain song or watch a movie, then you must obey Him.
But beyond this, you are not obligated to justify the art that edifies you.
You don’t have to rationalize it by creating some Gospel narrative or biblical parallel that isn’t really there. You don’t have to call yourself a “Christian Artist” or get a PureFlix subscription (unless you want to).
It’s okay to just say, “I thought this was cool. It made me think. It made me laugh. It made me cry.”
You are free to love beautiful things.
I realize this is a complicated issue, Really, 1,000+ words isn’t enough to fully address it.
But in the weeks to come, I’m going to deal with a lot of similar topics. I might step on some toes in the process. But I’m not honest about my theology and convictions regarding the peculiar crossroads of art and faith, the most important things I have to share with you later won’t benefit you.
Meanwhile . . . do you have more thoughts about this? Does this post bring particular experiences to mind? Feel free to go at it in the comments.
An astute reader informed me that this incident actually occurred in the first film, which shows what a huge Austin Powers fan I am. Nonetheless, the theologically implications of this significant cinematic work on my life still stand.
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