The Arts Benign?
'While the arts are benign and contain no spiritual content in and of themselves, they can be used of God to draw people to Him. ' (quote from The Road We Travel)
*************************************************
Here is the definition of "benign" from Dictionary.com
1. Of a kind and gentle disposition.
2. Showing gentleness and mildness. See Synonyms at kind1.
3. Tending to exert a beneficial influence; favorable: a policy with benign consequences for the economy. See Synonyms at favorable.
4. Having little or no detrimental effect; harmless: a chemical additive that is environmentally benign.
5. Medicine. Of no danger to health; not recurrent or progressive; not malignant: a benign tumor.
**************************************************
I am guessing that quote was leaning to #4. I have some friends (fellow artists) who were somewhat in disagreement with that statement. But I would say that if I were to ask you if singing, painting, dancing, drama were good or bad and you answered one way or the other, I could point out many examples to the contrary. But then we would be bringing out specific examples of singing, painting, etc. So the above statement is probably true, in my opinion.
The act of singing (or any other art) is a tool. You can sing a God-glorifying song or a world-glorifying song or maybe something you might consider neutral, like "I've Got Rhythm"...:-)
And while the act of singing may be benign, it can be used to elicit emotional responses...and a beautiful melody can stick in your head. If the words that are piggybacking on that melody are not God-honoring, you then wind up meditating on something worldly without meaning to. Or even a song that has faulty Bible in it, like ANY song that talks about us dying and becoming angels...(just an example, but that always gets me).
Almost any tool that is just sitting is probably benign (gun, knife, dancing, painting, baseball bat). But once someone picks it up to use, it is no longer just "the art" in and of itself...it takes on a life and goal of whatever the crafter wills for it to be...and that can be powerful for good or evil.
'While the arts are benign and contain no spiritual content in and of themselves, they can be used of God to draw people to Him. ' (quote from The Road We Travel)
*************************************************
Here is the definition of "benign" from Dictionary.com
1. Of a kind and gentle disposition.
2. Showing gentleness and mildness. See Synonyms at kind1.
3. Tending to exert a beneficial influence; favorable: a policy with benign consequences for the economy. See Synonyms at favorable.
4. Having little or no detrimental effect; harmless: a chemical additive that is environmentally benign.
5. Medicine. Of no danger to health; not recurrent or progressive; not malignant: a benign tumor.
**************************************************
I am guessing that quote was leaning to #4. I have some friends (fellow artists) who were somewhat in disagreement with that statement. But I would say that if I were to ask you if singing, painting, dancing, drama were good or bad and you answered one way or the other, I could point out many examples to the contrary. But then we would be bringing out specific examples of singing, painting, etc. So the above statement is probably true, in my opinion.
The act of singing (or any other art) is a tool. You can sing a God-glorifying song or a world-glorifying song or maybe something you might consider neutral, like "I've Got Rhythm"...:-)
And while the act of singing may be benign, it can be used to elicit emotional responses...and a beautiful melody can stick in your head. If the words that are piggybacking on that melody are not God-honoring, you then wind up meditating on something worldly without meaning to. Or even a song that has faulty Bible in it, like ANY song that talks about us dying and becoming angels...(just an example, but that always gets me).
Almost any tool that is just sitting is probably benign (gun, knife, dancing, painting, baseball bat). But once someone picks it up to use, it is no longer just "the art" in and of itself...it takes on a life and goal of whatever the crafter wills for it to be...and that can be powerful for good or evil.
posted by angela at 1:51 PM
3 Comments:
The big band / swing band that I play drums for plays "I've Got Rhythm". It's probably a good thing they don't let me sing it though :)
I think the point Rick was trying to make is that ... for example.... rock music is not necessairly bad. With Christian lyrics on it, it can be used as a force to reach a certain segment of our culture.
The tricky part comes when you consider that to a different segment of our culture.... it's not benign. It has conotations and perceptions built in by the nature of the instrumentation, manner that it's played, studio effects employed etc. That the music in and of itself.... even without the lyrics causes a not favorable response with some people. (as you know I'm not one of those. I like to ROCK THE HOUSE)
But I think it gets pretty tricky and requires much skill... when we begin changing those perceptions that are almost always tighly held and established over a long period of time by a certain segment. Are they wrong for holding those perceptions. Maybe. Are they wrong for not wanting to change. Maybe. Does it matter if they are or not? Probably not.
We're making it a point to be culturally relevant. It's important that we do that to all cultures, and that we don't pick and choose which culture we want to reach at the expense of allienating another. That's the difficult part.
So yeah... art in and of itself is benign. But it's perception is almost never benign. And really, what is art????... is it the sound waves that make up a song or the oil and canvas that make up a painting...... or is it in actuality the response that it elicits?
Yeah...see I think it is the intent of the artist and the perception of the hearer/observer...but it's almost like the tree falling and does itmake a noise if there is no one hear it...
The act of singing or dancing may be benign, but there is no purpose for it without a message to convey or an audience to hear/see it.
I think art is what people preceive it to be. I think that the preception is controlled to greater and lesser degrees by the talent of the artist. A good artist can really use their craft to communicate in powerful ways.
And then an artist on a completely different level can use say lyrics, to communicate different ideas to different groups of people, with the same set of lyrics.
Post a Comment
<< Home