The idea of "Christian" vs "Secular" things has come to make me drowsy. It never used to bother me. Then I transitioned into a time when it drove me nuts to hear someone attempt to determine whether a movie or a song or an business was a Christian CD or a Secular one. Now, I am no longer irritated. I just sigh with a tiresome disregard.
The word "Christian" today has become tranquilizer dart and does not hold the power it is meant to have. For the purposes of this post, I am chalking the reasoning for this up to our use of Christian vs Secular over the last several decades. We have done ourselves a disservice in this demarcation. So so much is Christian now. We have Christian movies, music, schools, political parties, software, soap, and now, even a Christian Netflix called "Pureflix" (Good Lord in heaven, WHY!!!)
I do not intend to unpack here the theology of whether or not you can determine the salvation of a movie; I have no idea how to baptize a software. For the purposes of this post, and in hopes of keeping it short (since I realize most people will not read it because its not a video and no one is going to read it if its long), I want to speak quickly to where this demarcation has lead us.
IN trying to make a strong dividing line between Christian and Secular, we went to a point where we have overused the term "Christian". Hans Küng wrote, "Inflation of the concept of 'Christian' leads--like all inflation--to deflation." In attaching the term to EVERYTHING, we have inoculated ourselves from the true meaning of what it means to BE A CHRISTIAN.
Junky writing and unrealistic presentations of reality does not make a movie a Christian. People are Christians, and people make art. Lets stop duct taping a Christian sticker on our bad art and pretending it was grafted on there naturally. Let's be Christians by taking up our cross and following Jesus. If you are an artist, then make great art, but stop saying your art is Christian. It is making me so tired.
