| Ok, so I think the dust has cleared and the holidays are officially over.
I feel like "break" is beginning now. After finals it was one thing after another. We had a week to get our shopping done and then it was Christmas, which was great, but fast. Christmas conference came and went, we entered a new year, and now all we have to do is sit back, relax, and see what comes of it...yeah right...
I saw this in front of a church here in West Chester:
Happy 2006
A Year of Heaven on Earth
Now, as intriguing as this is (it totally captures where I'm at by the way.) I truly hope it did not say the same phrase a year before! In talking to people this weekend about the past year- it definitely was not one to rejoice over, but it is one to be proud of. From the very beginning we saw a Tsunami, Hurricane, Flood, Earthquakes, a war, and the death count from all those continues to be simply brushed aside as westerners simply do not want to think about such things. I think it has to be a fact: that Americans do not experience pain- and are at a natural inclination to avoid it. I don't think that we want to avoid it, but some simply do not believe in it.
It would be easy to point to the conservative news outlets, and Midwestern optimism, and religious TV personalities who get paid by the size of their smiles- but there are many more "religious" types who surround themselves with other's pain in hopes to ease it somewhat, who don't make it into the spotlight or have time to write series of books or preach to thousands of eager listeners, and what about those who suffer from oppressive governments who don't have the luxury as we do in America to freely express ideas. I personally know a man who had to move his family out of their home country in fear of the government, so do not start to say Christians have no concept of pain- I guarantee you that is sure evidence of a narrow mind.
Instead my concern is for those ignoring pain and denying suffering and tragically this is what I see among the intellectual artistic community. Unfortunately many churches around the country are adapting "postmodernism" to their services, without fully studying and understanding what this movement is about. This idea of atheistic art has spread rapidly since the 60's and without studying the academic side of it one many not even know the difference between postmodern art and traditional art. Don't get me wrong- I will not claim that all postmodernism is evil and that Christians should have nothing to do with it, but if one does seek to become "culturally relevant" they have to be "intellectually relevant", a lot has changed since you've been to college 10 years ago (did every student have a computer/cell phone/email then?) And their is a certain responsibility to research and understand what is going on within a movement, before you jump on the band wagon.
Back to the problem of pain. This is what art was created for. Every culture's art reflects this so some degree, but postmodernism denies the existence of pain. Actually it denies a lot of things- which seems to be somewhat consistent throughout postmodern art. Which was pretty hard to do in 2005. I think some people were looking for major shifts in the world after 9/11 and started to referring to things as "post 9/11 and pre 9/11" now that was a HUGE event, but I think we're getting ahead of ourselves with that one. It was simply a link in a chain of events that have been going on since the beginning of time. Though no one is making any asterisks by the year 2005, if you look carefully there are things going on, and the world is changing. Pain is being brought to the mainstream. Not only is the wealthy having to be exposed directly to this reality, but so are the intellectuals. After the 60's the intellectual walls at our state universities were thick- and the 80's brought the current criticism we see today. But our 2006 materialism is much different than the materialism my twenty-something peers were born into and that is that it is coupled with tradegy. I don't think postmodernism will last very long. Philosophers are becoming more and more exposed to the reality of pain and reality in general, This generation will not be able to so easily write it off. |
