Faith, Awards, and Art

We have been entrusted with the light of the Lord and called to walk in His Spirit, so that we reflect His character. 1st John 1 reminds us of this obligation to walk in truth:
5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

God's light has shone in our hearts, and in the way we interact with others, we have the unique opportunity to bring His light into every situation.  Because Christ is in us, we can depend on Him to express His nature through us.  We can be confident of His light, and we burn brighter and shine more intensely as our relationship with Christ grows, as we reflect who He is in us.  In a world where so many are intent in walking in darkness, we can allow Him to express Himself through how we live.

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God is calling us to share His light, to be instruments of truth in a culture that needs to hear His message. 2nd Corinthians 4 reminds us:
6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

Another awards ceremony could be found on network television last night...the presentation of the annual Tony Awards, which recognizes excellence on the Broadway stage.  It does seem rather odd that a prime-time program on CBS would be devoted to stage shows that many have never seen, or perhaps even heard of.  But, with plenty of staged excerpts and a star-studded list of presenters and performers, you could say that it has the potential to make for compelling TV.

The Hollywood Reporter described it as "Broadway's biggest infomercial," and noted:

This might be an honors ceremony but it’s also an infomercial, designed to keep the upward-trending audience numbers on that path. (The 2014-15 season totals hit a new high of 13.1 million tickets sold, yielding a record $1.3 billion in grosses.)

But, there was certainly another agenda that was at play, almost from the very start, when co-host Alan Cumming greeted the crowd gathered at Radio City Music Hall with, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and those of you who don’t identify as either," according to the New York Daily News report, which included a cross-dressing instance by Cumming as another of its key moments. Of course, the selection of the co-hosts was consistent with the LGBT agenda - Cumming is bisexual and is married to a man, co-host Kristin Chenoweth is an outspoken advocate for gay rights and received a special award from GLAAD recently.

Even though the Tonys continued to present male and female winners, it did cause me to wonder if this blurring of the lines concerning gender identity might make its way into some awards ceremony and bring an homogenization of the categories.

Sounds like Broadway could use a little more...faith.  And truth!

And, that's what a new musical opening later this month could provide.  It's called Amazing Grace, and yes, it is based on the life of the writer of the hymn.  As Jonathan Merritt writes on The Week website:

The song is religious. And the Broadway show seeks to capture audiences with both a religious message and a religious mission. Christopher Smith, the show's creator (and a former police officer and volunteer youth minister), is very clear about this: "My desire was that God would be an unseen character in Amazing Grace, moving behind and in every scene and song," he said.

Merritt traces the presence of faith themes in a variety Broadway plays, including what I would term a "big 3" of sorts: Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  And there have been some explorations of spirituality on Broadway over the past 5 years, as Merritt points out:

In 2011, Sister Act opened on Broadway, telling the story of singing nuns made famous by the film starring Whoopi Goldberg. Book of Mormon, which manages to both skewer and celebrate the Mormon faith in a way that is both brutal and sweet, arrived to critical acclaim the same year. In 2012, Leap of Faith, the story of a con-man preacher, opened and scored a Tony nomination for Best Musical. In 2013, The Testament of Mary sought to tell audiences the story of Jesus' crucifixion from his mother's perspective. Earlier this year, Hand to God made a Broadway splash with an irreverent show about a Christian puppet ministry.

Mark Robinson writes for the Playbill.com website:

There must be a place on Broadway for serious-minded, religious-themed musicals. In recent years, it has been a struggle for musicals of this genre to find an audience, and, despite some exciting possibilities in creations such as Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson and Leap of Faith, interest has been slow to ignite. In fact, when it comes to religion, many recent Broadway musicals (new and revived), have poked fun at these themes.

Robinson quotes one of the producers of Amazing Grace, Carolyn Rossi Copeland about the prospects of success for her musical:

Amazing Grace is poised to tell a compelling, true story. That story just happens to have some religious implications to the narrative. This hasn't shied theatregoers away from Carousel or The King and I. When posed with questions about how Amazing Grace faces similar challenges as (and comparisons to) musicals like Scandalous, Copeland carefully refocuses our impressions. "Scandalous had an unfortunate title that didn't convey the story being told. Amazing Grace is about a man who wrote an iconic song. That song title is also the show's title."  

There are certainly some thoughts I have in response here:

First of all, it's important that people of faith support artists, authors, and musicians who are dealing with faith themes.  This weekend, the movie, Beyond the Mask, had an impressive nationwide rollout.  According to Box Office Mojo, the movie was estimated to have grossed $250,000 over the weekend, at an impressive $2252 per screen. It's per-screen average exceeded that of Aloha and Poltergeist, and was comparable to Pitch Perfect 2.  It opened on 111 screens.  In terms of gross sales, it placed #2 among movies on less than 200 screens.  

And, we can always be challenged to recognize that the God of creativity, who has crafted the most wonderful story ever told, the story of redemption for humanity, is accessible to us. Perhaps God is calling you to use a creative gift for His glory.  Or, perhaps you know someone whom you can encourage to use those gifts in order to glorify God.

There are agendas that counter the truth of the Bible, and unfortunately, we know those agendas will always be with us, and are considered to be in vogue by influential people who write, produce, and distribute programming that do not reflect a Christian worldview perspective.  We can be discouraged by this, but also seek for ways in which we can counter these influences with the truth of the gospel, shining light into the dark places of our culture and showing hope in Christ to people who hold to philosophies that do not reflect the truth of Scripture.