The first is that Christians should avoid them altogether. Stay out of Hollywood, don't write for secular publications, don't make a career out of painting, and so on. The second idea is that Christians must create art that is explicitly "Christian." In other words, we must paint pictures of Bible stories or make movies built around a Christian couple doing Christiany things or only write Bible studies.
Both of these ideas are absolutely false. Christians are called to redeem the arts by pursuing them in a God-glorifying manner. That means everything Christians create will have the indelible mark of their God on it - whether they are painting a cross or a bowl of fruit.
Mark Altrogge has an excellent piece today on why Christians should be involved in the arts. He writes:
"When I was little my aunt said she loved how I sang all the time. In grade school my teachers let me spend extra time in the library drawing. My parents got me my first oil painting lesson when I was 12. And when I was 14 the Beatles invaded America and I had to get a guitar and get in a band. In college I majored in art ed and got a Masters in painting.
But when Jesus saved me in my early 20s, I began to wonder if art was a waste of time. I could be evangelizing or praying or doing something spiritual instead of dabbing oil paint on a canvas. And besides that, everything is going to burn up anyway at the end, so what’s the use of creating things? Or if I do paint a painting does it have to be a Christian theme? Does it have to have a cross in it or be a scene from the Gospels?
Here are a few reasons why Christians should play banjo and decorate cakes, knit sweaters and make movies, do photography and write poems:
Because God has commanded us to take dominion over the earth. In other words take the raw materials of the world and make stuff out of them.
Because when we create we act as those the Creator made in his own image. God could have made the world in black and white. He could have created one kind of food. Instead he made luna moths and mimosa trees and jungles and deserts and garden spiders and red-winged blackbirds and ring-necked snakes. God didn’t make a strictly utilitarian world. He decorated it with weeping willows and tiger lilies.
Because the arts are a way to bless others. A way to serve others and bring joy to others. A beautiful wall hanging in someone’s living room can bring them joy over and over again and again.
Because the arts bring joy to us. When God created the earth at the end of each day he looked on what he had made and saw that it was good. God enjoyed what he created. And he wants us to get joy from what we create.
Because beauty reminds us of the Beautiful One. When we see a cool painting or hear a moving symphony it points us to the author of all beauty. When I hear the theme from Jurassic Park I don’t simply think of John Williams’ talent, I think of God."