RELEVANT Magazine

We have become irrelevant.

Many contemporary Christians tend to make one of three errors when dealing with art: One, we declare anything that doesn’t explicitly proselytize, anything that depicts brokenness without redemption to be depraved or unworthy of Christian notice. Or two, we decide that the secular world really does have better art, so we copy it, boldly and without apology or thought into our own creativity. Or three, we try so hard to be relevant that we adopt the attitude and worldview of the culture that surrounds us—instead of being the proverbial salt and light, we end up as dust with nothing to offer in the way of hope, because there is only a perfunctory difference between those of us who claim to follow Christ and those who don’t.

The first position emerges from a utilitarian view of art: if the lyrics don’t say “God” or “Jesus” somewhere in the song, the writer can’t really be following Christ. If the film doesn’t portray the apocalypse or a Bible story, producing it is a waste of money. And heaven forbid we...