The Dearth of Good Entertainment

No, I do not personally think there is a particular dearth of good entertainment. There is as much entertainment present now as there has been for as long as I can remember, some of it good, much of it mediocre, and some of it truly terrible. That's life.

I speak, in fact, of the dearth of entertainment for certain types of people, namely people with slightly more narrow sensibilities than I possess. Calling a spade a spade, the people who patronize Christian bookstores, watch only officially sanctioned movies and television shows, and listen only to Christian music. In other words, people who want "Good" entertainment as opposed to people who are willing to make do with merely entertaining entertainment.

Far be it for me to criticize others' sensibilities regarding fun. I am a sick monkey, and I will own up to this fact. I respect people who don't want to watch programs about tracking down serial rapists while listening to Satanic music (of which there are more than I care to think about). I myself find many of these programs less entertaining than more wholesome fun (and by that, I mean programs about tracking down serial killers while listening to only mildly blasphemous music). Seriously though, I know many people who, for one reason or another, do not consume certain types of entertainment media, and I say bully for them.

The fact is, however, that so-called "Christian" entertainment is almost universally awful. I don't want to pick on Christians, but I don't know enough about "Muslim" entertainment or "Hindu" entertainment (well, Bollywood, I guess, but I really know next to nothing about that) to speak. Plus, the radical fringe of Christianity (and make no mistake, it's only a fringe, since I know many people of a Christian bent who, while they have scruples, do not limit themselves to purely "Christian" entertainment) is fairly vociferous on the subject of entertainment.

It hasn't always been this way. Nearly all entertainment used to be Christian (in the Christian world); Shakespeare, for instance, would have been slightly amused if you had called his entertainment "non-Christian," and let's just say that it's best not to even mention the subject around Tolstoy. Great works of art, literature, theatre, music... they were all Christian. Now we have Left Behind, which is to Tolstoy as Hop On Pop is to... no, actually, Hop On Pop is too good for the purposes of this comparison.

The problem is that "Christian" entertainment has shrunk itself into a genre which must mention Jesus and/or God in every sentence. It has become more about what topics cannot be covered than about what topics can, and as a result it is pretty much universally drab and awful. The message, "Jesus is Lord," becomes much more important than the package, which is garbage. Even so-called populist "Christian" entertainment is hit-you-over-the-head obvious.

Case in point: if an artist is liberal, it is natural that this opinion will probably find expression in his/her works. Musicians who are against the war in Iraq usually make this relatively plain (and not just pop musicians either, who have a track record of not being subtle; see Rzewski's Stop the War, a piece I've seen performed, and believe me, it's not pop music) in their music. But if every single song a musician sings is called I Hate Bush and the lyrics are always long polemics about how much the artist hates Bush, we'll rapidly grow tired of said musician. At least I will.

This is not to say that God and faith are not profound topics suitable for framing. They are at least as broad as love, a topic covered ad nauseum. But the extremely limited subset of God and faith that is allowed to make its way into "Christian" art is a different matter.

Many things are Christian without being "Christian." If you exclude all art which does not line up precisely with your point of view, you miss out on the beauty and faith-affirming wonder of most of the world of art. You also miss out on great entertainment. I am heartily in favor of scruples; don't consume entertainment you find offensive, by all means. But not everything that isn't in your pocket is offensive.

Another case in point (and then we all go home): Twisted Sister's final album, Twisted Christmas. There is not a single song here which is offensive; they're all (okay, save the last one which is mostly) Christmas standards. No alterations of words (with that exception mentioned above). No curse words (to my knowledge). These are Christmas songs that, if Andy Gibb sang them, would be welcomed in most Christian homes (okay, so truly radical fringe Christians might take umbrage at the songs not specifically about Christ, but they're too far gone). But it will be a cold, dark day in Hell (unless you read Dante, another Christian author not found in most "Christian" catalogues) before any album by Twisted Sister finds its way into the "Christian" music shop.

But turnabout being fair play, I must also state for the record that I'm sure there are many metal fans (remember, I said I wasn't going to use any sub-genres because I don't get them) won't purchase what is a terrific album because they have prejudices too. People could stand to be a little less prejudicial. What a great title. Must remember that one. Actually, I should have used that for the list containing Isaiah Washington, Mel Gibson, and Michael Richards. Eh, go back and read it and pretend I did.