noun
Etymology: Greek dichotomia, from dichotomos
1 : a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities ...
So, last night I watched most of the MTV Video Music Awards. "Why?" you might ask ... well, mainly because I like music and usually there are a few good acts on the show. Though the vast majority of the show was horrible (with way too many mistakes for a huge company like MTV), I did enjoy The Raconteurs as the "house band."
Anyway, after a while I headed down for thursday night adoration. While I was kneeling there, it suddenlly hit me that I was right there with the God of the universe while, on TV, MTV was having a celebration of ... pretty much nothing.
There is nothing wrong with music or concerts or even being famous for being a musician (or any kind of artist), but it is deeply disordered when we worship celebrity, excess, and lust (especially this last one in the case of MTV). We have a choice to make: what will we live for, God or the world?
It is sad that a gift as beautiful as art has been perverted into an instrument of self-worship. Showbread's lyrics to "Stabbing Art to Death" summarize it pretty well:
... with music destroyed, we'll only create noise
sweet dissonance is all that you'll have left
we'll dance across its grave
the art of singing empty praise
with knives of hope and peace stab art to death
And glowing you speak in the friendliest tongue in sentiments of gold
and oh the sweetest songs are sung and the sweetest lies are told
so spread this virus and seek yourself you pursue it quite relentlessly
when Sunday comes you'll raise hands to sing
what a glorious sight to see
Yet I see true art, I see her, and I see you
and Father you inspire me to sing to you
you inspire me to sing to you
Burn all the flags and the money, sacrifice and laugh
The light in your eyes reflects and I see myself
and all I want to be for you I'll give everything,
just to linger on your lips and feel your fingertips, you are an angel
Art is not the world, art is in our heart
And so I am the prince of sounds that make ears ring
my princess kiss me with your sweet lips and lo,
my heart will sing
if art is in yourself,
or in a class at school
if art is ego and selfishness at the mercy of primitive tools
then good-bye in screams and screeches
and bury these knives in your heart
no paintings or poems to let you live on
we've seen the last of art
as servants we wash your feet and cry out into the dark
the love you bring me stabs these knives right into art
art is not the world,
art is in our hearts
Stab art to death
3 comments:
True post.
I love the fact that you call MTV disordered. I went to Thomas Aquinas College for a year where they talk about everything as though there are only two kinds of things... those that are ordered, and those which are disordered. Of course, this means that music, entertainment, school subjects, jokes, etc... are all labeled as one or the other. I didn't get it for a while, and my family still seems to think its a very "elitest" thing to talk about things as being ordered or disordered, especially if you start labeling their favorite pastimes as disordered. But, I think I've figured out the meaning. Correct me if I'm wrong. If something is ordered, it points or leads to God and has God as its final destination. If something is disordered, it leads away from God and has something else, like oneself or movie stars or money, as its final destination. Does this sound right to you?
And if that's right, I totally agree with you. :)
Makes sense to me. Great post, Mike.
Thanks, guys.
That's what I always meant by "disordered." I think I mean that it's not serving its true purpose, which is always glorifying God.
Post a Comment