Christian Retailers Put Their Print on Products

I am not at all opposed to the idea of making things in order to help increase the opportuinty for dialogue with the world when it comes to your faith. In small doses and in certain circumstances I generally find it to be a good thing. However, I have two general problems with some of this type of stuff.

1) Questionable Legality. This is obviously depending on whether or not the item derives itself from, for example, a popular brand. My wife made a t-shirt once, interestingly enough for a Christian group. My wife pointed out a scene in a Disney movie that birthed the idea for the t-shirt to a lawyer who was to review the design for any legal issues. Trust me, the design was a vague resemblance. The lawyer was concerned that a jury might label it as a derivative work and shot down the design. Now there are other factors to be considered, like legitimate fair use and threat to the brand itself. Its murky waters with copyright law. I am pretty sure Disney would have not come after an obscure t-shirt to be worn by about 50 persons. Still, the fact that we see BLATANT examples of derivative works in Christian t-shirts adds to an overall impression that Christians are not themselves creative or, even worse, that Christianity itself stifles creativity. Furthermore, to defy copyright law, even if not blatantly, lends itself to a certain amount of deserved criticism for hypocrisy.

2) Pop-Culture driving Christian art. Our Christian faith should drive art -- not the other way around. To better make my point here let me point out that until the most recent centuries, Christian art had a long history of driving the art world. Sit through any art history class and count the centuries of Madonna and Child paintings. It is hard to deny that the resources Christians poured into works of art from painting, to sculpture and even the architecture of the great cathedrals themselves was a great boon to art and culture. The great works of Christian art have and will continue to be taught about in art schools. Art schools, no matter how secular, cannot get out of it. Christ WILL BE PREACHED with every slide, Powerpoint presentation and print bearing a photograph of, for example, Michaelangelos Pieta. Today art seems to be dominated by the world. For Christians, it is an afterthought requiring little more than a shifting around and a stamping of Jesus onto it to make Christ palatable to the masses. After all, we didn't have to develop the artform, only the Christianizing of it. I certainly feel that avenue affects some people but I am not sure that the legacy of Christian trinkets we are building in the current time frame is one that will remain a lasting one. A fad is a fad. It has a comeback in 20 years and generally is lost forever. It sure would be nice if Christianity were to regain an appreciation for the fine arts and develop artists for the glory of God, rather than relying on the "more cost effective" option of allowing the starving, secular artists of the world to drive new ideas and promote their values in culture and just retooling it a little to pretend it is a most effective means to bring people to Christ. If the Church focuses more energy on the arts, and Christianizing art again, then we might have less starving artists and more art that Christians would be proud of -- and that the rest of the world would sit up and notice.