Allowed to Be

Why are we so eager to destroy our childhood sense of exploration? “Quickly squelch the infidels. We cannot allow freedom when our own freedom has been taken.” We are so quick to subdue all hopes of joy in anything considered immature. But what is immaturity really? Is it the joy and hope of exploring life and treating every moment as an adventure? Of course not! But if someone decides to run instead of walk, to climb instead of stairs, to fall instead of sit we are quick to destroy these fantasies. Puppies and babies are allowed. A puppy can run into a door and, provided no injury, we laugh at his ineptitude to cope with the ever-changing environment. A toddler is allowed to sing whatever is on his mind without care or reason for pitch and tempo and we encourage his creativity and self expression. But once we reach middle school and often even elementary school we quickly crush all of these “immature” activities for the sake of standardization.

I feel as though I am the “inept” child. If I break into song or poem or dance the oddity is me. No more fun, no more freedom, no more life because of the innate pressure of society for conformity. We are safe within our self contained knowledge and any sense of chaos or non-normative behavior instantly instills fear and a reflex to resist and deter.

Maturity, in its true sense, is not to lose these important and vital life functions, but to know when and where they might be released. Maturity, in its most basic form, is simply the discernment of time and place. Perhaps I am immature but perhaps we should strive to create a safe environment among each other so that the times for this “child-like” freedom can be expressed and enjoyed. The maturity of discernment can allow for this. Let us love and enjoy each other through the letting down of our walls and habits of standardization and provide the encouragement to simply be allowed.

Christian in Theatre

As a Christian, theatre has always been an difficult pursuit for me. I am often stereotyped and seen as ignorant. I have had people in my theatre department at Kennesaw State openly laugh in my face when I have stated some of my beliefs. People have often assumed that I must hate homosexuals, of which theatre as a higher concentration of than most secular circles, without me ever doing anything to indicate so. Especially when they hear that I am a member of a Baptist church people often feel inclined to justify there own actions as though I was condemning them. I believe firmly and seriously in Jesus and that He is God, I do not hate homosexuals, and I do not condemn people. But as soon as I say “Christian” all of those negative attributes are given to me.

If you look at the media, the only people it is socially acceptable to openly mock are, in fact, Christians. Most often we are represented as redneck, condemning, and ignorant. As a culture we cannot openly mock Buddhists, Judaism, Hinduism, or Islam, but Christians are fair game. We are only represented by the stereotypes of those who are the least like Jesus. Not only is this acceptable but it is also encouraged and believed to be true by most non-Christians.

For a long time the Christian Church, Protestants and Catholics have believe falsely that the arts are evil. This has been a great misrepresentation of the Bible and of Jesus. Dancing is most notable for being thrown out of the church, but King David, whom God called “a man after my own heart” danced and praised God with his art. Much of this was due to philosophers around the time of early Christianity that influenced many of the non-Biblical beliefs. The body was seen as evil and the soul as perfect and thus anything the body desires is wrong. This is not at all what the Bible depicts of the body, mind, and soul. The Song of Songs shows sex to be something celebrated between a man and wife. Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for dance and a time for singing. The Prophet Jeremiah would often perform silently in symbolistic ways to communicate with the Israelites in what we would now consider pantomime or performance art.

Another unfortunate stereotype is that Christian Theatre is considered bad theatre. This is not because Christianity has poor concepts or is trying to avoid being to “artsy.” Christianity actually originated many of the classic ideas in the stories of ancient Greece. We can see this influence because the Bible stories were written long before many of the Greek mythologies were. But there is some truth that Christian Theatre is bad theatre. Mostly this is because Christian Theatre is most often done in churches where there are few, if any, trained Theatre people. The people writing and producing have no idea what they're doing, and thus put on bad theatre. This would be true of any people group with these same qualifications.

There is little good Christian Theatre due in part to these stereotypes I have mentioned. Most Theatre people see Christianity as closed minded and derogatory and they like to respond in kind to Christianity. Therefore, Christian Theatre is not done well because most people cannot tolerate anyone who believes in one absolute truth.

There is hope for Christian Theatre despite the fact that Christians are heavily persecuted in the theatre community. Our hope is in Jesus. Our hope is in each other. Our hope cannot be stopped by simple stereotypes because it is not dependent on the people making them.

War and Snot

Anit-war. Many people have been and are anti-war advocates. I, also, am not in favor of war, but I am afraid that being anti-war does not help achieve any kind of resolve. War, you see, is not made for its own sake. We do not have anti-war campaigns that fight against pro-war campaigns (that would be ironic and antithetical for those supporting anti-war), but war is a symptom of a much greater disease.

I think we can all agree that as human beings we all have wants and needs. I am not going to discuss whether humans are naturally good or evil in this article, but for the sake of the article let us assume that we as human beings are evil. Evil, as defined by Project 86, is, “I want something you have. I want it oh so bad. Don't move. Hand it over. I won't stop until it's in my hands.” We have war because we want something some else has and they will not give it to us. We often try for diplomatic means but if those continue to fail then we resort to brute force to obtain what we need. This has been true for every culture in the history of humanity. Our wants and resistance to what we don't want have consistently driven us to violence towards our fellow man. This violence, this war, is fueled by our desires and because we believe that we are more superior or that our needs are greater than the human beings that disagree with us.

War is like snot. When the body is sick it generates more snot to help fight against the germs and disease present in the body. War generates from necessity. When we have excessive amounts of snot coming out of out bodies we know that there is a deeper sickness within that is generating the excess of our defense mechanism. To simply stop war would be like wiping a runny nose. More snot will follow. Wiping it away does not solve the problem, it only treats the symptom.

The real disease comes from our own desires. We must stop wanting what others have so much that we force ourselves upon each other, or wanting to avoid what others are trying to give us. Some people simply want other people dead. War is necessary to fight and defend ourselves from the onslaught of endangering forces. War can protect us in the same way that snot helps us stay healthy by capturing infectious germs in our noses before they can reach the inner, vulnerable parts of our bodies. To stop war we must stop thinking of ourselves as superior and in greater need than other human beings. To be anti-war is to be anti-snot. If we truly seek for war to end we must be anti-want.