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.