wish I could change the subject...

...but I can't. When I think about what inspires me, and what embarrasses me, about arts - be it visuals, music, film, etc. - I can't help but notice the "rose-coloured" tint so much "Christian" art casts on the world and life in general.
I think a lot of it comes less from being sheltered and more from a desire to be holy. I'm not saying that holiness casts a rose-coloured tint on reality. It's just that most Christians know, on at least some level, what scripture says about language, conversational subject matter, and mindset, and one's understanding of that will naturally affect one's expressions.
However, I can't escape the feeling that perhaps the way it filters down in much of our art is a little too clean. My question is, how does an artist "hit the mark" without either abandoning Godly conduct or hypersanitising the end result?
I have seen precious few who strike that rare and beautiful balance. Flatfoot 56 is a splendid example of a band who unabashedly stand up for their faith while making music that garners them considerable secular respect. They are a great oi band. They've toured with Flogging Molly and played the OiFest in PA. They are shining the light of Christ into darker places than many of us would ever be found. Cornerstone magazine, when it existed, was comprised of fearless, masterful journalists who tackled all manner of controversial and relevant issues from a strong, balanced biblical perspective.
I want to do something about the creativity vacuum in the Church. I have no idea where to start. I will say that I find it unfortunate that I get more inspired to action by watching old Sex Pistols clips on YouTube than by most Christian music or books. No, I don't want to puke on a church altar or write songs calling satan a "f*cking rotter", but any band I were to form along the lines of what affects me most deeply would sound a lot more like them than Skillet. I honestly see a parallel between the reactions provoked by Jesus and those provoked by the early punks. There are huge differences between them, to be sure, but can't I keep the energy, power, and "just try and ignore this-ism" and still make the love and holiness of God come through?
How do we do that? The Bible pulls it off - a true-to-form film adaptation would probably be rated NC-17. There has to be a way to bust out of the rose-coloured bubble without losing the nature of God. We can't be trying to compete with the world, we need to rise so far above it that there's no comparison.
Another point to ponder - could it be that we judge "cheesy" Christian art by a worldly standard without knowing it or intending to? The message of the cross is foolishness to unbelievers, right? And yet does it really have to look, sound and feel "gaytarded", to quote Brian Posehn?
Lots of questions, few solutions. I feel that there are so few Christians anywhere, least of all here in the Northeast, who are anywhere close to speaking, or even understanding, my peculiar cultural language. I can't do this alone. Hell, I don't even know specifically what "this" is.
There are forces both inside and outside the Church that work very hard to defuse the things God primes to explode in every one of us. A. W. Tozer said that if today's "gospel" were a poison, it wouldn't kill anyone, and it wouldn't heal anyone if it were a medicine. The gospel isn't just preached on Sunday mornings and passed around in little leaflets. It is - or should be - in films; in every manner and style of music; in conversations at work, at the mall, in pubs; anywhere and in any form ideas are exchanged. It's not an insider's club - it's the one and only priceless cure for a fatal disease that's eating the human race alive. I want to find - no, be - a means of conveying it that doesn't compromise it. And it's compromised just as badly when people come away from it thinking of God as an aloof, intolerant prude as it is when they think He's some amorphous, feel-good "life-force" sugar-daddy with nothing to say about what every single one of us is turning into with every choice we make in thought, word or deed.