The collision between Christmas and commerce seems increasingly violent.
Taking Christ out of Christmas has become a competitive sport for cunning lawyers and the godless secularists cavorting in the dark shadows of the ACLU. It has gone far beyond cultural sensitivities and political correctness. It has become a carnival churned into national hysteria by the sellers of snake oil and borders on insanity.
For us who try to keep Christ at the center of our most decorated holiday the inevitable commerce of Christmas takes on a uniquely Mormon dimension.
Many of us approach the inevitable clash between Christmas and consumerism in soft white slippers. Our uniquely Mormon tradition prompts us to search for gifts “more appropriate” to the spirit of the season.
It is no easy feat sorting out who on my Christmas list gets The Bruce R McConkie Story by his son Joseph Fielding, or who might enjoy tickets to Michael McLean’s production of The Forgotten Carols or whether I should link to ticketmaster and buy $90.00 worth of tickets to TIME OUT so Dagny can go hear Sheri Dew — one of my favorite people on the planet.
Should I sign up to buy the new GospelLink or buy from the hundreds of “perfect Christmas gifts” with sacred flavor enticingly portrayed before me? Let me see. I’ve got Hilary Weeks singing old Christmas songs, the sound track to Gary Roger’s Book of Mormon Movie Volume 1, or Kurt Bestor’s Christmas Vol 3. Do we already have a video of Saturday’s Warriors? Shall I buy the 10″ replicas of the Christus in cultured marble, a gold CTR ring for $159.95 or October conference 2003 on DVD for less than $20,00 bucks?
“Perhaps”, I mused, “the giving of these gifts is the acceptable fusion of commerce and Christmas.
WAIT A MINUTE!
The carols jingling in my mind came to a scratching halt like somebody ripping the needle across an old 78. A letter to the editor and passed to me from a reader of Meridian flashed into my mind.
The e-mail came on the heels of my article, “The Artist’s Purpose in God’s Plan.” He gave his name but I will call him what he called himself, “LDS Artist Out There”. His privacy is important but his searching questions refused to leave me alone.
He opened with this comment; “I have some questions.I hope you can help me. I have no intention of offending anyone.”
Rapt attention! “I don’t want to offend you BUT..” Is almost as good as whispering to get total attention. He went on.
” I really am struggling to understand and reconcile the philosophy behind LDS artists selling music, movies, paintings etc. on sacred topics.”
It was quickly apparent this was NOT one of the inevitable crackpots whose e-mails assault me after every article no matter what I write.
He described himself. “I am a dyed in the wool, card carrying Mormon, and always will be. I love the Gospel and I currently serve as the Ward Mission Leader.”
I noted on his list of callings that he had been a bishop. Most telling to me however was the fact that he defined himself as “LDS artist.” That added a curious and personal dimension to his query. He did not tell me artist at what.
A Sincere Question
His question was forthright.
” How do LDS artists justify creating music, books (especially fiction), movies, etc. based upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ, upon His life, upon His ministry, and then selling their work for money?”
He explained that, “I have written two similar letters to LDS people who compose, produce and sell “Mormon” music. They became very defensive and upset. I really hope this does not offend you. I am not judging you or anyone else, I am just trying to understand.”
I felt “judged” getting the letter but I haven’t survived the harsh exposure of making movies by being thin-skinned. The epistle went on.
“I have no problem with [LDS artists] creating the art. These are wonderful ways to express one’s testimony and gratitude to a loving Savior. It just seems to me that when we take His sacred story, his Atonement and the Gospel He gave to us, and sell it for money, we are desecrating holy things.”
He lists several “offending” productions, books and albums all of which were very familiar to me. Some of them created by my friends. Only one of them was not created by an LDS artist. He continued.
“ Some say that it is okay because the General Authorities of the Church write books. There are some huge distinctions. General Authorities are called as special witnesses to preach the Gospel to all the world. When they write books, that is one medium for fulfilling their callings..”
The distinctions are huge at one level and small in another. Have the prophets not reminded us that we all bear the responsibility to be missionaries and preach the Gospel to all the world – right around us?
“It is when private members take it upon themselves to sell what is precious for money that I become confused. Merchandising in sacred things reminds me of the moneychangers in the temple. I am sure they justified their actions much as some do today by saying that they are performing a valuable service for the members of the church in one way or another. But the Savior still drove them out.”
“Do you have an answer for me? I am truly seeking. As one of the “LDS Artists” out there, I am hoping that you may be able to help me see how and why we can do this. I love some of the Mormon art, but just can’t bring myself to support those who seek to profit in it.”
Staring at the abundance of “objects based on sacred things” for sale at Deseret Book – not to mention the seemingly inexhaustible variety of “LDS Products” offered elsewhere — the letter from Artist Out There came suddenly to mind. I had ruminated over his observations but had never answered his e-mail.
With Christmas upon us and the quest to . KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS on our list of things to do, it seemed a good time to answer his letter.
An Answer
From the desk of Kieth Merrill
Dear LDS Artist Out There,
You ask, “How can an LDS artist reconcile creating artistic works on sacred subjects and selling them for money?”
You know of course that like so many things gospel, there is no contemporary doctrine that speaks with Pharisaic clarity to the matter of individual behavior. In other words, there is no one right answer.
Moreover, I cannot speak for LDS artists nor would I ever presume to do so. If I could write like Gerald Lund, compose like Alan Williams, paint like Greg Olsen or sculpt like Dennis Smith I would be creating “art of sacred things” and selling them all. I can’t so I don’t.
If making films like The Testament, Legacy and Mr. Krueger’s Christmas for the church and getting paid for my services requires reconciliation in your mind then perhaps my thoughts can help.
Your question is timely. Musical maestro, Merrill Jensen is in the midst of his a 3-part series of articles (right here at Meridian) about the driving artistic passion that makes one person an artist and makes it easy for another person to conclude that creative types are crazy.
You are, by your own description “an LDS artist”. You must therefore understand what Robert Marshall meant when he said “I decided to become a painter when I realized I couldn’t NOT be a painter.”
The first step in your “reconciliation” may be to accept that God made you an artist. He would not give you that passion and expect you to ignore it. He would not give you His gifts and be content for you to only use them in secular ways.
You worry that; “When I serve in my callings, I do so because of the love of the Savior. I do not get paid. I serve to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others around me. Like the prophets of old, members of the Church today are required to work for their sustenance. We don’t expect others to support us. We do what we do for the love of Christ, not for money.”
LDS artists who love the Lord still live in a mortal world with a medium of exchange called money. We do different things for different reasons.
There are callings.
We do what we do for the love of Christ.
There are professions.
We do what we do for the “need” of money to survive.
There are avocations.
We do what we do here usually because we are unfulfilled elsewhere.
It is good that you do not expect to get paid as ward mission leader. Serving with love is your calling.
Working Without Compensation
If you work without compensation you are foolish, generous to the point of destitution or independently wealthy. Working for money is your profession.
If you are only an artist “in your spare time” and lack the talent, passion, opportunity or discipline to make a living at it, then your art probably is an avocation. You can get paid or do it for free. The pursuit of something you enjoy is your avocation.
For most successful LDS artists the boundaries between calling, profession and avocation are not quite so clear. Sometimes what we do in our professions – to earn money and support our families is driven by a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action even a sense of duty or destiny. Significant LDS artists pursue professionally what they feel inspired to do. It is not the same as a call from the bishop, but most consider it a call just the same. Since our profession and inner calling is so fulfilling, avocations are taken up doing stuff for our spouses.
You and I should both understand that artists, LDS or otherwise, are compelled to create. Because an LDS artist feels compelled to paint, or write, or compose or sculpt a sacred expression of his core beliefs, it does not change the basic nature or purpose of work.
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:19) Earning bread by our labors is a fundamental mandate in the Plan of Salvation. How glorious that some among us have the gift to lift our spirits and enlighten our senses through the labor of their art. I grew up on a dairy farm but I am very glad not everyone raises cows to earn their bread.
Any artist whose creations are driven by a strong inner impulse to use their artistic gifts to depict good and even sacred things should not avoid doing so because they also need to earn a living.
Rather than criticize the artists who have the talent, passion, faith and vision to interfuse calling, profession and avocation into a single driving passion or castigate those who create sacred works by the sweat of their face and are given bread for their efforts we should celebrate their gifts to us and be grateful.
A Joyous Experience
The second step in your search for artistic harmony and reconciliation may be to understand that combining who we are with what we do is among the most joyous experiences on earth.
Writing and directing The Testaments allowed me to experience the exhilarating joy of being whole. It brought to one place in one moment in time everything that I am with everything that I love to do. It was personal and professional. You must experience it to understand. It has given me a vast appreciation for the power and inspiration in so much of Mormon art that delves into sacred realms. These works are more than paint or words or notes of music on a page. The are the extension of a soul on a journey of sanctification.
The LDS artist who has the talent to create something of such magnificence that others wish to pay for the privilege of bringing it into their lives is twice blessed. For them the line between what they do and who they are is blurred. In expressing sacred things through their art, it can disappear altogether.
Consider this. If you could wave a magic wand and in an instant every object of sacred art created for pay or profit would suddenly disappear the impact would be shocking – even devastating. Thousands of illustrations in church magazines, manuals and ward libraries would vanish. Magnificent windows of stained glass depicting the first vision, the resurrection, the birth and life of Christ would vanish in a shatter of colorful glass.
Even an artist might find it difficult to draw the delicate line divining the difference between the artist who is commissioned and paid by the church to create sacred artistic works and the artist who creates artistic works for sale to members of the church.
Architect artists create the temples. Interior designers make them magnificent. The golden replicas of angel Moroni that adorn the temples are created by artists and sold to the church – at a profit I suspect. Are these “sacred works”? The field broadens the more you think about it.
If you had the power to wave that magic wand, would you?
Much Art Would Disappear
You said yourself that, “I love to hear beautiful music about the gospel, to see movies about Christ and the prophets, etc”. Most of it goes away if you wave the wand that eliminates profit as incentive to create. In saying that I do not concede by any means that profit is the cause, it is most often the effect.
Was it wrong for Cecil B. DeMille to prosper in making King of Kings or Ten Commandments? Or for William Wyler to add to his fortune for creating Ben Hur, A Tale of the Christ [the original title in 1959], acclaimed as “the world’s most honored motion picture.”
You include two well-loved LDS book series on your sample list of, “merchandising in sacred thing and being made common because of the love of money.” This seems a little harsh following your assurance that, “I am not judging you, or anyone else.” I would gladly withstand your assault had I had the talent and vision to create either of these significant works.
You picked the wrong examples if you mean to make your point. I know the author of one of those series well. Your conclusion – your judgment – that this monumental work was motivated by money is outrageous. Your presumption could not be farther from the truth. Because the book made a generous profit in the end can in NO way retrospectively taint the honest motive, the unknowable future of the blank white page nor denigrate the creative passion that fueled the very first page.
That is beside the point. Even if the author’s motive had been making money – it was for him an avocation – who would wish that he had never opened the pages of history in his unique and remarkable way? Who would want to miss the journey into the fictional reality he created, Who has not been enriched by such easy access to our pioneer legacy of faith in ways that no one else has ever done.
Few writers are certain of being published – forget about being profitable — when they begin to write. They write anyway.
Painters paint what they see in their mind’s eye and feel in their heart without knowing whether or not it will sell. They paint anyway.
Musicians scribble the notes that race across their minds in 6/8 time and changing keys not knowing if a single soul will buy the album when its done. They compose anyway.
It raises an interesting question. Is the only acceptable art depicting sacred things the art that fails in the market place ? Even the question makes no sense.
The Lord said in essense: “Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. [D&C 58:26-29]
Not a New Idea
The idea of artists using their gifts to create sacred art for money is not new. It was not thought up in Heber Valley, Provo or LA. Creative art based on sacred themes was not pioneered by LDS artists. It has been going on for thousands of years. It has helped define the world.
The cathedrals, art museums, palaces and grand halls of Europe are decorated with what can easily – and in many cases only — be classified as art depicting sacred things. Paintings, tapestries, sculpture, tile mosaics, illustrations, stained glass, and commissioned works depicting the ever-changing face of Christianity have become a magnificent manifestation of history and significant expression of western culture.
Who among us would want to live without it? Who among us — given the gifts — would not wish to leave behind an artistic legacy of our own devotion to God however obscure or inarticulate? And if we have to sell it or replicate it or pawn it to eat so we can do it again, so be it.
I suspect that God is not equally enthusiastic about every painting, statue, composition or artistic representation of his son. But what a grave loss to the world it would be if by some divine edict of senseless piety – the wave of your wand – the great artists of the world were only allowed to create artistic expressions of their deepest feelings if they promised they wouldn’t get paid or profit.
I consider myself an artist. I champion creativity. I love artistic expression in almost all its forms. The walls of my home are adorned by art of LDS artists whom I believe were driven by an inner passion and indeed “a still small voice.” They created works that inspire me and bring sacred peace into our home. I purchased them because I wanted them in my life.
How sad it would be if Joseph Brickey, Greg Olsen, Glenn Hopkinson and my own artist father had ignored the promptings to paint pioneers, bring the Savior to life or capture that singular journey to Bethlehem because they opted to sustain their families by creating secular art.
Perhaps the final step to your reconciliation dear LDS Artist Out There is for you to join the growing fellowship of LDS Artist who have learned to combine calling, profession and avocation into a single magnificent expression. Join those unafraid to combine who they are with what they do – and do it so well it will sell. If it sells, you get to do it again. If there is an artistic expression within you that can only be born in the practical world of commerce, then for goodness sakes do not deprive us of your gifts.
I have quoted President Spencer W. Kimball so often some who know me think I am trying to claim his words by eminent domain. He said;
“The full story of Mormonism has never yet been written, nor painted, nor sculptured nor spoken. For years I have been waiting for someone to do justice in recording in song and story and painting and sculpture the story of the Restoration, the reestablishment of the kingdom of God on earth.
It remains for inspired hearts and talented fingers yet to reveal themselves. They must be faithful, inspired, active church members to give life and feeling and true perspective to a subject so worthy. “
President Kimball is calling for art that speaks of sacred things. He calls for artists driven by an inner passion and a higher calling. In no way does he imply that these “faithful, inspired, active Latter Day Saints” with “inspired hearts and talented fingers” would be expected to create these ultimate works of art without making money. Rather his words are a clarion call for excellence – commercial excellence – assuring that the testimony of the LDS artist is worthy of display in the great centers of the world.
“All things which are good cometh of God; that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.
Wherefore, take heed that ye do not judge that which is good and of God to be of the devil.” [Moroni 7:12-14]
