Christian Arts

The CCBC English Drama Team did a play called "The Onion Life" two years ago, where the role that I played contemplated suicide. I remember having to struggle with the controversy that came with it. I watched that play on DVD again tonight, and was reminded of the discussion we had at Ignition regarding truth in art.

Is it ok for Christians to portray negative or so called “evil things” (eg: suicide scenes) in their art? In church history, when drama was used in churches, there was concern about whether evil characters (like Satan or Judas Iscariot etc) should be used in these plays.

There was an example mentioned during Ignition about a play that seeked to communicate what it meant to be a virtuous woman. It was eventually decided that in order to show what a virtuous woman was like, a woman with the exact opposite was portrayed in the play – and quite a lot of discussions and debates resulted. Another side of the argument says that 'Christian' art can end up making evil ‘better’ than it really is, or avoiding portraying evil at all.