Friday, June 10, 2005
Superheroine challenge
Recently an interesting discussion has opened up on the Christian Comics e-list. The question was how should we as Christian artists portray our female characters. Don't be too hard on us, lol, comics have been portraying heroines in spandex at least since the sixties, but is this really an excuse for the body of Christ, the children of the ultimate creator. I think not. The following is the challenge born out of the discussion. If the cartoon doesn't open paste the link into your browser. It will be worth your time.
This is an issue that we face. Sadly, I think, to some degree our scantilly clad heroines are just a matter of the very attitude that drives us nuts in our churches. "That's the way we've always done it before. I want to challenge us to do better so I came up with an idea for a new challenge. Dum de duh dum dum dum
The A.M.O.K./Weird World of Weiss Superheroine Challenge.
The concept is simple, create a new heroine (read never been done before) whose costume is one in which you would let your daughter leave the house. One that you'd let your girlfriend wear to a party. For the ladies on the list, one you would wear in front of your dad or better yet your pastor. You get the idea. Cross modesty and cool, functional and fashionable. What do you win? All serious entries will be posted on the A.M.O.K. site for the sole purpose of encouraging the body to create characters that glorify God. The deadline is July 10. All right, Who's in?
(1) comments
Recently an interesting discussion has opened up on the Christian Comics e-list. The question was how should we as Christian artists portray our female characters. Don't be too hard on us, lol, comics have been portraying heroines in spandex at least since the sixties, but is this really an excuse for the body of Christ, the children of the ultimate creator. I think not. The following is the challenge born out of the discussion. If the cartoon doesn't open paste the link into your browser. It will be worth your time.
This is an issue that we face. Sadly, I think, to some degree our scantilly clad heroines are just a matter of the very attitude that drives us nuts in our churches. "That's the way we've always done it before. I want to challenge us to do better so I came up with an idea for a new challenge. Dum de duh dum dum dum
The A.M.O.K./Weird World of Weiss Superheroine Challenge.
The concept is simple, create a new heroine (read never been done before) whose costume is one in which you would let your daughter leave the house. One that you'd let your girlfriend wear to a party. For the ladies on the list, one you would wear in front of your dad or better yet your pastor. You get the idea. Cross modesty and cool, functional and fashionable. What do you win? All serious entries will be posted on the A.M.O.K. site for the sole purpose of encouraging the body to create characters that glorify God. The deadline is July 10. All right, Who's in?
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
I belong to an elist of Christian cartoonists and comic artists and someone posed these questions
3. Should comics drawn by Christians, then reflect and promote that morality?
4. How does this apply to the way Christian artists depict the feminine form and the attire worn by characters?
The following is my reply:
I'd like to key in on question four for a moment about the way we clothe our heroines. Here are a few points.
1. I don't feel like being fitted for a millstone so my goal is not to cause the little ones to stumble.
2. I remember in the early days of my cartooning career, I had a female rock star rat who always wore spandex in the fashion of the day. My twenty something co worker said Oh man she is hot. I was like dude it'sa cartoon and it's a rat. But the poiint stuck with me. I don't want to drive any guy into lust, young or old.
3. Then there's the whole body image thing of our young female readers. All of our media and what they hold up as being perfection is driving young girls into eating disorders and a whole variety of other malodies. I can't speak for anyone else but I don't want to contribute to that. Maybe we need to show a little reality in our work and keep our fantasies to ourselves (or better yet, deal with the condition of our hearts that causes us to think this way in the first place.) Sorry if that sounds harsh, but we are called to a higher standard. Let the hate mail begin, lol.
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3. Should comics drawn by Christians, then reflect and promote that morality?
4. How does this apply to the way Christian artists depict the feminine form and the attire worn by characters?
The following is my reply:
I'd like to key in on question four for a moment about the way we clothe our heroines. Here are a few points.
1. I don't feel like being fitted for a millstone so my goal is not to cause the little ones to stumble.
2. I remember in the early days of my cartooning career, I had a female rock star rat who always wore spandex in the fashion of the day. My twenty something co worker said Oh man she is hot. I was like dude it'sa cartoon and it's a rat. But the poiint stuck with me. I don't want to drive any guy into lust, young or old.
3. Then there's the whole body image thing of our young female readers. All of our media and what they hold up as being perfection is driving young girls into eating disorders and a whole variety of other malodies. I can't speak for anyone else but I don't want to contribute to that. Maybe we need to show a little reality in our work and keep our fantasies to ourselves (or better yet, deal with the condition of our hearts that causes us to think this way in the first place.) Sorry if that sounds harsh, but we are called to a higher standard. Let the hate mail begin, lol.
The question...
Some time ago, I was watching a repeat of Malcolm in the Middle. Yes I know...but what can I say sometimes the best way to find out how the church is impacting the culture is to monitor the culture. This particular episode was hilarious. Malcolm's parents had a baby and it was time to try to get day care for the child so they could go back to work. The reputations of the their other children had preceded them and so they were unsuccessful at finding anyonee to take this child. There was only one place left, the day care run by the local church. In order to be accepted to this day care, they had to be accepted by the pastor. (Yeah okay that's far fetched but work with me here.) Hal and Lois had the kids all dressed in their sunday best and were trying to convince the pastor that they were committed Christians. Things were going along okay until their second-to-youngest child Dewey asked the pastor, "Why do you have all those 't's' hanging on your wall?" Is that funny? It is too me, but it brings me to a point.
Some people are offended by that question. If these parents would have been doing their job the kid would see a cross in the letter "t" and not the other way around. Lighten up! One of the best things in the world that can happen is when a lost person asks a question about the cross. It's an open door. The question for the church isn't how that question can be asked, but rather when the question is asked will you be ready to answer it.
When I go out to do arts ministry, I try to create images that don't answer all the questions. When people see an artist painting a picture of Jesus, one of two things will happen. They either pat you on the back and say I am a Christian too (as if it were a secret hand shake for the good guy holy person's club) or they say "Uh oh, a picture of Jesus, I better run before I get hit over the head with the Bible." Instead I search and pray for images that hold the answers but make the viewer ask the question.
No matter what you do live your life with such unquestionable character that people will have all kinds of questions that you really want to answer. To slide two verse of scripture together, "Let your light shine before men and always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have."
(0) comments
Some time ago, I was watching a repeat of Malcolm in the Middle. Yes I know...but what can I say sometimes the best way to find out how the church is impacting the culture is to monitor the culture. This particular episode was hilarious. Malcolm's parents had a baby and it was time to try to get day care for the child so they could go back to work. The reputations of the their other children had preceded them and so they were unsuccessful at finding anyonee to take this child. There was only one place left, the day care run by the local church. In order to be accepted to this day care, they had to be accepted by the pastor. (Yeah okay that's far fetched but work with me here.) Hal and Lois had the kids all dressed in their sunday best and were trying to convince the pastor that they were committed Christians. Things were going along okay until their second-to-youngest child Dewey asked the pastor, "Why do you have all those 't's' hanging on your wall?" Is that funny? It is too me, but it brings me to a point.
Some people are offended by that question. If these parents would have been doing their job the kid would see a cross in the letter "t" and not the other way around. Lighten up! One of the best things in the world that can happen is when a lost person asks a question about the cross. It's an open door. The question for the church isn't how that question can be asked, but rather when the question is asked will you be ready to answer it.
When I go out to do arts ministry, I try to create images that don't answer all the questions. When people see an artist painting a picture of Jesus, one of two things will happen. They either pat you on the back and say I am a Christian too (as if it were a secret hand shake for the good guy holy person's club) or they say "Uh oh, a picture of Jesus, I better run before I get hit over the head with the Bible." Instead I search and pray for images that hold the answers but make the viewer ask the question.
No matter what you do live your life with such unquestionable character that people will have all kinds of questions that you really want to answer. To slide two verse of scripture together, "Let your light shine before men and always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have."
Monday, June 06, 2005
Downtime? What's that?
I read an interesting and challenging article on a list I belong to. The article made the supposition that how you spend your downtime will reflect where you are headed with your creative gifts. After the article, the "poster" posed the question What are you doing with your downtime. The following was my response.
Well as a bivocational pastor, a fair amount of my "down time" is "up time" getting ready for church. I have committed myself to spending more time on my gifts, and a little less time on the "idiot box." Another thing though on down time though is this, those of use that have children need to make sure that they get a lot of our downtime. They will far outlast our work. I had to learn this one the hard way. When it comes to down time I think we need to prioritize it the way we should prioritize our lives. Time with God, Time with Family, Time for everything else.
Learn from my mistakes, don't blow the God time or the familky time because although they are two of the easiest things to push aside, missing those will be the ones that will hurt you the most.
(0) comments
I read an interesting and challenging article on a list I belong to. The article made the supposition that how you spend your downtime will reflect where you are headed with your creative gifts. After the article, the "poster" posed the question What are you doing with your downtime. The following was my response.
Well as a bivocational pastor, a fair amount of my "down time" is "up time" getting ready for church. I have committed myself to spending more time on my gifts, and a little less time on the "idiot box." Another thing though on down time though is this, those of use that have children need to make sure that they get a lot of our downtime. They will far outlast our work. I had to learn this one the hard way. When it comes to down time I think we need to prioritize it the way we should prioritize our lives. Time with God, Time with Family, Time for everything else.
Learn from my mistakes, don't blow the God time or the familky time because although they are two of the easiest things to push aside, missing those will be the ones that will hurt you the most.
