By NATHAN PETERSEN
Growing up in Washington I had a lot of born again Christian friends. Most of them were very involved in their youth groups at church, and I never doubted their sincerity towards their religion. However, I was always a little disturbed at some of the Christianity pop culture. Such as referring to Jesus Christ as J.C. or screaming about salvation and forgiveness in Christian death metal songs (trust me it exists). I always thought the Christian pop culture belittled the sacredness of religion.
Sadly, I see a similar downward spiral from the LDS pop culture that has risen very fast over the last few years. People were angry with God's Army for showing ordinances, but for the most part people welcomed the clean entertainment focused on LDS values. My concern over Mormon pop culture is not whether it is appropriate; it is the effects it has on members.
The other day I was in Deseret Book looking for a F.A.R.M.S. book on LDS beliefs. While looking for the book, I realized 70 percent of the store contained Mormon fiction, children?s coloring books or Book of Mormon action figures. Only a very small section of the store was focused on the actual gospel, the rest was church culture.
The culture will not save a man. I worry we are replacing doctrine with entertainment and assuming that because entertainment is masked under the church culture it is a worthy substitute.
And I fear the 'slippery slope'. Sure it seems unlikely now that there will be Mormon death metal bands. But I don?t think anyone in 1985 would have ever guessed there would be bands like Jericho Road selling themselves as church music or rocked out versions of hymns.
Is using the church to make money called priest craft? Are these people guilty of it?
However, I also find myself in a catch 22, I enjoy some of the LDS media. Specifically I thought ?Saints and Soldiers,? and ?The Other Side of Heaven,? was tastefully and artistically done. They also avoided exploiting the church name to sell their movie. ?Saints and Soldiers? did not even name the protagonists denomination.
I have determined that the standard for which Mormon pop culture will be acceptable (for me at least) is to look at them each individually and ask, 'Is this artistic or doctrinal?' If it fits neither I will question whether it has a negative effect on LDS culture. But now I am posed with the problem of defining art.