No doubt you know who Christopher Hitchens is. Have you heard of his brother, Peter Hitchens? He is a reporter/writer that is a christian. He has written a book that will be released next month, I believe, and I’ve seen some videos (http://vimeo.com/10354237) and read interviews about his book and him in general. His conversion to christianity was initiated by viewing a piece of art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Judgment_%28Rogier_van_der_Weyden%29). Granted, it was a ‘religious’ painting, and not ‘secular’ art. But he saw that piece of artwork, and it shook his foundations. It unsettled him. He was undone by the art. And it lead to him accepting Christ as Saviour.

I thought it was a great story, and I thought it was especially relevant to your project here.

My sacred/profane line started blurring about the same time I read Simplicity by Mark Salomon (which, in turn, encouraged me to read Addicted to Mediocrity by Frankie Schaeffer) and I wondered “Am I really better off because I smashed all my ‘secular’ CDs in college?” Sure, maybe Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” didn’t set my mind on things above, but other albums used to take me to another place…

I finally saw Michael Jackson’s “This is It” a few weeks ago and all I wanted to do for the next week was listen to “Human Nature” over and over and over again. That’s what great art does

I read a lot of Schaeffer in the early, formative days of my faith and have always been troubled by the whole dichotomy between the “sacred” and “secular”. It seems some times the church is saying we want to love people like Jesus did, but only if they act like us and behave. And on another level, it’s a tragedy to music and the arts. There are Christians who will never experience Glen Phillips or Bob Dylan because they’re not labeled as “Christian”, and conversely people outside the church who may never hear Rich Mullins, Derek Webb or yourself because we pigeonhole everything into these categories. It’s pretty lame.

I always keep in mind a line I remember from Rich Mullins: “they will say kids need to know about Jesus so they won’t smoke, drink, or dance, or go with girls that do, and all that kind of thing. And I kinda go, ‘That’s not why people need to know about Jesus. The only reason—the only possible excuse for talking about Jesus is because we need a Savior.’”