Art is very, very important.

Some art, as we saw Wednesday, can spark vital conversations on important issues of the day. Often it provides people with an occasion for venting favored resentments. We all have been terribly wronged in this life, but it can be uncomfortable just to walk up to someone cold turkey and kvetch without having laid the proper groundwork. That would be so gauche. This is where art comes into play. Notice how the nakedpastor, with nothing more than a felt-tipped pen, can excite PC outrage and provoke really deep thoughts. This is what art does for us.

Over on Solomon's Porch they have another theory of art:

We believe that beauty, art and creativity should be valued, used, and understood as coming from or being connected to the Creator.

Here they don't say much about what it exists to do or what makes it excellent or meaningful, and to look through their galleries and read their comments one concludes they don't know what it exists for except to sell. Incidentally, wander through Pagitt's site and try to find ways you could make it even more commercial, more self-promoting.

Doug Pagitt holds that Story has a place in Christian outreach: Story is something the Church might employ using "a minimum of communication skills". The Church should, "utilize hospitality and community in a greater way".

This of course is what King David and the Psalms are all about.

Some of you will find these aesthetic theories somewhat dubious. You might think these are the idle thoughts of incompetent bumpkins. Perhaps that is only because you have not seen Emergent Art at its finest. For that I direct your attention to this. This is Tony Jones using a minimum of communication skills.

There is nothing we can do, except perhaps to tune his mandolin for him, to improve his art.

And at this point I must caution our readers: the above link takes you to an emergent website, and Remonstrans cannot be held responsible for any smut posted there as a show of hospitality and community. You might want to send your children out of the room before clicking on the link.

"The church is for those who question and think" sings Tony.

So good to know.