This post is more like a ramble with questions attached than a well thought-out article. Forgive me.
If you're not subscribed to Darryl Hart's blog, you probably should be. Good thoughtful stuff all around.
A couple of weeks ago he threw this out as the worst Christian video of the year and I would readily agree. Ugh!
What I wasn't expecting was for him to say that it was "even worse" than Christian hip hop. The video below is the example he gives.
Now I get the deal about the method and the message... the forms and content... they don't exist in vacuums. I'm not saying that I know exactly how they relate and affect each other, but I do believe they do. But I must say that these two videos, as far as I can tell, have very little in common.
Nonetheless, in the comments section Hart says that, "I would claim [rap] is not a fitting vehicle for sound doctrine on doctrinal, cultural, and aesthetic grounds." And later he says, "when it comes to the sorts of virtues for which Paul calls in Titus 2, modesty, self-control, submissiveness, does rap really come to mind as the first cultural expression you’re going to offer to Paul as “man, this sure is fitting sound doctrine, isn’t it?”"
So, what do you think? Does Hart have a point? Is there a point at which content overcomes form, or does the form always affect the content in some way?
And so you can get the full context of Hart's post, here it is in full: Worst Christian Video of the Year.
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2 comments:
Very interesting question, Jim.
I would say that form always affects content in some way. But I do not agree that rap music is an unfit vehicle for sound doctrine. In fact, because rap music allows for more flexibility and expression than say country or pop music, I think rap can be a very helpful vehicle for teaching sound doctrine.
I think Hart believes that rap music necessarily trivializes doctrine. Yet this does not have to be the case - I bet several of us could think of rap songs that expressed serious and important thoughts in a meaningful way and did not trivialize them. And I say this as a person who has listened to almost no rap music.
Now teaching doctrine through techno/dance music - that's a genre that I would say almost always trivializes its content.
There's my 2 cents. If its worth that.
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