Thoughts - on Justice and Pilgrimage

Justice seems to be one of those concepts which is coming back into vogue - at least, social justice. Personally I've been trying to learn what it looks like to extend the ideas of "justice" and treating people fairly into the realm of art and by extension, towards artists.

There may be another post in the future devoted to this topic in greater detail.

For now:

I saw the Hannah Montana movie last night. I enjoyed it. Now, it was a bit cliché and overall really predictable if you've ever seen a conflict-of-interest-resulting-in-a-change-of-heart-movie. But it was infinitely better than I expected it to be. My point, or sentiment here is not that it was wonderful and everyone should go see it, but simply a reminder (to myself first of all) of how I tend to judge things, art, and worst of all people, based on hearsay or annoyances with elements surrounding the particular thing/piece of art/person rather than the thing/artwork/person itself/themselves. It's pretty close to slander. I shouldn't do that.

Right now I'm definitely still learning how a desire to "do justly" plays out in my everyday life - especially when it comes to the arts and culture and the implications of this desire. But I think it's a worthwhile issue to trudge through. Especially when works of art, like ideas- but to an even greater extent, are tied back to people. Many things cannot and should not be accepted or excused just because people are involved, but if people are important, we as Christians ought to take care with our words and opinions. I don't think there is a place for uninformed flippancy among God's people.

And now a quotation: (which I just found on a stick on my comp...but originally saw displayed at a sr. art show at Biola)

“Once you accept the existence of God-however you define him, however you explain your relationship to him-then you are caught forever with his presence in the center of all things...
You are also caught with the fact that man is a creature who walks in two worlds and traces upon the walls of his cave the wonders and the nightmare experiences of his spiritual pilgrimage.

- Morris West