My posts last week about conservatives losing the culture war are still generating debate and discussion.
I’ve been surprised by how many people agree that the best way for young conservatives to impact the culture is to skip politics and get involved in the arts.
But talk is cheap. And for those looking to make a difference, the good news is there are people like John Mark Reynolds, provost of Houston Baptist University, who are working to facilitate such change.
Reynolds is a bit more optimistic about the present situation, writing that,
Today’s Christian music is better than the music of my youth. Musicians are less apt to want to live in the ghetto of Christian music or wish to play by recording industry rules.
But he agrees with me that technology could help improve things in the future:
The old battle lines can be withdrawn by ignoring them and looping around them, the way Americans did in Korea with the Inchon landing. Maturing Christian subcultures are ready to surprise everyone and start renewing the West.
What exactly does that entail? Reynolds offers this guide:
[W]e don’t want Hollywood or influence in Hollywood . . . or any other establishment. We want to make movies and distribute them. We want filmmakers who tell stories and do so with good craftsmanship. This fall we will be starting such a program. Nigeria and India both prove that ignoring Hollywood can pay. We aren’t going to make culturally conservative movies, of course, but be cultural conservatives who make movies.
Cloud Atlas or Atlas Shrugged proved that propaganda films don’t work for humanists whether they are mystics or libertarians. We are not going to make propaganda, but art.
Isn’t it time for a movie program that made movies and didn’t just talk about movies?
We are going around Hollywood and landing in the living rooms of Americans.