Some denominations build aesthetically beautiful places in which to worship God. Their buildings served the function of hosting church meetings, yes, but they were also a celebration of art, beauty and creativity.
We never joined one of those denominations.
Even before I acquired the right words to describe what I was feeling, I longed for the creative process. When I became a little older I learned how to use the written word to, for a time, reassemble the world around me into what I thought it should be. I wasn't given the ability to sing, paint, or design buildings, but I also had a soul-deep appreciation for the creativity behind those types of work and I never understood why there was so little interest in the arts in the Charismatic communities of my childhood.
For a few years in the 1990s my brothers and I played a fantasy war card game called Magic: The Gathering. Each card represented a spell, creature, item, or a plot of land, and each card contained a beautiful illustration and a short summary of that particular asset. I liked the game. I loved examining the pictures. Each one was a window to another world, a glimpse of raw beauty.
Which is why I was so surprised when a Pastor-friend of ours told us the cards were demonic and should be put away. We had met that family at a Catching the Fire event in the mid-1990s. They had a bubbly daughter about my age who shared my love of the written word, and I loved listening to their stories and comparing notes about modern life in the ministry. It was so rare to meet other people who knew where we were coming from and who understood the pressures (and benefits) of the pastorate.
But, no matter how hard I looked at those cards, I could never see any sign of demons or demonic possession. Our family was content, our house silent. Eventually I came to the following conclusion: it was either a chronically benign demon or our friends somehow had been mistaken.
I will leave it up to you to decide which story to believe. ;)
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6 comments:
Kind of in the same family as Harry Potter and Pokeman, right? Not too many years ago I was in an art swap in which we made art cards that were traded and the theme was "cemetaries". Each participant had to make their cards from pictures taken in cemetaries and it actually turned out to be one of my favorite swaps ever. But, the thing is, I had some people(church friends) who really questioned me on this...especially after seeing the cards and many of them had gargoyles, etc. They didn't think it was appropriate.
Same sort of thing, yes. The card swap sounds like a lot of fun. Do you still dod it?
gargoyles are all over cathedrals. we are a funny species indeed.
Heck, I was told by a special speaker my Care Bear was demonic! I used to lie awake at night, sure something would shoot out of it's stomach and get me. Then Mom took the patch that held the offending image off for me, so I could again enjoy the bear. Ridiculous. It still bugs me to think about it to this day.
That's insane, Kim. I never had a Care Bear - were the patches on them suppose to have magical powers in Care Bear lore?
I think the cartoon had their special powers coming out of their bellies. but i think they were all good powers -- like love and peace and friendship .... but i'm not sure cause i didn't watch it. it was evil. ;)
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