I was watching the pilot of the new TV show, “Rise,” last week, and I was fully prepared to love it. It’s about an English teacher who takes over the Theater department at his school, after all. That’s me! He’s even my age. We’re like the same person!

Except that we’re not.

Because this teacher shut down the production of “Grease” so his troupe could do something more ‘real’. That something was a musical that glorified a laundry list of  behaviors that the Bible clearly identifies as destructive.

“The purpose of the arts,” this teacher tells his attentive students, “is to reflect culture.”

Wait just a minute. The purpose of art is to reflect culture?? So the most creative people are to simply look around and show culture what it looks like? To stand back, arms out, and shrug…”Here’s your world, folks”?

No! How about art changes culture? Challenges culture? How about we create art that points to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty? How about we reflect Christ in our art? And while that may sound crazy, this is what many artists did for centuries before this one! It has been a recent phenomenon that Christians have relinquished the arts to the secular world. (For a more thorough discussion of this topic, check out Nancy Pearcey’s Saving Leonardo)

It seems very sophisticated to argue that a show dealing with “real world” issues is artistically honest. But the fact is this show, like the show-within-a-show they try to produce, is pushing its own agenda. And it even leaves an “out” for itself – maybe they tried too hard, pushed too far. Maybe, like the show this teacher tried to produce, “Rise” itself is too edgy for folks, yet. But at least they tried. And they opened the door for more culturally reflective shows in the future.

Friends, let’s not sit back and let the arts be taken from us. Let’s not allow the world to tell us, “This is just how we are.” Let’s not assume, as Christians, that we don’t have a voice. We can speak love and Truth. We can have convictions without being jerks. We can disagree without being disagreeable. But we cannot, we should not, remain silent.

Let’s RISE up and seek to change our culture, for God’s glory.