The Christian Realists are a pretty loose group. I found the group through mutual friends, Matthew Winslow and Paul Christian Glenn, fellow lovers of the group Daniel Amos. Matt and Paul were on a number of DA lists that I was on, and I found out that they were over here being all creative and stuff. I discovered X-real at a time in my life when I had founded and killed off two side businesses in two years and was disillusioned with depending on other people to help me realize my dearest visions.
As a typical guy, I had it all backward, reaching for my dreams before asking God about it. I thought to actually ask God what my vision should be only after the two failed endeavors, but he didn’t hold it against me. What he did was so astonishing that it changed my life. He returned to me something I’d long since forgotten, my oldest and dearest dream, creative writing. However, this being God and all, he put a fresh spin on it, giving me the idea of combining my love for God, my love for fiction writing, and my love for sci-fi and fantasy.
He did this through a couple of people, one of whom is our own Paul Christian Glenn. At the time, Paul had a menial job (this is referred to in the business as “understatement”) and yet he had written and was directing and co-producing his own film, Jaqueline Rose, a small character-driven story that takes place literally where he lives in the heartland of America.
It occurred to me that if Paul could serve the Lord with his interests and gifts, maybe I could as well.
It was a heady thought.
When I first hit the old Christian Realists site, one of the sluglines that was brainstormed at the time was an expression that I first found somewhat incendiary, taken by itself, “piety kills the creative mind”, a line from well-known writer Flannery O’Connor. I dug a little deeper into the site and read what these folks were all about.
Talk about an oasis in a desolate land.
It was as if these people were reading my mail, were long-lost brothers and sisters I didn’t know I had. I felt immediately attuned to what they were all about, and asked if I could be a part of the list.
I felt I had come home, that these creative, devout people understood the God I love and serve, and understood how to do that in a genuine way. I have been challenged, inspired, enriched, and accountable to these folks, and my writing life has become that of a journeyman as I seek to improve my craft and deepen my relationship with God.
So what does that incendiary slugline mean?
All I can tell you is what it means to me.
By way of preface, there are three common definitions for piety:
pi·e·ty
n. pl. pi·e·ties
1. The state or quality of being pious, especially:
a. Religious devotion and reverence to God.
b. Devotion and reverence to parents and family: filial piety.
2. A devout act, thought, or statement.
3. A position held conventionally or hypocritically, or a statement of such a position
To be fair, the quote can be easily taken the wrong way if one doesn’t read all the definitions. Also, this is the sort of quote that begs to be unpacked in context, and this is where the DA connection pops back up. While it was penned from Flannery O’Connor, a name that carries its own pedigree, I highly suspect that it comes from none other than Terry Taylor, one of the most respected Christian singer-songwriters out there, co-founder and frontman for Daniel Amos. Here’s an interview with Terry where he discusses what the O’Connor quote means to him and the maturation process that occurred for him and DA as they began with well-intentioned (but spiritually adolescent) records like their self-titled debut (1976, “Jesus Is Jehovah To Me” , “Abidin’”, “Don’t Light Your Own Fire”) and Shotgun Angel (1977, “Praise Song”, “Father’s Arms”, “Meal”, “Shotgun Angel”, “He’s Gonna Do A Number On You”). Taylor’s lyrics and DA’s musicianship grew exponentially over the years, as did the spiritual maturity of the members of the band, until they reached a place, 20 years later, where their earliest efforts are a little cringe-worthy. The band’s latest studio release is a two-disc tour-de-force entitled Mr. Buechner’s Dream, and extends over 33 songs and ground that is both old and new. Brian Quincy Newcomb starts his review of MBD like this:
When Terry Taylor sings “There may not ever be anything new here to say/But I’m fond of finding words that say it in a different way,” he’s explaining how his band Daniel Amos survived over 25 years on the margins of Christian music. A veteran of the Jesus Movement, Daniel Amos formed in the mid-1970s and quickly became one of the bright spots in this emerging genre. But, as Taylor continues in “Ribbons and Bows,” on the band’s first studio disc in seven years, “We’ve got some gates to crash/We’ve got a fire to light/Burn down the pious trash.”
With Mr. Buechner’s Dream, Daniel Amos continues its musical legacy in grand style, serving up 33 songs spread across two discs. It continues to celebrate the Christian faith and the amazing grace at its core, but also burst the bubbles of those who want to over-simplify by robbing Christian art of its innate honesty. Inspired by novelist Frederick Buechner and the likes of Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, G.K. Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers, the band wants to tell the whole truth about life and faith, the paradoxes and the process—and do so in fine rock ’n’ roll fashion.
I mention all that to bring us to an interview with Terry at the Mars Hill Review in 1996 (five years before he wrote MBD) in which he touches on some of those same themes, and perhaps helps us to understand things a little better:
Mars Hill Review: You went from singing straight-ahead Christian songs in the early years of Daniel Amos to creating much more oblique, challenging songs. That change blew many fans, who wanted their dogma reinforced, right out of the water.
Terry Taylor: I have to agree with Flannery O’Connor. She said, “Piety kills the creative mind.” I think a lot of our early records contained
a lot of piety and a sort of “God is our lock, stock, and barrel” mentality. It was a reflection of what I knew at the time and what I could write about then. But as my experience has increased-I mean, I’m forty-five years old now-I’ve come to the place of recognizing there
is mystery involved, not only in human existence but in God himself.God gives us enough of himself so that he is knowable to some degree, yet there is much about him that is unknowable. I think my current
music is an exploration of that theme.MHR: That builds on a quote I recently read in a Madeleine L’Engle book: “A comprehended God is no God.”
TT: Exactly. What makes a song powerful is the exploration of that mystery. The audience that Daniel Amos has now is one that senses a
certain degree of transparency in my writing-a transparency that says, “I don’t have it all down. I don’t have all knowledge.”The Bible isn’t simply an instruction book, but an exploration of God’s character and how it relates to us and the way we live our lives. So I think the music’s themes now are much more infused with the searching spirit. This doesn’t negate the fact that Christ has redeemed. But the riches of God know no limits. I believe as a writer that it is essential for me to explore those mysteries and treasures.
This brings us back to the Christian Realists. This group is peopled with creative sorts who love God, and want to do that authentically. The O’Connor quote isn’t meant to challenge God or demean other people, but to challenge those aspects of Christianaity that get in the way of each of us loving God through our creative works and artistic pursuits.
In short, it’s meant to challenge ourselves. Think of it as “false worship interferes with genuine worship”, and you’re on the right track.
If there is a posture involved with this, it is that of the artist kneeling before God, asking him to work through them.
This is something I can believe in, something sincere and basic and true, the polar opposite of pretension.