Useful Art

I think this duty of Congress has been misread in recent years: “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

On the one hand, it’s easy to see how copyright and patent protection would be an important system to establish on a national level. The founding fathers assumed that authors and inventors would naturally want to use their God-given talents in writing about subjects or making discoveries that would be beneficial to the whole populace.

Alas, one need only visit the nearest bookstore to see the many books that are not “useful” and promote sin (most fiction) or hate (political stuff from Michael Moore and his ilk). It is the same with movies and DVDs; the great majority are completely lacking in redeeming qualities. It seems that directors, producers, and script writers go out of their way to promote every vice and perversion.

Congress created the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) in 1965, supposedly “dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education.” Unfortunately their definition of “art” includes things that are completely “un-useful” and often times offensive and immoral. The NEA does not define “excellence in the arts” the way most Americans do!

Children are innately curious and want to “make things.” That is part of being created in God’s image—the desire to make beautiful things. Even the high priest’s garments were meant to be “for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2). When we use our creative abilities to His glory, we make the world better one poem, one book, one movie, one piece of visual art, one invention at a time.

What useful art will you create or support?

“The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom.” –A. Whitney Griswold