Problem 4: Not enough education and training of artists
This one could be looked at in several different ways. On the one hand, are some extremely well-trained artists who are LDS. But on the other hand, that level of training is the exception, not the rule. You can argue that BYU and the other church schools have enormous numbers of applicants to their fine arts programs, so clearly there is an interest, but quantity doesn't equal quality, and our programs continue to be sort-of mid-range as far as their quality. For me, I think this is a problem for one reason: the evidence of supply and demand. There is a market for the huge amount of banality peddled by Deseret Book and its imitators. To at least some degree that market is fueled by people who don't know or don't care that something themed around the Book of Mormon is not necessarily created with care, quality, or artistry. If we as a people were better versed in the arts and culture, then we'd be better able to recognize those who try to profit off of our devotion to the gospel without adding anything to it.
This one could be looked at in several different ways. On the one hand, are some extremely well-trained artists who are LDS. But on the other hand, that level of training is the exception, not the rule. You can argue that BYU and the other church schools have enormous numbers of applicants to their fine arts programs, so clearly there is an interest, but quantity doesn't equal quality, and our programs continue to be sort-of mid-range as far as their quality. For me, I think this is a problem for one reason: the evidence of supply and demand. There is a market for the huge amount of banality peddled by Deseret Book and its imitators. To at least some degree that market is fueled by people who don't know or don't care that something themed around the Book of Mormon is not necessarily created with care, quality, or artistry. If we as a people were better versed in the arts and culture, then we'd be better able to recognize those who try to profit off of our devotion to the gospel without adding anything to it.
Problem 5: No depth of thought among our people
This is a thorny issue. If my blog had more that five or ten readers, it could get me into trouble. I worry that deep thinking, while not discouraged, is not always held up as a virtue in LDS culture. Many of the prophets were deep thinkers who spent hours pondering on the scriptures, but we, being the beneficiaries of their intellectual and spiritual legacies, are often given so many astounding answers and insights that we don't bother to think more deeply about issues. When you get the meaning of life laid out for you on a platter when you're five or six years old, it's hard to figure out where to go from there.As far as your religious faith is concerned, you'll be fine if you take what the prophets say and pattern your life accordingly, but art needs to have questions, issues, insights, conflicts, doubts, triumphs, and failures. I don't want to say that there isn't depth in our ideas and feelings, but for great works to be produced, there has to be more thought put into the gospel than what I often see on Sunday.
On a side note as I hit the half-way point here, I don't want anyone reading this to think that I'm in any way criticizing the church, the gospel, or any of the Lord's anointed leaders. The church is God's only true church on the earth, the Gospel is the Truth the Christ came to bring us, and the leaders of the church are what they claim to be: prophets, the Lord's mouthpiece on the Earth. What I am criticizing is the prevailing culture of LDS people accepting gospel-themed mediocrity as art.
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