Quote:
Originally Posted by Leslie  Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas2007 I think you need to raise this issue, but it needs to also include the issue of drama itself - not just the issue of the character playing God. Drama has no place in Church and is incredibly dangerous to allow into worship. | I have a negative gut reaction to drama in the church. However, it would be helpful if you would spell out what exactly is wrong with it and whether it is wrong at any time in the building or only during regularly scheduled Lord's Day worship services. |
Hi Mary,
There are a couple of reasons, they are interrelated. I'll be brief, as getting into this could become quite lengthy.
First, drama speaks in various ways by appealing to the emotions. It speaks through visual communication as well as the interplay between characters. The teaching is not uniform since one person may pick up and relate to something whereas another may not. Hence, one person may identify with Judas in a play on the crucifixion, another may identify with Pilot &c.
In the ministry of the word, teaching is to be uniform with instruction so that each individual comes to the same understanding. We are to be, in Scriptural language, of one mind and one mouth. Authority is proclaimed from the Holy God and His Word is a law word unto His creature - it is not left up to individual to interpret for himself, but is designed to bring each individual to the same understanding and same subjection to God.
Second, the social bond of Authority is built upon images of strength, hence Christ is the express image of God and we are made in His image. The work of all authority has a goal to convert power into images of strength, hence God prohibits images, because it challenges His Authority as His visible legible image is Christ.
Authority, fraternity, solitude and ritual are four distinctive social emotions. Three of them build bonds to people, one does not. Ritual or drama is the strongest bond, this is because it creates a form of unity between people, whether those people are equals or not. In contrast, the ministry of the word builds a bond between a Creator and His creature and develops fraternity between people that are similar - the bond to Authority, though, is between unequals.
What happens, then, is with drama people become unified in the ritual of drama, but the social bonds between them is ambiguous, constantly changing and varying from person to person. They have a unity but that unity is not in the teaching, but in each subjective emotional bond that each person develops independently of one another in how they interpret drama. In other words, authority shifts from the Word of God to the institution of the Church.
Once drama, whether that is skits, plays, or even puppet shows for children enters a Church, then effectually the visual communication of the Mass has been reinstituted, not necessarily carried out in the same way or with the same meaning - but the shift in the Authority is the same. This is why it is so dangerous, because it creates a unity between people, but it is not a unity in Truth, but a unity in an emotional bond in their independent and individual interpretation of drama.
Cordially,
Thomas