The Cross: An Empty Symbol?

For a few years now I've been pondering why there isn't more of a visual language to describe faith and the church. I thought about trying to develop one. And I've largely given up. Mostly, I think it's a wasted effort.

The problem with symbols is that their meanings are abstracted from the original, and thus they are weaker. “9/11” doesn't even conjure an image for me any more (unless I think about it for a while – then too many images...). There are a myriad of examples like that, and the question I have is why would I want to do that to the faith experience?

To recontextualise faith in a way that can be grasped by others represents my particular celebration of and emphasis on art/creativity. My goal is to give people a new insight by coming at things from a different direction, by shining the light in at a new angle. And I wonder what new element I can add to the symbol of the cross.

For starters, why has the cross been adopted so universally as a symbol of the church? Realistically, it's the one Christian symbol that is internationally recognised. I'm not saying I don't understand its significance or relevance to the faith, but beside that and the “bumper-sticker” fish it's pretty much a symbol-desert out there. There is a lot of meaning represented by the cross (everything from sinful man to sacrificial God), but when its only translation is “church” or “Christian” then all of its power is leached out. In fact, I think the symbol of the cross has been co-opted for entirely the wrong thing.

There are two dramatic ways that we get symbols wrong. One is that we ignore the deeper meanings and allow them to exist like scrambled letters on a page. The other is that we take metaphors so seriously that we begin to worship and celebrate them over their creator. Without so many dogmatically-prescribed symbols, it is the freedom (and imperative) of each person to take this journey on his or her own terms, and wrestle with the stuff of life individually.

I used to think it was a weakness that the church has so few symbols. Now I wonder if it isn't our greatest strength.

Photo: Title Shot

This is the title shot to my new blog. It's a straight shot taken at Langley Camera Club in late November. According to the camera's meter, this is "radically underexposed", but I'm its boss and it finally got where I was going. My 70-300mm Sigma "half-mac" was used, almost all the way out to 300mm, at its minimum focussing distance, or close to it. Manual focussing was a departure for me, but I'm pleased with how this turned out.

Lighting was a pseudo blacklight (actually a purple tinted incandescent bulb), and a 250W worklight through an umbrella. Take that, multi-$1,000 studio lights! (Actually, I would still love some pro studio gear, who am I kidding...)

My gear probably cost half what some others' did, and I could get closer and higher magnification than they could. That's where thrifty shopping and research will get ya! :-)

Prescriptive Truth

I hold creative Christians directly to scripture. I'm a little forgiving with (and somewhat welcoming of) interpretations of scripture, but if something seems to contradict, wrongly emphasise, or even exagerate a biblical truth, my guard goes up fast. The truth is so fragile, and I can't allow it to be diluted in my own head/heart. That even goes for poetry or abstract art! I must add though, I appreciate art that honestly probes the mysteries of life and God, and don't want everything to be literal. ( Heaven forbid!)

On the absolutes, certainty; on the interpretations, grace.

Open Source Rules!

How could I ever have been skeptical? Oh yeah, here's how: A programmer buddy told me about Linux back in say, 1998. He was singing its praises. Then he tried to actually install it on his computer, and the honeymoon died on the vine (it's not mixed metaphors so much as a metaphor potpourri...). His hardware pieces couldn't speak to themselves, never mind each other. He tried for weeks, and finally re-installed Windows (Win98, I think...). It loaded itself, booted right every time, and he was a happy, happy man, saying things like, "Windows is a pretty slick piece of code". (Verging on heresy, according to his previous opinion!) That was my early brush with open source. Clear message to me: don't try this at home! Well, times have changed!

You probably haven't heard of Joomla. I hadn't until approximately two weeks ago. It's such a geek thing, a content management system (CMS in geek-speak) that is fully customisable, scalable, and all these other fancy words that used to mean "over my head". But no more!

Joomla (I'm not linking to it. Google it yourself, lazypants! Oh sure, go ahead and point out that it would have been easier to link to it than add this unnecessarily long disclaimer. I don't care. I'm stubborn!) is a brilliant solution to a problem that many webmasters face -- how do you organise your content? It does away with the concept of pages. (They're such a left-over from the analogue world anyway...) Instead every piece of content is on its own held together by an intricate (or not, your choice) system of menus. I couldn't find much to help me get going with it. I think that's because it's dead simple. Well, it is, and it isn't. You know what I mean. Right? And there's a whole bunch of community to help you out if you haven't been fitted with your php-decoding-wet-wire yet. (Yeah, and what are you waiting for, anyway!?)

Long story short, I came late to this open source party, but I'm here to stay. Barkeep? Keep me another shot of Joomla with an order of mambots on the side. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, that makes two of us. But it's fun, right? At least geeks have finally given themselves fun syllables to toss around... Mmmm, mambots...)

An Intellectual Onomatopoeia

I was in a discussion recently where the word "visionary" was used. As in, "We're not visionary because we didn't do such-and-such." And the point was raised that we didn't know what the vision actually was. What is the tangible thing that you can latch on to with "visionary"? Trick question. There isn't. It's like abstract: it is what it describes. Go on, try and define abstract concretely (ie without being abstract). Give up yet? How 'bout now? Okay stop before you hurt yourself. It's an intellectual onomatopoeia.

Are you still trying?

A New Development...

Living Martyrs was a company dedicated to excellence in graphic design and other somewhat related creative endeavours. That “project” no longer exists. Now livingmartyrs.com is my personal blog, and while I'm going to keep it like that, I'm about to re-re-vamp it.

In partnership with a few other individuals, I am trying to put together a collaborative team of communication specialists. There will be a place in Living Martyrs to express the collective desires of this group. If there is a perceived need for a new name, and a new home, I'm willing to consider that, but what I have right here, right now should be sufficient to make a decent start.

Some of the big developments reflect communication trends that are sweeping the world in general, and how the church can understand and assimilate the changes. It is interesting that the secular (esp. the corporate) world are talking about some key developments that the church should be leading, but is hardly even following. Just think about how many departments in any given segment are dedicated to “[blank] relations”. Public relations have been with us for several years, but there are newer ones like employee relations and customer relations, just for example. Now, how deep and important those relations really are to the organisations is entirely up for grabs. But the church needs to deeply value those relationships.

It's a “forever challenge”, but perhaps naming it clarifies our vision. Understanding that, and working together to make it happen, is what the new sub-site of Living Martyrs is all about.

There has been much talk about “Web 2.0”. That places a direct emphasis on relationship-building, and enabling feedback and dialogue to any given site from the constituents. That is part of the goal for this new project, so that we can enable that in and for other people & agencies.