Christians and the Arts
Lynn Robinson
July 1, 1999
Could a rapprochement between observant Christians and the arts be in the air? It depends on which arts, and which kind of Christian. In Table 1, notice that evangelicals, the most frequent churchgoers, have lower levels of participation in the arts than mainline Protestants and Roman
Catholics. Meanwhile, Roman Catholics, often considered by sociologists to have lower social status than mainline Protestants, are actually more frequently engaged with the arts.
But surely the really religious types have less time for art? To the contrary: "high attendance" Christians of all sorts-those who say they attend church services most every week-are actually more likely to go to a museum or a performance of classical music or dance than their less seriously religious counterparts. The exception to that trend is the most commercial artistic medium-film-which attracts fewer high attendance types. (Guess they decided to skip American Pie.) Still, the movies are by far the most prevalent form of art enjoyed by these respondents.
The overwhelming majority of Protestants and Catholics believe art and music bring them closer to God (see Table 2)-good news for artists who want to make their creativity available to their religious communities. Just don't be too creative-a sizable minority of American Christians believe that modem art is not particularly valuable (see Table 3).
Meanwhile, in a separate question not reprinted at right, heavy metal takes the prize as the musical form least appreciated among all religious groups regardless of active church attendance. But musical evangelists, take note: Fifty-five percent of twenty-somethings who claim no religious affiliation say they "like very much" or at least "like" heavy metal.
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