Oh No, There Goes Tokyo…
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

We tend to think of monsters as lacking in discrimination. They don't seem too terribly persnickety, probably because they are gifted with more brawn than brains. When Godzilla picks up a bus and he throws it back down, it isn't as if he has a particular grudge against those who always take the cross-town express. Neither did he tend to pick on the Japanese because he had once been served some bad sushi. But Godzilla, no matter how much he might enjoy bringing down skyscrapers with his tail, did have the sense to direct his attention to those few fighter planes we let the Japanese keep after the war, as they buzzed about him, dodging his breath of fire. His destructive power is now discriminate—he aims it against his enemies that would destroy him.

That monster Leviathan acts in much the same way. When the state comes to consume my wealth it does so not because it has a grudge against me, but because I have wealth to consume. Even though I tend to publicly fuss and pick at them, like the proverbial gnat, they haven't singled me out for special treatment, yet. My pen, however, is not a great threat to the all-consuming state. (In fact, it may be a tool for the state. Who will notice the size and scope of the state while we still have freedom of the press?) There is only one true threat to the state and its pretensions of deity, and that is the true deity.

The engine Leviathan has used to keep at bay goodness and truth has already been exposed in this column. The government school system not only teaches the religion of the state, but seeks to inoculate its prisoners against the true God. It's not enough to say, "The state is the source of goodness and truth." They must also, lest the children start looking elsewhere when what the state serves up fails to satisfy, indoctrinate the little tykes into believing, at the same time, "There is no goodness and truth." Goodness and truth not only belong to God; they are God. And so Leviathan must try to swat them out of the sky like so many zeroes.

While the engine for the destruction of beauty isn't quite as grand as the government school system, it is nevertheless hard at work. And the principle is basically the same. Government schools exist, from one perspective, because of the assumption that families are unable to pick up the burden of educating their own children. Parents just can't be trusted. But because we as a society affirm the importance of education, the state is called in to provide it. If you can't trust the state, after all, whom can you trust? In like manner, we as a society affirm the importance of supporting the arts. An artless culture is a culture-less culture. But since we have had our capacity to appreciate art destroyed by the government school system, once more we need Leviathan to ride in to the rescue.

The National Endowment for the Arts is a two-fold welfare program for the arts. The double action works in this way. First, we have a group of artists. These men and women are either incapable or unwilling to create works of art that would find a market sufficient to keep them in the clover. Rather than suffering as under appreciated artists, they start feeding at the federal trough. The government, in short, hands them checks so they can go on pursuing their art. The second element are the same art consumers who are too cheap, though they tend to be well-off, to actually pay for the art. It is not an uncommon scene to witness men and women in evening gowns and black ties gliding out of limos and across red carpets to attend performances that are paid for by the guy driving the limo. While the limousine liberals are inside, the driver hops in the back and watches the art of his choice, some banal sitcom on the itty—bitty TV.

Whether the checks from Washington are going to Robert Mapplethorpe or to a performance of La Boheme doesn't make a whole lot of difference. One seeks to destroy beauty on the government's dime, the other succeeds, because it uses the government's dime. The Christian right has missed the boat here, squealing about Serrano's crucifix in a jar of urine and former porn star Annie Sprinkle's performance art of self-gratification. The problem isn't insufficient safeguards. The problem isn't evolving community standards. The problem is that Leviathan wants to destroy beauty. The problem is that a sword is only good for destruction, and the sword is all that Leviathan has. The problem is that Leviathan uses that sword to destroy, on purpose, all those things which point us to the true God, including beauty.

The solution then isn't to petition Washington to finance the sequel to Left Behind. We will do no good if the folks down at Precious Moments figure out a way to fill out a federal grant request. The solution is to shut the thing down. Once we have stopped Rome's circuses, then we can turn our attention to Rome's bread. The solution is to stay out of the game, to refuse to answer the fool according to his folly.

Not only does it not take a federal grant to be an artist, but one cannot be an artist on a federal grant. You will, of necessity, construct the art of your patron. You will build icons to the false god of the state. Therefore let us create the alternative. Instead of trying to turn the beast into our house pet, we need to get the beast out of our homes. Let us construct a true culture of beauty. That requires that we create as a reflection of our Creator, that we honor Him alone, that we receive from Caesar only that which is of Caesar, the use of the sword to protect life and property, and that we receive from God that is God's, all goodness, truth and beauty.