The Difference

(note: I began this post many moons ago and have returned to it periodically to finish it)

The other day a memory floated into my consciousness of a speech given to the returning students of the Florida State University School of Theatre by our founding Dean. Most of the contents are now blurred and inconsequential, but something he said stuck in my mind. "The theatre is a temple!" He said it several times with greater passion at each utterance. He reminded me of a preacher I saw in in Barbados who rocked the stage during his sermon. You could tell by the tone in his voice that he believed it with all his heart.

So I got to thinking, what does that mean, exactly? The theatre is a temple. What is a temple? A place of worship. So who or what are we worshiping? Do we join our theatrical forefathers in Greece and celebrate the human body? Art? Creativity? An actor's ego?

If the theatre is a temple, what god does a theatre goer or professional theatrical practitioner (fancy term for drama nerd) worship? It's people. Humanity. The power of man to create, to lie (that's what acting is, after all), to move, to sing, to be human. Now I ask, is that something we want to worship? Does it stop there, or does it go on to the creator of humanity? I can assure you, in most cases it is not the later.

That is one great difference between Christians and the apathetic masses: we know who we're worshiping. We have a relationship with Him. It's not some vague idea that we slap a stage under and start bowing to. I've read quite a few plays this semester for my classes, and so many of them ask, "why are we here"? They're looking for something to worship. In the end, they don't find it. They never find it.