On Sunday morning Pastor Dan Kimball of Vintage Faith Church arrived at the coffeehouse where his congregation worships to discover three of the three hundred sketches decorating the space were nude drawings. After debating the nature of art, holiness, and the church’s responsibility, Dan had to make a decision – flash the flesh or lose the nudes? Dan’s first post outlined the nature of his deliberations. Here is the rest of the story.
The nude drawings were very tastefully done, classical and artistic, it was not erotica. But we took them down. I felt keeping them up would cause more questions than it was worth. Additionally, there was no time to warn parents about the nudes on the walls of the coffeehouse before our worship gathering.
I found the artist of the nudes and explained why we were taking them down. She was totally understanding. Each of the nude drawings had art on the other side of the paper, so we flipped the pages over and used what was on the other side instead.
It was an interesting decision to think through. You may conclude that I am a legalist for taking the art down. Maybe you think I am too conservative. Or, you may think the fact that we wrestled with the decision at all means we are far too liberal. As I said before, they don’t teach you how to handle these types of things in seminary. So we must learn as we go.
