[075] World Scripture - Creativity and Art - 4. Art and Morality

[대태양/김현수]

World Scripture Ⅱ

Part One - God and Creation

Chapter 4 God’s Creation and Human Creativity

8) Creativity and Art

4. Art and Morality

Religious scriptures

As for the poets, those who follow them stray into evil. Have you not seen how they stray in every valley, and how they say what they do not? Except for those who believe and do good works, and remember God much.

Qur’an 26.224-227

Singing produces hypocrisy in the heart as water produces crops.

Hadith of Baihaqi (Islam)

‘A’isha told that when the subject of poetry was mentioned to God’s messenger, he said, “It is speech, and what is good in it is good and what is bad is bad.”

Hadith of Daraquni (Islam)

Emotions of any kind are produced by melody and rhythm; therefore by music a man becomes accustomed to feeling the right emotions; music has thus power to form character, and the various kinds of music based on various modes, may be distinguished by their effects on character—one, for example, working in the direction of melancholy, another of effeminacy; one encouraging abandonment, another self-control, another enthusiasm, and so on.

Aristotle (Hellenism)

If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer. The noble-minded man’s music is mild and delicate, keeps a uniform mood, enlivens and moves. Such a man does not harbor pain or mourn in his heart; violent and daring movements are foreign to him.

Yo Ki, Memorial of Music (Confucianism)

The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary, to exacerbate, the moral consciousness of people.

Norman Mailer

Under the effect of music, the five social duties are without admixture, the eyes and the ears are clear, the blood and the vital energies are balanced, habits are reformed, customs are improved, the empire is at complete peace.

Spring and Autumn Annals (Confucianism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

Humankind struggles in frustration, longing in the world of the heart, because they have defiled the heart’s law. People strive to fill that longing through hobbies, art, knowledge, and love objects, but they are never fully satisfied. This is the sorrow and tragedy of the human condition since the Human Fall.

(6:348, May 24, 1959)

After World War II, the trend developed, especially among American women, to worship Luciferlike men. Who are they? Movie stars, singers and actors… These people are actually last in line to enter heaven, yet women came to worship them. I have a vision for the arts far beyond secular art. The secular world’s art is rotten; especially the recording artists and Hollywood set who are immersed in free sex. Many have contracted HIV/ AIDS. I am promoting absolute sex, and members of my ballet company should not be involved in immoral love affairs. It is a wedge to protect American people from rotting away because of these artists.

(339:152-53, December 10, 2000)

In America, you can watch movies on television 24 hours a day. You can watch any kind of movie: war movies, movies about love, even pornographic movies. Young people are readily attracted to them and influenced. Since they do not have a clear viewpoint of life or thought, they copy what they see in these movies. Youth today live in a permissive environment and have abandoned traditional values that might restrain them from seeking out the stimulating things that they see in the movies. Since their parents do not pay them much attention, family ties are not strong enough to sway them. Teachers and public officials avoid giving them proper education on these matters. Therefore, there is nothing to stop young people from trying free sex, drugs, violence—copying everything they see in the movies. If this continues, the family will disappear and the world will soon be doomed… Therefore, we should quickly establish the standard of a new tradition for the building of a new culture. It is a most urgent matter for unifying the world.

(241:197-98, December 26, 1992)

God’s heart of true love—to give and give more, and forget and forget again, to give unconditionally and live for the sake of others—is the foundation of the world of heart. God’s ideal out of which He created the world began from His heart. The arts, which spring from this Origin, should resemble this heart. Hence, in the world of art, there can be no barriers. Art cannot be used as propaganda or the instrument of a particular ideology. Harmony and unity are its basic principles. Divisions and conflicts are the fruits of fallen nature. Accordingly, in the world of art, East and West should understand and accept each other, through art whose character is universal and inclusive.

(316:70-71, February 9, 2000)