Thoughts on Artistic Freedom of Expression, Cancel Culture and Being a Christian
On the way back from Providence Singers rehearsal my friend Christine was sharing about a podcast/radio show she'd been listening to. One of the things in particular has had me thinking about it all week. She shared that an African American Episcopalian minister talked about how he will not listen to Handel's Messiah because the money paid to Handel to write the piece was from slave trading. Now, I find this particular example somewhat ridiculous as Handel wrote in the 18th century when I imagine a lot of capital available to pay for artistic works was from the slave trade, also slavery was legal -- and whether we like that or not (I personally do NOT obviously) it is always "wrong" or at least inaccurate to apply current (21st century in this case) morals to any past century. If this was a contemporary work funded by slave trade money then boycotting it might have some impact but nothing we do now is going to fix anything in the 18th century. I'd also ask if
