“One of the keys to interpreting Bernstein’s career thus seems to involve the importance of music education—not just playing band in high school, or hearing a few minutes of Bach on the radio as you drive home from school, but actually studying the mechanics of music and appreciating its fruitful historical unveiling.”

Bernstein drew many people into his music and helped them appreciate higher arts in general.

Musician Lacrae has taken some heat for switching from writing explicitly Christian songs to writing songs on themes with broader appeal. He has appeared with artists and on shows that have drawn criticism from those who think the right thing to do is stick with people who claim to follow Christ.

But Lacrae says another believer, Andy Crouch, changed his mind a few years ago. Jemar Tisby explains, “Crouch says in his book, Culture Making, ‘If culture is to change, it will be because of some new tangible (or audible or visible or olfactory) thing is presented to a wide enough public that it begins to reshape their world.’ He proposes that instead of condemning, critiquing, copying, or uncritically consuming culture, something new has to displace the old. It appears Lecrae has been making new music in an attempt to do just that.”

The tension point for this idea will be at the place where those who want to change people apply their cultural creations. I’m sure many will continue to create things that won’t get anywhere near the people they want to influence, and they will say they are making new culture, but it isn’t changing anyone. They’re making Halloween candy in hopes of changing Christmas.