Thomas Kinkade My Eulogy

Thomas Kinkade

My Eulogy

For thousands of years certain people have been bigger than life.  Perhaps unfairly, they are beloved more than they deserved and critiqued more harshly than was warranted.  The Christian community has been as guilty of this as any collection of people and this has been particularly true of our own.  And yet a strange twist on this has taken place recently that has troubled me.  Thomas Kinkade makes this point clear almost perfectly.

Beloved by many in the Christian community for his bold proclamation of his faith through his paintings, Kinkade was derided by critics in the art community for his style and technique.  His passing brought out the best and the worst in his life and made his legacy an object of public scrutiny.  Yet was it deserved?   Should this be the way we react to those who “make a name for themselves”?

Recently a number of public figures have made strong statements of their faith in Christ and their popularity among Christians has provoked a backlash that has stunned many of us.  Jeremy Lin, Tim Tebow, George W. Bush and Thomas Kinkade among others have become heroes of sorts because their success has catapulted them into the public arena where their proclaimed love of Christ has reached a broad audience.  Because that clear public loyalty to Jesus has infuriated many, they have become polarizing figures beyond the scope of their professional success.

The success certainly has fueled their exposure in the press but it has also guaranteed them undo scrutiny.  The technique, talent, skill and worth of these popular Christian artists, athletes and leaders have all been excoriated by those who just don’t like them.  Of course  they all have flaws and certainly they don’t always get it right in their private lives but must they receive such caustic contempt?

Thomas Kinkade’s brother has been quoted as saying that the extreme criticism Kinkade received in the art community hurt him badly and that does not seem implausible.  It is painful to be derided publicly or even privately by one’s peers.  Was it warranted though?  Did Kinkade have to be Dali or Picasso to deserve the popularity of his works?  Did he have to hate the Gospel or be a serial adulterer to gain favor in the art world?  Regardless of one’s take on his creativity or skill set, Thomas Kinkade did something with his art that I will forever be thankful. He made the love of Jesus Christ a topic of discussion among those who considered his works.  That can of course be said of Jeremy Lin, George W. Bush and Tim Tebow.  Each in his own way made his professional status a forum for proclaiming devotion to Jesus.

When you reach the status of viral popularity, you become a target for those who think little of your abilities and less of your acclaim.  That must be accepted but it does not need to characterize the response of the Christian community.  Cannibalism is common within every grouping.  Democrats are guilty of it as well as Republicans. Evolutionists and Creationists have engaged in it.  So too have liberals, communists and conservatives.  If one of us steps out of line, we are just as prone to turn on our own as we are to attack those outside our group.  Which brings me to my own, the Christian world. 

The Christian community must make it anathema to practice cannibalism at any level.  When finally someone of us reaches the privileged place of a Thomas Kinkade, we must do our best to protect him or her.  I am embarrassed to admit my failure to pray even once for Kinkade, to send him a single note encouraging his faith, to attend to the spiritual battle surrounding his work.  We must do our best to ignore the foibles and style points these public figures generate and simply give our best to fight spiritually for their lives. They need our help and Satan will do his best to attack the chinks in their armor.  One prayer can save Kinkade from a bar fight, rescue Tebow from sexual immorality, protect Bush from ignoring crucial advice.  We don’t need our public spokesmen but they need us.  They need our joy in their testimonies, our support for their efforts to honor Christ and our prayers for their protection and help.  The gospel does not depend on these public figures but because they are ours, they depend on us.  The body of Christ must be the safest and most supportive home another believer has and we cannot shatter this by ignoring, critiquing or disabling the ministry of others trying to be brave Christians in a disparaging and slashing unbelieving world.

I salute the Christ who called out Thomas Kinkade for more than just a shallow, muted faith.  I applaud the Father who enabled Thomas Kinkade to have a forum for honoring Jesus with his work.  I bless the Holy Spirit who gave voice to Thomas Kinkade’s longing to make of God’s grace an object of praise and wonder.  May the memory of Thomas Kinkade and the lingering evidence of his witness in his art bring us a renewed commitment to stand together in the faith and be a living laboratory of true spiritual union and love.