Renaissance Lost?

Heard some songs from Ray Charles tonight. Been thinking about things. Loved the movie 'Ray' and just found it interesting that (assuming the movie was somewhere close to reality), that Ray Charles was shunned by the majority of the church for mixing 'sacred' music with the secular. He became the 'Sinner Man'... someone cast outside the church....and yeah, it makes me wonder what we've done.... to leave a man outside the church to wrestle with his own demons & addictions & shun him when he tries to weave in "God's stuff" into the every day.... What would've happened if he was instead embraced by the church? Would that have changed him? Changed our world? Or was it necessary for him be outside the church in order to create a legacy of many, many songs known & loved by millions of people, a legacy of excellence & of a pioneer in both music & in doing what people figured a black man couldn't do in those days... Would the church's embrace stifled his gifts or crushed his innovations under the weight of what is 'proper'....

In the TV series "Jeremiah" there's an episode where one of the guys mentions that the Renaissance began when the church finally opened their doors & let all the art & wisdom & knowledge out that they'd been hiding & 'protecting' throughout the dark ages.... and I'm not sure. That whole statement could be totally revisionist history, but it makes me wonder sometimes if we in the church aren't blocking new renaissances every once in a while by not letting people be different in their expression of their creative gifts....