Since November, musicians Robert (Cass) McEntee and...

Since November, musicians Robert (Cass) McEntee and Ivan Knight, both 25 and regulars on San Diego’s nightclub scene, have been working hard to bring Christian art back before the public.

“For so long, the entire spectrum of the arts, from music and poetry to painting and sculpture, was dominated by Christianity,” McEntee said.

“Throughout history, great artists like Michelangelo and Handel glorified God with their work and, in the process, created some of the most famous masterpieces the world has known.

“But in recent years, things have gotten so turned around that the body of Christian musicians, poets, painters and sculptors has become lost in terms of commercial acceptance.”

Through a series of bimonthly presentations at the Che Cafe at UC San Diego, the two musicians-turned-promoters are giving local Christian artists the chance to praise the Lord without fear of commercial rejection.

Billed as The Pushing, these “forums for artistic expression,” which draw as many as 150 people, are centered on concerts by three of San Diego’s dozen or so Christian singer-songwriters and rock bands, McEntee said.

Sessions of The Pushing have featured such local Christian musicians as Kirk McIntosh, Sean Riley and David Shockey, and rock bands the Resistance, Hiding Mask and Souls in Exile.

“The common idea is that Christian rock is a Bible-thumping, preaching medium, but it’s not,” said Riley, who also plays secular music on the nightclub circuit with his jazz band, Nuance.

“It’s simply a way for artists to communicate how important spirituality is to being human--and how much we need Christ in our lives. Music is more than just making people dance. Music is a form of communication.

“And by upholding the Christian perspective, musicians can accomplish a great amount of good.”

Besides music, The Pushing series frequently includes performance art, poetry readings and multimedia art exhibitions coordinated by local Christian artist Robert W. Welch Jr.

Themes range from society’s stereotyping of male and female roles to governmental threats to militarize the border with Mexico, McEntee said.

“The reason we call these forums The Pushing is that our goal is to push artists in every medium, not just music, to express themselves as freely as they like,” McEntee said.

The next Pushing, tonight, will be headlined by Sacred Reign, a rock group, and Point Blank, a “hard-core Christian punk band,” McEntee said.

He will open the show himself, with a mix of originals like “Jesus Is Pushing Me” and standards like the Negro spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” which he performs reggae-style.

As usual, all proceeds from ticket sales will go to charity. Like the third Pushing, held in March, this one will benefit the local Catholic Community Services’ Department of Refugee Resettlement, which aids Central and Latin American exiles in their attempts to immigrate to the United States.