Response to Church Music Comments

I made the comment that our national past was "dark and dramatic." I then related this to church music of the past 40 or 50 years. I was correctly questioned as to my comparison and asked for specific examples. In addition it was mentioned that today's choruses are often filled with "I" "Me" or self. I wish to respond to both of these.

In talking about our national past as being dark and dramatic, I wish to stand by these descriptors. Around the turn of the 20th century, our country was experiencing stark changes in transportation, in industry, in labor, in immigration, and race relations. Looking back we are chagrined at the treatment of people and the violence perpetrated on African-Americans, on children in factories, on the American Indian, and mostly on anyone not born in America. The struggles for a family from another country to buy a home, to make a living, and to receive an education are nearly criminal and a cause for great embarrassment at our past. Forcing children to work, knowing they would not receive an education, for the sake of putting food on the table demonstrates an economic situation caused from cheap labor and desire for increased production. This led of course to labor unions which although well-intentioned created another set of problems, problems we have today. Does the gain outweigh the costs? Maybe.

Not being of liberal mind-set, at the same time my compassion for people cannot condone a situation of pain and suffering that existed for many families in the early part of the 20th century. More could be said about this particularly as related to race relations, but I think I will spend more time on that at a later date. To generalize, over many years our incredible country and her people became more refined and tolerant of outsiders, resulting in our being one of the most powerful and compassionate countries in the world. We worked through the difficulties and in spite of the darkness emerged glowing. Not that all is perfect and we have a long way to go, but I certainly would not want to return to that time period. For more information, I recommend reading "Murdering McKinley" by Eric Rauchway.

How does this relate to church music? I do stand corrected that my comparison of being "dark and dramatic" in U.S. history is related to church music. That does seem a bit overstated. Yet I refer to the gnawing problem of worship wars driving churches apart and sending people out of our walls of the organized church. Who wants to worship in the house of the Lord when people are angry at each other? Who can focus on the Lord when we are focused on what we do not like? Who wants to be amid a body of believers who are intent on their own selfish agenda? Anne Rice, who denounced the church, while retaining her faith, was shocked at the internal hostility within churches today.

So yes, I do believe that our immediate past in churches and in church music is somewhat dark and dramatic in that division and polarization seem to be the norm. We chase people away by our judgments instead of drawing them in by our love. That is dark and it is dramatic.

Onward to lyrics of today. It does seem anecdotally true, albeit without empirical data to support the thesis, that lyrics today often dwell on "I" and "Me" rather than on the sovereignty and majesty of God. And we can certainly find several obvious examples. Think on the words found in Holy, Holy, Holy, or Come Thou Almighty King or A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. Now compare those to Tomlin's I Will Rise or Beautiful One or How Great Is Our God. All of these modern choruses reference I or me. In fact, studying the top 100 Praise choruses of today, many of them do seem rather self-oriented.

Now let us think about the hymns used today. We have established that the more established hymns from traditional hymnody do seem less self oriented than choruses of today. Yet a closer look at the hymnal reveals over 52 Hymns that begin with "I" and another 20 plus that reference "me" with many others talking about "I" somewhere in the hymn (Amazing Grace is an example). Furthermore a precursory look at the current top 100 choruses being sung in churches today, shows that about 40 do not use I or me but take a more collective approach and sovereignty of God idea. Of course this does mean that around 60 have a personal plea or personal look.

My suspicion is that it is true that today's music is more individualistic and less global although the percentage of this type of music is well within the bounds of balance of presentation. Yet maybe there is truth in the statement that older hymns acknowledge the majesty of the Lord over "how I feel" about God.

Perhaps there are two reasons for this trend: 1) Much of the music today was composed by an individual holding a guitar and singing about his relationship with God, and 2) Much of the music today has the same composer as the lyricist. When we look back on the great hymns, we notice a different poet/lyricist from the composer of the music. The melding of the two concepts is inherently collective and less personal than 1 person doing both music and words. So it is no surprise to find this trend today as musicians are creating their own songs in an individual framework.

To summarize: points given for mentioning the extreme of church music being as "dark and dramatic" as American history; and a point or two for the perception of today's music being individualistic and less global than hymns of the past. But here is the question--Is this a problem or simply a difference?