"SOOTHING OURSELVES TO DEATH"

This is the title of an essay by Charles Colson in the April 2006 issue of Christianity Today discussing music in today's church. He focuses on the evangelical church, but I think some of his ideas could be applied to Anglican or Roman Catholic circles. It was interesting to listen to a Roman Catholic youth group in Vienna sing some of the same praise songs sung in the LU chapel or the Baptist church I attend.

I recommend reading the entire article, but here are a few of the thoughts Colson raised:

--We'd been led through endless repetitions of a meaningless ditty called. . .

--Theater-like churches where musicians. . .often perform at ear-splitting levels.

--Christian radio stations are dropping serious programming in favor of all-music formats.

--A respected broadcaster recently dropped Focus on the Family on the grounds that it had become too involved in "moral issues."

--One station cancelled my four-minute BreakPoint commentary saying that four minutes is the equivalent of one song. Horrors!

--The decision by influential Christian broadcasters and music companies to avoid moral controversies could result in the church withdrawing from the culture as it tragically did a century ago.

--Music is important in the life of the church and can inspire us to focus on Christ. But it cannot take the place of solid teaching.

--According to a recent study, the average college graduate's proficient literacy in English has declined from 40 percent in 1992 to 31 percent today. One out of three college graduates cannot read a book or absord a serious sermon.

The article started out concerned about the shallowness of contemporary Christian music and then moved on to raise issues about the intellectual shallowness of contemporary Christians.

Contemporary Christian music appears to have a number of problems:

1. Colson is correct that much Christian praise lacks content. One or two syllable words are chanted over and over again. Traditional hymns with 5 or 6 stanzas have more potential to communicate serious theological truth--they even use 3 or 4 syllable words. The problem is that some of the old hymns have had their words changed by editors of modern hymnals who believe today's congregation will be confused (and may need to use a dictionary) to understand a word like "justification." But one advantage of some contemporary Christian songs is that they could be safely sung by a Muslim or deist.

2. Some praise songs do not seem "singable," at least for the average untrained congregational worshiper. (I even recently had a fairly accomplished vocalist tell me that some songs chosen by his church choir director were not written for the range of voices in the choir.)

3. Recently while driving through Eastern Oklahoma I was listening to a contemporary Christian music station and then later some station with Christian music from the 1950s or 1960s. I believe the older Christian music had more harmony and the voices had more range than the contemporary recording artists have. Much contemporary Christian music is just loud.

4. I don't think one can argue that all of the old hymns were outstanding, but many of the classics which survived into the 1990s were great songs with significant messages or truths waiting to be voiced.

5. Very few praise choruses will stand the test of time. Praise songs of 5 or 10 years ago have disappeared to be replaced by another generation. As with so much in modern society, there is no permanence.

6. I would also raise the issue of words just being put on a screen as opposed to people having to use a hymnal with words and all of the bars, rests, and notes. As a non-musician it would seem that we are creating a generation of worshippers who do not have any idea of how to read music. I would think trained musicians and church choir directors would be upset at this.