Church Music

Two weeks ago I bought Bruce Springsteen's new CD, "The Seeger Sessions: We Shall Overcome." It's an album of 13 songs based on the folk music of Pete Seeger. Some of these songs date back to the 1500's, others are negro spirituals that find their origins in the cotton fields of the South sung as prayers of hope. Every song on the album is accompanied by strings and horns played by 17 members of the Seeger Sessions band. The music is alive. It is powerful. You can feel what you are listening to. One apocalyptic song ends with this line, "God gave Noah a rainbow sign, no more water but fire next time. Pharoh's army got drownded, Oh Mary don't you weep." And after that last line, horns blare and cymbals crash and you can feel what the chaos and violence might resemble at the end. It's tangible. It's palpable. It's also unpolished and unvarnished. You're listening to music being made, not produced. Another song that reaches out of the speakers and demands that you feel it is called, "Eyes on the Prize." The first verse is about Paul and Silas being jailed and continuing to keep their faith. This originated as a negro spiritual and was re-worked to be a powerful anthem during the civil rights movement. It is a very deliberate, matter-of-fact song where the author is continuing to press, to fight, to keep his eyes on his goal. It was about focus, but it was more about faith. Faith in doing what he thinks is right, faith in his God that He will deliver him from this bondage. The chorus is simple, "Hold on, hold on, keep your eyes on the prize and hold on." Each time "hold on" is sung it is sung with more conviction, more strength and fortitude than the time before. It's almost as if the singer is trying to convince himself to press on. It is a march, it is purposeful, it is deliberate.

Today in church two ladies sang a song about Paul and Silas in jail and I could not help but notice the absolute chasm between these two songs. Each line in the song this morning was soft, sweet, and full of cliche. There was no urgency, just little pearls of wisdom. I know these ladies sang with a pure heart, but our churches seem to lack grit. They seem to lack any fortitude. We are killing ourselves from the inside out because we are painting the Christian walk as something that is smooth and easy and can be summed in phrases like "Let go and let God." We are losing touch with an outside world and it's reflected in our music, in our way of talking and in our blind faith in an ultra-conservative society. I identify much more with what I hear when I hear the words "hold on" over and over and with stronger and stronger conviction because that's what life is sometimes. You hold on. Keep your eyes on the prize and hold on. Everything else may be in complete disarray, but hold on. Life might hard, but hold on. You might lose someone you love, but hold on. Keep your eyes on the prize and hold on.

The group that got President Bush over the hump in both terms is the Christian conservative right. I probably fall into that category as opposed to any other (although I didn't vote for W). This group consists of upper-middle and upper class white people for the most part. I know that's a generalization, but it is true. The Republican party touts family values as election time approaches and they harp on two issues to get a vote: gay marriage and abortion. And when the CCR hears these two issues they perk up. They take to the streets and damn anyone who wants think otherwise. They celebrate when their man wins and completely ignore the ineptitude when he fails. The largest protestant religious denomination is also mostly made up of these people. The Southern Baptist Convention should receive government payment for the support of the GOP. I am a southern Baptist. I believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God and that Christ is the only way for salvation, I also believe that we have lost sight of what Christ truly taught and are bordering on pharisaical law. And when we sing sweet songs about the Christian walk, we show that no matter how polished and how clean we may seem, we still cannot identify with freedom from bondage like the people who wrote "Eyes on the Prize" can. We cannot identify with Christ for being wrongfully treated because of who he was like the black people from the civil rights movement can. Instead of viewing life as a sweet place where problems are solved with three points in a sermon, maybe we just need to hold on. Hold on. Keep our eyes on the prize and hold on.