I do not worship Morpheus
Jun. 9th, 2002 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkThe Dallas area is a place of monstrous sized Baptist churches.
First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas is renowned for the time in which a single Sunday service brought over a million dollars *in the collection plate*. Imagine my surprise and mild pleasure, then, when the Baptist church to which I accompanied my friends this morning was in a suburban home, in the somewhat upscale Firewheel subdivision of the town in which I maintain my office.
I cannot recall attending a full service in the living room and sitting room of a private home before, though I've often read of little churches that operate that way. When I remarked on the novelty to my friends, they pointed out their suspicion that yet another church was across the street. Apparently, the eagles gather even in the driveways of suburbia.
As I'd been warned, the service utilized that curious confection known as "contemporary Christian music". Southern protestantism
has evolved a really fascinating repertoire of songs written between 1880 and 1940 which are meaningful and a great deal of fun to sing. These hymns tend to bear heavy influence from the African American spiritual tradition, but with accretions added by the southern WASPs who adopted them. These "gospel" hymns, coupled with a few of the "classic" hymns from classical music, work out very well for most protestant churches. In recent years, though, the perception has arisen that these hymns, which tend to speak of the stark realities of the xtian faith in terms which are not particularly peppy and sometimes can involve use of the word "thee", are not of the correct pop sensibility for modern ears. Hence, in the 1970s through 1990s, an entire Tin Pan Alley of "contemporary" songs has arisen. Now, for me, "contemporary" music of the era 1970 through 1990 involves a fair bit of heavy synth use (or very rough and ready acoustic guitar), more than a share of dissonance, and a sort of immediacy based on idiosyncratic lyrics attuned to the odd culture in which we live. However, this is not what is meant by "contemporary Christian", which tends to be music based on easy to follow lyrics of praise set to music that is simultaneously at home in either a school play or a short-run Broadway musical.
This church, I was intially sad to see, eschewed all the wonderful old hymns I knew in favor of this "contemporary xtian" stuff. They handed us out a lyric sheet for songs all written in the 1990s. But here is the paradox--although I was entirely ready to dismiss the music, in fact I found the melodies easy to follow, easy to sing, and theologically more in line with my views than virtually all of the other messages of the service. The scriptural tag is something like not judging lest "ye" be judged, and let me tell you I can suspend a lot of judgment if the notes of the song actually fit my limited vocal range. I still wish we could have sung "How Great thou Art" and "Shall We Gather by the River".
The service had many elements which differed from either my Methodist upbringing or my Unitarian Universalist adulthood. This church was particularly missionary-attuned, and we heard a talk by a 25 year old woman about to head to a country not often frequented by Americans which is home to another of the major world religions, whose name we were told but enjoined not to repeat, because proselytizing may not be safe in that country.
I liked the speaker; she seemed real and earnest to me. At the same time, all the serious misgivings I have about the traditional "missionary" model, in which people of other cultures are to be "saved" from their own cultures and converted to US protestantism, troubled me. I have one of those conflicted feelings. I was dismayed by a reference in one of the handouts that equated a long-respected major world faith with the work of the "evil one".
On the one hand, freedom of religion is one of my deepest core values. I want every country safe for the preaching of every belief system, whether the Baptist faith, the Wiccan faith, or atheism. On the other hand, the historic interconnection between missionaries and colonialism, coupled with the virtual complete failure of such evangelism in countries subscribing to the "world" religions of Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, make me question the entire "missionary" model. It's not just that I don't accept the doctrines of the church involved in substantial measure, though I don't. It's more that we have so much to do that this model does not address.
People are starving and in pain all over the world. I hope I do not seem unkind or insensitive when I say I wish to see less conversion and more alleviation of suffering. That samaritan in the oft-told tale did not convert anyone to the God of the Samaritans. He just healed the wounds of the man in pain. Whose was the greater Grace?
The sermon was given by a seminarian who posited the notion that Paul's Letter to the Romans, third chapter, which describes how one might be "justified" (or saved) by faith (a fascinating Pauline concept) was the most important part of the Bible. He did a good job speaking, seeming both "in touch" with real life, and yet a solid Dallas Theological School seminarian. I'm no theologian, but my own favorite Bible passage is from one of Paul's letters to the Corinthians which points out that even if one speaks in the tongues of men and angels, if one has not got love, one is nothing.
The service concluded with a communion, an infrequent event at Baptist churches, in which it would have been inappropriate for me to join. As the others partook of a "host" of crackers and grape juice, I stood and thought how even though I personally dislike belief systems that tell people that one set of folks is "saved" while another is eternally "damned", my own belief system requires me to tolerate, if not agree with, other folks of good will as to their own beliefs. My own view is that if one believes in everything--or nothing--that one has a duty to Truth to adhere to that belief. People who do not see a God that I see must be true to what they do see. Indeed, I am not sure anymore that some of the "answers" we seek in religion are even asking the right questions. I am very attracted to the xtian theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German man executed by the Nazis. In his letters sent from prison, he thought aloud about a religion in which we no longer use God as a crutch to excuse our own failure to help other people. We must live as if God were not there, he said, in God's name. Even this limited "God-talk" would be off-putting for many. Being a non-theologian, I might say the simpler thing that we have too much to do about helping each other to get lost in how we describe the indescribable.
But I realized that I must respect the right of these folks of good will to assert belief(s) disparate from mine, whether in my God, a different God, or no God at all. Freedom of religion is easy, of course, if you only tolerate folks of your own belief.
After church, many of us went to a New Orleans style restaurant, where I had a very good gumbo and enjoyed the company of these very interesting people. One of the church elders had strong Arkansas connections and I had practiced law with someone's brother. These were kind people. I would go back to their church, though I will never hold their views.
Sadly, sleep seemed to command me like a divine Master this afternoon. The sleep patterns I've got have been "off" all weekend. Perhaps it is that my wife is out of town. Perhaps it is that they just get "off" sometimes. I hated to lose my afternoon to sleep. I did get up and do some work at the end of the day.
I got a nice e mail fromasphalteden, which also brightened my afternoon. That reminds me--he had uploaded his picture into the Hypnos Forum "picture day" in the "Suggestion Box" thread. I'll have to go check if the hypnos owner, the ambient musician, mgriffin, uploaded the one of me that I e mailed him. Perhaps there is still time for me to take another walk, and commune with the God I see, and which I welcome all to call God, nature, truth or merely a physical universe.....
First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas is renowned for the time in which a single Sunday service brought over a million dollars *in the collection plate*. Imagine my surprise and mild pleasure, then, when the Baptist church to which I accompanied my friends this morning was in a suburban home, in the somewhat upscale Firewheel subdivision of the town in which I maintain my office.
I cannot recall attending a full service in the living room and sitting room of a private home before, though I've often read of little churches that operate that way. When I remarked on the novelty to my friends, they pointed out their suspicion that yet another church was across the street. Apparently, the eagles gather even in the driveways of suburbia.
As I'd been warned, the service utilized that curious confection known as "contemporary Christian music". Southern protestantism
has evolved a really fascinating repertoire of songs written between 1880 and 1940 which are meaningful and a great deal of fun to sing. These hymns tend to bear heavy influence from the African American spiritual tradition, but with accretions added by the southern WASPs who adopted them. These "gospel" hymns, coupled with a few of the "classic" hymns from classical music, work out very well for most protestant churches. In recent years, though, the perception has arisen that these hymns, which tend to speak of the stark realities of the xtian faith in terms which are not particularly peppy and sometimes can involve use of the word "thee", are not of the correct pop sensibility for modern ears. Hence, in the 1970s through 1990s, an entire Tin Pan Alley of "contemporary" songs has arisen. Now, for me, "contemporary" music of the era 1970 through 1990 involves a fair bit of heavy synth use (or very rough and ready acoustic guitar), more than a share of dissonance, and a sort of immediacy based on idiosyncratic lyrics attuned to the odd culture in which we live. However, this is not what is meant by "contemporary Christian", which tends to be music based on easy to follow lyrics of praise set to music that is simultaneously at home in either a school play or a short-run Broadway musical.
This church, I was intially sad to see, eschewed all the wonderful old hymns I knew in favor of this "contemporary xtian" stuff. They handed us out a lyric sheet for songs all written in the 1990s. But here is the paradox--although I was entirely ready to dismiss the music, in fact I found the melodies easy to follow, easy to sing, and theologically more in line with my views than virtually all of the other messages of the service. The scriptural tag is something like not judging lest "ye" be judged, and let me tell you I can suspend a lot of judgment if the notes of the song actually fit my limited vocal range. I still wish we could have sung "How Great thou Art" and "Shall We Gather by the River".
The service had many elements which differed from either my Methodist upbringing or my Unitarian Universalist adulthood. This church was particularly missionary-attuned, and we heard a talk by a 25 year old woman about to head to a country not often frequented by Americans which is home to another of the major world religions, whose name we were told but enjoined not to repeat, because proselytizing may not be safe in that country.
I liked the speaker; she seemed real and earnest to me. At the same time, all the serious misgivings I have about the traditional "missionary" model, in which people of other cultures are to be "saved" from their own cultures and converted to US protestantism, troubled me. I have one of those conflicted feelings. I was dismayed by a reference in one of the handouts that equated a long-respected major world faith with the work of the "evil one".
On the one hand, freedom of religion is one of my deepest core values. I want every country safe for the preaching of every belief system, whether the Baptist faith, the Wiccan faith, or atheism. On the other hand, the historic interconnection between missionaries and colonialism, coupled with the virtual complete failure of such evangelism in countries subscribing to the "world" religions of Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, make me question the entire "missionary" model. It's not just that I don't accept the doctrines of the church involved in substantial measure, though I don't. It's more that we have so much to do that this model does not address.
People are starving and in pain all over the world. I hope I do not seem unkind or insensitive when I say I wish to see less conversion and more alleviation of suffering. That samaritan in the oft-told tale did not convert anyone to the God of the Samaritans. He just healed the wounds of the man in pain. Whose was the greater Grace?
The sermon was given by a seminarian who posited the notion that Paul's Letter to the Romans, third chapter, which describes how one might be "justified" (or saved) by faith (a fascinating Pauline concept) was the most important part of the Bible. He did a good job speaking, seeming both "in touch" with real life, and yet a solid Dallas Theological School seminarian. I'm no theologian, but my own favorite Bible passage is from one of Paul's letters to the Corinthians which points out that even if one speaks in the tongues of men and angels, if one has not got love, one is nothing.
The service concluded with a communion, an infrequent event at Baptist churches, in which it would have been inappropriate for me to join. As the others partook of a "host" of crackers and grape juice, I stood and thought how even though I personally dislike belief systems that tell people that one set of folks is "saved" while another is eternally "damned", my own belief system requires me to tolerate, if not agree with, other folks of good will as to their own beliefs. My own view is that if one believes in everything--or nothing--that one has a duty to Truth to adhere to that belief. People who do not see a God that I see must be true to what they do see. Indeed, I am not sure anymore that some of the "answers" we seek in religion are even asking the right questions. I am very attracted to the xtian theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German man executed by the Nazis. In his letters sent from prison, he thought aloud about a religion in which we no longer use God as a crutch to excuse our own failure to help other people. We must live as if God were not there, he said, in God's name. Even this limited "God-talk" would be off-putting for many. Being a non-theologian, I might say the simpler thing that we have too much to do about helping each other to get lost in how we describe the indescribable.
But I realized that I must respect the right of these folks of good will to assert belief(s) disparate from mine, whether in my God, a different God, or no God at all. Freedom of religion is easy, of course, if you only tolerate folks of your own belief.
After church, many of us went to a New Orleans style restaurant, where I had a very good gumbo and enjoyed the company of these very interesting people. One of the church elders had strong Arkansas connections and I had practiced law with someone's brother. These were kind people. I would go back to their church, though I will never hold their views.
Sadly, sleep seemed to command me like a divine Master this afternoon. The sleep patterns I've got have been "off" all weekend. Perhaps it is that my wife is out of town. Perhaps it is that they just get "off" sometimes. I hated to lose my afternoon to sleep. I did get up and do some work at the end of the day.
I got a nice e mail from
asphalteden, which also brightened my afternoon. That reminds me--he had uploaded his picture into the Hypnos Forum "picture day" in the "Suggestion Box" thread. I'll have to go check if the hypnos owner, the ambient musician, mgriffin, uploaded the one of me that I e mailed him. Perhaps there is still time for me to take another walk, and commune with the God I see, and which I welcome all to call God, nature, truth or merely a physical universe.....
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no subject
Date: 2002-06-09 05:40 pm (UTC)In regards to hymns, a lot of contempory Christian music sounds just like pop/rock that you hear on the radio. Except the words may be slightly different. I do enjoy singing traditional hymns (especially if you can get four part harmony!), and I LOVE gospel hyms. They are extremely good to sing along and you can get your whole body moving.
Have you seen how some of the African Americans worship? Wow! I love it....everyone is moving around and really feeling the soul of the music.
Thanks for the post!
no subject
Date: 2002-06-09 05:46 pm (UTC)I love hymns, too
I have very little sense for how many people, if any, participate in the xtian religion in Australia. My guess is that it is neither the
"most people go to church" of Dallas, Texas nor the "nearly nobody goes to church" of London.
What is your observation?
Thanks for commenting. My own favorite hymn is
"This is My Song", which is a nice lyric set to a Sibelius piece called Finlandia.
I almost put in the post about the African American pentecostal church in impoverished south Central Los Angeles I attended for an Easter service some years ago. One of my wife's coworkers was very eager that we come. When we parked in the parking lot surrounded by the chain link fence, young men in dark suits met us at our cars, to escort safely in, and to recite for us from memory numerous Bible verses. The church was a large auditorium, only partially filled, mostly African Americans, but some
anglos and a very few latinos. We sang gospel hymn after gospel hymn. That part was glorious (!).
The elderly minister of the church was being 'feted' that night. They put a paper crown on him and a costume robe, and sat him down as "king" of the proceedings in a chair decorated with something like crepe paper. We heard sermon upon sermon, sang song upon song....we wore out after 3 hours, but they were going strong when we left. It was fun to see a "real" pentecostal Easter service, in full swing.
Re: I love hymns, too
Date: 2002-06-09 07:26 pm (UTC)I'm considered "bad" because I don't necessarily follow the same beliefs as others. It's a pretty painful subject and has scared me off religion. I believe in God, but I don't like the "religions" that surrounds God. It's something I'm still coming to terms with, but after being brought up a certain way for so many ways, it's hard to go against traditions.
I've noticed that in Australia, a lot of people around me do not believe in God at all, or they proclaim to believe in a God, but they're "non practicing". I think that Australia is one of the more difficult countries to talk about God and religion as the attitudes here involves making "your own way", and any successes can be attributed to "your own hard work", instead of any divine intervention.
Re: I love hymns, too
Date: 2002-06-09 07:34 pm (UTC)is not nearly so strict, so the movement to Unitarian Universalism did not have the baggage.
I tend to love all the religions that surround God, but I sure don't like intolerance or exclusivity.
That's why I moved to a church with no creed.
I like the Quaker thing about how when somebody asks you do you believe God is real, the answer is "that's not the right question", as the inner light ,be it god or science or instinct or what have you, that's what matters.
I do not worry about whether this thing I call God is real, or if there is a Heaven, or do my beliefs all reconcile neatly into a formula. I worry about whether I can be decent to other people for moments at a time, and whether I can have moments that feel "eternal" to me. Oh, sorry to ramble :)
Re: I love hymns, too
Date: 2002-06-09 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-06-09 06:19 pm (UTC)weekend-- we didn't mean to, honest. I had no idea that today's
service would go on for two hours, and that lunch would be
interminable as well. I am glad that you were able to experience
one of those "small world" occurences-- I just wish that the
experience had happened in, say, a two-and-a-half hour window
rather than a five-and-a-half hour one. I do apologize and I
appreciate your graciousness about the whole thing.
For what it's worth, my invitation was in no way an attempt at
trying to make a Baptist out of you. It more of an attempt to
connect you with two more bright, funny, kind people from
Arkansas. Expect no Four Spirtual Laws buttonholing from me.
Here's one Baptist's feelings about exclusivity:
I imagine someone born in, say, Afghanistan, who knew nothing
but war and famine and repression. Her life is one misery after
another-- it's as if she were being punished for being born in the
wrong country. Her only comfort on earth was in the knowledge
that she was a good Muslim and would surely reap a reward in the
afterlife. When she dies, does she spend eternity being punished
again, this time for being born into the wrong religion? Here's an
example from real life: I used to work with a Hindu lady with such
a sweet nature that she's a joy to be around. Do I go to Heaven
for following the faith of my childhood while she goes to Hell for
following the faith of hers? To twist a line from a Billy Preston
song-- That can't be the way God planned it.
Here's something I like about the Baptist denomination-- just because
the preacher says it doesn't mean you have to believe it. Late last
year we brought in a Dallas Theological Seminary student to lead our
little church. He's way more conservative than I'm comfortable with,
but I still like him personally and will continue to support him and his
leadership, even as I wince at his discussions of "deluded"
denominations and such.
I'm not a big fan of Contemporary Christian music, either, but I've
already posted on that subject.
Again, thank you for coming with us, and should you ever decide to
subject yourself to such an experience again, I'll at least try to scope
out that Sunday's plans to make sure that there's nothing going on
to turn the service into an all-day event.
I would give you six dozen weekends,without stint
Date: 2002-06-09 07:02 pm (UTC)I'll write more simply this time. I had a really great time with you guys, all weekend. I paused a bit before posting this, but I knew on balance that
you'd rather me post it. I'm really glad I got to go to your church, and I don't begrudge the time.
The only thing that would make me feel badly is if I thought I had been in y'all's way or caused some undue discomfort inadvertently. Well, I also feel badly for not forcing the would-be-anglican (how else do you rebel against dad?) to return the damn
4 track to you, but I was in an ecumenical mood (grin). Seriously, I hope I didn't offend, and
I'm very grateful for the invitation and for both of y'all's friendship.
I also enjoyed your thoughts on the conversion issue; very interesting.
ritual
Date: 2002-06-11 09:43 am (UTC)i was raised (by a dad who dropped us off at church and went to beautiful Balboa Park across the street to read the sunday paper and drink a cold bud) Episcopalian as it is the church of Scotland ( my name : Dewart of clan MacLean). my older brother by 13 months, michael, who now works for Mattel Toys (he's in charge of Hot Wheels and loves it) and i both sang in the respective boys and girls choirs. our church was a "high" church meaning we had a hell (pun?) of a pretty edifice and fantastic new pipe organ and a famous choir master. i did not like that the boys were paid for showing up and performing but the girls did not. but i like to sing. back then it was all in latin, which i liked even more.
my favorite day was the feast of St George, who drove the snakes from scotland and ireland. now i REALLY like snakes so the story doesn't please me at all, but on that day we would all wear our kilts and procession around the block with highland dancers and bagpipers and i thought "this is church"
i love the pomp and circumstance of ritual recognition.
i even went to a catholic church for some years as an adult because i loved the passion play of stations of the cross and the excruciating self-examination of it, the identification with the suffering and graciousness of the goddess, mary and i loved the benedicition services.
then again, the catholic church is not far from the episcopalian, only in the areas of transubstantiation and that guy the pope
also, the church i attended taught jungian analysis theory and dream interpretation and we danced and performed theatre at masses and when the bishop came to town we had to all act much more straight and narrow
now, i am eclectic in my view of the spiritual realm and our relationship to it. i draw heavily from my roots so the earth centered and buddhist practices suit me well. i don't attend any organized services except once in a while but the UU here is what's closest to my heart. many of my friends and my sister and her partner are devoted congregants.
actually had an art show there in Bard Hall a couple of years ago.
i still can be comfortable in a mass or service only really don't like any language of any kind that speaks of the "one way" or the "only way"
i do not tolerate exclusionary practices but can let it go when upon sacred ground
that is what i look for
i am moved by the music and passion and goosebumps show up all the time when around people looking for a meaningful connection to help them be better humans
thank you for this post
Re: ritual
Date: 2002-06-11 10:51 am (UTC)I am not active in the U/U church one suburb away. It's very nice, but I don't feel as connected there as I did in our CA church, where we were very active.
If I had the energy, I'd start a little informal gathering U/U fellowship, but I'm not good at starting groups.
Thanks very much for commenting.