A few weeks ago I loosed my thoughts on bad church music—simplistic melodies, repetitive lyrics, loud bands, bare feet on stage, etc. And I’m pleased to say that some 35 of you wrote in agreeing with everything I said.
Okay, most of you didn’t actually do that—but that just proves my point: Modern church music has become so dumbed-down that many people have no idea what quality music sounds like. When musical mush is set before them, they have absolutely no idea what they’re missing.
To those of you who already feel the hackles rising on your backs, I direct your attention to the July/August issue of Touchstone, which contains an excellent article by Donald T. Williams titled “Durable Hymns” (print version only, at the moment). Williams examines the history of music wars from approximately 370 AD to the present.
A great deal of today’s music is of poor quality, Williams notes—but that should not surprise us: “Some of the music of the past was, too. The difference is that, with the past, the weeding-out process . . . has already taken place. Therefore, we cannot find, encourage, and preserve the best contemporary music without knowing those marks of excellence that made the best of the past stand out and survive so long.”
“What are those marks?” Biblical truth, theological profundity, poetic richness, musical beauty, “and the fitting of music to text in ways that enhance, rather than obscure or distort, its meaning.”
I’m going to skip over a lot of what comes next, and go straight to this passage: “Though some very beautiful pieces have come out of contemporary Christian music . . . too many of the more recent praise choruses seem to ignore all the rules of good composition, giving us not well-shaped melodies but just one note after another. These ‘tunes’ are not very singable, but it often doesn’t matter because the ‘worship team’ plays them so loudly that no one can tell whether the congregation is singing along or not.”
I know some of you are just itching to say (as you did last time) that this is all just a matter of personal preference, and that what really matters is what’s in our hearts. But as Williams notes, “ . . . musical beauty and fitness of words and music are not matters of style or personal preference, but are the marks of excellence for worship music in any age.”
And, it goes without saying, we won’t please our Lord if we offer Him anything less, musically speaking, than the excellent best.
The Washington Post is getting a lot of buzz from its story "Transgender at five," about a little girl who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a form of gender identity disorder. For now, her parents are letting her live as a boy. In the future, they have some deeply disturbing options, such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments that, among other things, would render their child sterile.
It seems to me, from my reading of the article, that the medical community has put more time and effort into encouraging families to embrace and encourage the symptoms of this disorder than into trying to find genuine treatments for it. Is there any other disorder on earth that we treat this way? The very word disorder suggests that something has gone wrong, that something is, literally, out of order. Wouldn't you think that the patients would be better off if their doctors were genuinely interested in finding ways to restore that order? READ FULL ARTICLE »
Grammatical giveaway
By: Gina Dalfonzo|Published: May 21, 2012 10:32 AM
Bill Maher went after Liberty University late last week (language alert). Among other things, he said: "When you confuse a church with a school, it mixes up the things you believe -- religion -- with the things we know -- education."
As Nancy Pearcey pointed out on Facebook: "The fact/value split in action: belief pitted against knowledge. Notice the shift in pronouns: You believe, but we know." READ FULL ARTICLE »
We need to speak out against the latest attempt to muzzle free speech. While Representative Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) has good intentions, his proposal would spell the end of freedom.
If you missed Chuck's memorial service, you can still see it here, at least for now. (I'm not certain how long it will be available online.) Also, you can read WORLD magazine's writeup here. READ FULL ARTICLE »
The Obama website has a page about "The Life of Julia," supposedly a representative American woman. Over at Her.meneutics, I have a piece about why Julia is a remarkably poor representative for many of us. READ FULL ARTICLE »
When writing, I try to keep exclamation points to a minimum, however, for this blog I might use more than one. You will forgive me the excitement when you find out that we've just celebrated Gina's 10th anniversary with the ministry.
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I heard about the new TIME magazine cover on my way to work this morning. It's a startling picture, really: A three-year-old boy is standing on a chair suckling at his mother's breast.
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He’s supposed be against bullying, but that’s exactly what he did. From the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, I’m John Stonestreet with the Point.
