Culturally Incorrect

Why is it we have a supposed "culture war" going on in America, and yet the main topic discussed in this war is politics? As a musician who has played the violoncello for most of the sixty-plus years of his life, I would like to discuss the issue of the music current in our society, and its impact on our culture.

It is to be granted that we have no objective way of evaluating the cultural and moral value of any piece of music. That is a matter for the listener to discern. Nevertheless, I contend that music can be discerned as either godly or ungodly by its musical content, as well as by any words which might be associated with it(if it is vocal music). The Bible tells us "God is not the author of confusion"(I Corinthians 14:33), and during the European Classical era of music composition, from 1700 through 1900, composers wrote their music according to definite and limited rules of musical texture. Also during that time, musical concerts were often performed in Christian churches.

Since the Bible quotes God as saying, "Let us create a man in Our image", man was created with the mirror-image of creative power unmatched by any other animal species. Music was performed in churches during these two centuries to celebrate man's God-given creative powers. The music was created to be aesthetically pleasing both to God and to men, in keeping with the notion of honoring God. Insofar as God is not anthropomorphic, but a Spirit, music could be instrumental, as well as vocal, and did not have to contain word-lyrics to be qualified as playable in churches.

Franky Schaeffer, son of the famous theologian Dr. Francis Schaeffer, wrote a book called "Addicted to Mediocrity", in the which, among other things, he chronicles the cultural down-slide of music after 1900, and attributes it to a shift in attitude of the Christian church towards music at that time. Specifically, the church rulers insisted that unless a piece of music overtly propagandizes for the Christian faith for its lyrics, the performance of such music of the Classic stamp was no longer welcome in the Christian church. Thus eliminated from the church was all music composed originally for instruments. All too many churches today continue to follow this hard-line restriction on musical performance within their four walls.

After 1900, many instrumentalist musicians felt no longer welcome in the Christian church, as the church boycotted their genre of music-making. Today, there exists a tragic spiritual disconnect between many very capable instrumentalists, and the Christian church. As one flagrant example of this, I have a recording of G.F. Handel's famous "Messiah". The recording was made by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. QUESTION: Why did the Mormon church have to "farm out" the orchestral function to a secular orchestra, all the while having its own choir? Why would the Mormon church not have enough competent instrumentalists within its own ranks, to form its own accompanying orchestra? Sadly, this same picture prevails at most other Christian churches around the nation, i.e. magnificently-big choirs, but little or no instrumental orchestra within their own church ranks to accompany the choir. Today, I belong to a Baptist church which has existed for 185 years. It has a very fine choir, but only a small fledgling orchestra. Why is this?

I also have many friends in the music world, and belong to a local amateur musical club called "Music Makers". Unlike myself, many of my instrumentalist musical colleagues hold the Christian church and its Bible in abject contempt. I suspect the reason for this spiritual disconnect goes back to the break between the two camps at around 1900.

After 1900, musical composers gradually expanded the rules of musical composition, and abandoned the notion that the purpose of music is to be spiritually-uplifting in order to honor God. Instead, composers strove to create a "shock-effect" in the audience, in utter rebellion against God. The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Phillipians, 4:8: "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest...if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, THINK ON THESE THINGS." Such was the under-girding of musical composition before 1900, but not for long after it.

Today, the Christian church seeks to gain converts, but appears to have a spiritual blind-spot towards the musical down-hill slide in our cultural world today. Disapointingly, many so-called "conservatives" in the news media are also not addressing this cultural issue. Today, we are told that one form of music is "just as good as another", and to claim any superiority of music stemming from the Christian cultural perspective is viewed as "politically incorrect"--even as the Christian church today is viewed by our atheistic secular society as being "politically incorrect". Sadly, I as both a Christian and a devoted musician who also loves music for its own sake--even if it does not overtly propagandize for the Christian church--am forced to say to both the Christian and musical camps: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways...for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts". Isaiah 55:8-9. I seek to put an end to this spiritual disconnect between the Christian and musical worlds, and make all musicians who would come to Jesus Christ and accept Him as their saviour to feel truly welcome in His church once more, even as music was played in churches before 1900 to celebrate man's God-given creative musical powers.

-Lawrence K. Marsh