If anyone still reads this blog I may get some varied reactions. Please think about what I have to say as objectively as possible before jumping to conclusions.
Taking the education course Understanding Diversity has really opened my eyes to the reality of racism today. Though we no longer have segregation in the schools or other areas of public life we still have institutionalized racism that serves to devalue the culture of others and even devalue them as people. When schools teach history strictly from the European vantage point they promote racism. When people tell coarse jokes about race they perpetuate stereotypes which promote racism. When white men hold privileges that others don't they promote racism. I personally help the cause of racism when I start from a position of fear when in contact with people of other races.
This may not be unbelievable to most, and this is not the main thrust of my entry. What is thought provoking is the thing I realized during Vespers tonight:
"Our current way of doing worship at Bethel is racist"
Worship at Bethel is comprised of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and hymns, and hymns are fairly rare. Part of the reasoning behind this is the fact that the large majority of Bethel students are upper-middle class white people. We grew up with CCM and are comfortable with its sound and style. However, we do have a minority of students who don't have this background and we, in essence, force them to adapt to our musical tastes because we are the majority; we expect them to become white and middle class in the area of worship.
Now, for the most part, I have no problem with catering to the majority if the minority sees no problem adapting to this reality. However, I take issue with the spirit of superiority in which it is done. I have heard from those in leadership positions for Vespers (I am one) and Chapel that hey refuse to attempt music from other church traditions. Why?
Because they aren't familiar with the music.
This is legitimate, but isn't it worth it to learn a musical style if you can benefit from it? Gospel music is much more celebratory than nay of the music we have in our repertoire, and its repetitive nature offers a chance for meditation in a joyous and communal light rather than our introspective and often depressing mantras.
This is "our music"
What about "their music"? How would you feel if you moved from a church with one worship style and then cam to a place where you were forced to worship in a completely different style. On top of that, you get a feeling that, if you can't worship to it, you don't belong to the community and most likely have a personal problem.
Our music is better.
Though not stated outright, we have a mentality that this music is superior to other music. I have heard that it is the most progressive, the freshest, the most powerful, and the music that speaks to us the best. This position is the most hateful of all. It says that other musical styles are stale, weak, and cannot connect with our generation. Now, if we limit ourselves to one particular genre like this we are missing out on more that we can imagine. Hymns alone are packed with the truth of scripture that we can't hope to find in CCM.
We as a student body need to move past viewing worship as a personalized session for introspection and begin to see it as a community gathering where all people and traditions are represented. Even if a particular culture is not present we should consider attempting to worship in their style because each heritage is full of lessons every Christian should learn. Why limit ourselves to one genre when we can pick and choose based of what music is right for the purposes of honoring and exalting God? I'm not saying each service must be diverse or that we should make everything equal, but starting to add music from other cultures can move us from a place that promotes bigotry and racism to a place that embraces all people and cultures. Otherwise we will end up the same way our grandparents have become with hymns.
I'm certain that there are those who could better articulate this problem, but since they are not doing so (or have resigned out of frustration) I will attempt to call attention to this blind spot in our Christian worship.
Goodnight,
Wes
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1 comment:
You know, I have a really hard time worshipping to contemporary Christian music. It is depressing a lot of times and I actually didn't grow up with it. I grew up with more traditional hymns, which I actually like singing a lot more. The words are far more complex and meaningful. Plus for some reason Christian music bothers me. Worship music that is, I guess I really like bands like Thousand Foot Crutch, and Switchfoot and other stuff with more of an edge. I actually feel like more contemporary stuff makes you think that if you sing this all your problems will go away. But if you listen to the lyrics of Reliant K's new cd Mmmhmm, I feel like they really get it right. They get the troubled hard stuff along with the happier joyful stuff. But yea, I do wish Bethel would just loosen up a bit in a lot of ways. I get tired of being around so many white upper middle class people. My family never had a lot of money and we just have a different mindset.
I actually went to a church called the Church of All Nations I think, last week and it was amazing. A native African (mostly Sudanese and Kenyan I think) church, a Korean church, and a Covenant church merged to form this church. They had a little of everything. They had a contemporary worship band, plus some hymns and some read prayers from the bulletin along with a really powerful (AND useful) message from the Korean pastor. It was a pretty sweet experience. I've never been greeted by so many people I didn't know before. You just feel like you belong right away, even if you're in the minority. It's pretty sweet. But yea, there is hope in the world of our churches, and I feel like people will be really surprised how fast it's growing. It's only our American Christianity that's so dead, the rest of it is alive and well.
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