Fw: [Worship] Counterpoint to Multicultural part III clarified

["Gary and Renee Thomas" <thomasg@interquest.de>]

I agree that not all styles or dances should be accepted into the church.
What is born of flesh IS flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.
The 'raise the roof' move has entered the church.
My question is does anyone question the origin of songs and dances?

Can anyone give some insight on the blowing of whistles during the worship
service?
I have heard this is a new fad in churches in the states.

Because of Grace,
Renee Thomas
-----Original Message-----
From: Chaucer <chaucer@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu>
To: 'Alan Wagner' <wagnera@conlog.co.za>; <worship@praise.net>
Date: Wednesday, February 03, 1999 4:25 PM
Subject: RE: [Worship] Counterpoint to Multicultural part III clarified


>
>
>Alan poses good defenses of the validation of music styles, and I agree
with
>them. However, our discussion had been concerning cultural expression,
which
>entails much more than music. Specifically, the impetus for the thread was
>specific movements or sequence of movements in dance. I maintain that
>certain movements and sequence of movements ought not be in church under
any
>circumstance. Specific examples might include the various love dances from
>India that tell love stories between humans and Krisna, the Act UP! Cadence
>for gay rights, an African sun worship dance, the Hatian voodoo rights of
>passage, the Michael Jackson crotch grab, etc. It is good to incorporate
>multicultural expressions of worship to God, but I really don't think we
can
>take this to the nth degree and say that all cultural expression should be
>redeemed for worship of God. There are some expressions that are just not
>redeemable, (or "ought" not be redeemed - if you have a problem with the
>finite idea just expressed proposing to limit God). If you want to put this
>into music terms, I don't think it would be appropriate for the worship
band
>to play a redeemed "Spirit of the Muse", or a redeemed "**** JC" or even a
>redeemed "Stairway to Heaven" in a worship service. Can you use riffs and
>progressions of these? I think Alan's post answers that well. I would also
>consider the motive.
>
>I don't think our churches incorporate enough cultural variance. But, what
>was advocated is the use of specific cultural forms to validate a cultural
>heritage. I am opposed to this usage in worship as well, as it seems to
take
>glory from God. The use of a cultural variant ought not be to glorify that
>variant, rather, all usage of expression ought to be to glorify God. I
>really don't think it is necessary or good to have a cultural expression in
>worship just so we can say we validate a person's heritage as being worthy
>of recognition, or to draw attention to our differences, or to use as a
>political platform. There are other valid reasons and uses for
multicultural
>expression, namely, to offer a more diverse and powerful (for us humans)
>expression of human worship of God. Let everything that has breath praise
>the Lord.
>
>IHST,
>Geoffrey M. Williams, M. Div.,PTS
>
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