Re: [Worship] Whistles/Multicultural expressions etc.

["Matt Ots" <cr229@city.ac.uk>]

I have been following with interest the thread regarding multicultural
worship expressions (and its subsequent development into whistles etc!).  I
feel there are one or two points I would like to make about some of things
that have been said.

Firstly, I want to say that I would agree with the vast majority of things
that have been said, but it seems to me that different people are
approaching this thing from different angles.  I don't think anyone would
dispute that there are certain acts that are wrong and cannot be transferred
into a Christian worship setting (Geoffrey Williams mentions one or two
specific examples in his last contribution). However, I don't really think
anyone is argueing/debating this.  As far as I can see the issue (if there
is one at all) is concerning cultural styles and expressions more generally.
I think there is a very clear distinction to be made between general
cultural expressions or styles on the one hand, and specific acts, with
direct relation to specific practices that are incompatible with
Christianity, on the other.

I think there is a big difference between the musical/expressive styles
inherent to a culture, and the way those things may be used within the
culture. When it comes down to it, music and dance are simply SOUNDS and
MOVEMENTS - totally innocent, neutral things in and of themselves. Now I
would have to say that with movement there might be more scope for
particular movements that are innapropriate - not in and of themselves as
movements, but due to specific physical associations/ gestural references
(eg. Michael Jackson's crotch-grab, to quote Geoffrey!). However, these are
exceptions rather than the rule. As someone else said, the vast majority of
movements are just that, and not good or bad in and of themselves.

With music I would say this is much more the case. A sound cannot be good or
bad in itself, and even if we take and manipulate sounds and create new
sounds or combinations of sounds (ie. create music), these things are in the
end abstract. IT'S WHAT YOU USE IT FOR THAT MAKES SOMETHING GOOD OR BAD. The
same combinations and sequences of sounds can equally well be used to praise
God or to worship the sun or whatever!  In just the same way we worship God
with our voices but with the same voices we can just as easily sing or say
any number of things that are totally inappropriate or sinful. Same voice,
same basic sound, same basic principles as to how we construct and use the
sounds, just a different message.  Similarly, you can worship God with the
guitar or pipe organ, or equally you could worship Satan with the very same
instruments, notes and melodies if you wanted to.

I am not saying you should necessarily take a SPECIFIC song, piece of music
or dance DIRECTLY  from a pagan/sinful setting and just transfer it across
into a Christian worship setting.  I don't think there's really a question
of people trying to use "Stairway to Heaven" as a worship song! However,
that doesn't mean we can't use the same instruments, sounds, rhythmic,
harmonic and melodic ideas, structures, techniques etc. to create a worship
song.

I think another area of misunderstanding is where people start to talk about
'pagan cultures' in the same sentence as 'other cultures', 'ethnic music'
and so on.  This does seem to betray a feeling that 'we' (white, western
Christians???) have some kind of monopoly on God when it comes to our
particular cultural inheritance. This is plainly untrue. British and
American culture is no more or less 'Christian' than any other culture.
CULTURE is not the same as specific religious expressions etc. (however much
the two may be linked). It's a far more general, overarching thing than
that. To say that African drum-rhythms, for example, are somehow bad or
demonic or something, is a misunderstanding of that culture. Maybe certain
activities for which those drums and rhythms are employed might be, but not
the instruments and rhythms and style of playing in itself.  A culture's
musical expression is a product of every conceivable factor - environment, c
limate, lifestyle (in all it's many factes), work, etc. etc.  So African
drums may be used in pagan worship rituals, or for everyday communication
over long distances and between villages, for pure entertainment, as part of
a work routine, as a means of storytelling etc.etc.etc., or to worship God!
Culture and cultural expression is a HUGE thing, and we just cannot go
dismissing certain 'cultures' with a simple wave of the hand. It's not even
a question of "Is a culture Biblical?" ELEMENTS of a culture, maybe, but not
the whole thing!! You might as well discard the whole of American-European
culture as do that!! It just doesn't work like that!  It was not the
'cultures' of the Canaanites that the Israelites were to have nothing to do
with (since, as someone pointed out, they had many things in common), but
the pagan practises contained within those cultures. God never gave anyone
instructions about a particular kind of music or dance to be used in
worship. He never gave Moses 'The Ten Holy Songs' or 'An introduction to
Holy Music'!! How absurd!!!

I feel like I've gone round in circles a bit. Hopefully I've made a bit of
sense. I don't think I've rally been trying to disagree with anyone,
majorly, but rather seek to disentangle some of the dabates that have been
going on.

Matt Ots :)


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