I have been invited to join a new gospel choir, and we have had two rehearsals so far. I have lots of experience with vocal music in the distant past both as a director and choir member; I have always felt that gospel music is fun to sing; and this group includes many of my friends and coworkers.
But I find a conflict with singing “Praise Jesus!”, “God is wonderful!”, “My Saviour is glorious!”, etc. when my strong personal views consider belief in any god, let alone that particular one, to be absurd at best.
The director is good and enthusiastic, and while he doesn’t begin and end each rehearsal with a prayer, he does keep a book of bible quotes on his desk and he looks upon his musical work as testifying for his “personal saviour.” I expect we will be performing in churches, not necessarily as part of a Sunday service, but my guess is some concerts will have additional material of a religious nature, that is, mini-sermons or group prayers.
So, do I put aside the philosophical contention in my mind, and have a good time, or is this hypocritical for an atheist? What would you do?
Go and enjoy yourself. You can have fun without hurting anyone and bring joy to others. Unless the hypocricy aspect will suck the fun out of singing, I wouldn’t worry about it.
I think it comes down to whether or not you can respect that there is a sacred element to what you are doing, and respect what it means to the people around you, even if you don’t believe in any sort of external validation of that consecration.
I am an athiest, but I believe in art: I think that humanity, that personality, is the most incredible thing, both on the indicidual level and as an interlocking series of communities, and that art is the most profound expression of that: it is still sacred, even if there isn’t a god behind it all. If music has this sort of deep emotional resonance for them, you need to be able to take that seriously.
Put another way, if deep down inside you think that this is just an amusing distraction, I think your attitude will seep out and could be sorta tacky: it is their party, after all. If, on the other hand, the music awes you even if it’s intended recipient doesn’t, I think it’s ok.
I am an atheistic Jew and I love gospel music. I say go for it. A lot of people go to church for the social aspect. You won’t be the only atheist there.
When I was young, my step mother sang in the temple choir. During High Holidays a larger choir was needed and there were a couple of non-Jews who joined in.
It’s art. Like theater. Certainly when the leading lady and gentleman declare their undying love on the stage, they are not necessarily telling the truth, right? But if they’re doing it right, you believe for the moment that they are.
It’s fine, unless you feel you are trying to present yourself as something you’re not. Or if someone there was offended, and you considered their opinion important enough to stop doing it.
But otherwise it’s fine. God and Jesus are mythological. There are many songs about mythological things. Would you feel conflicted singing along to Stairway to Heaven when you know full well that there is no May Queen to be spring cleaning and causing bustles in hedgerows?
I guess Manda JO pretty much summed up my opinion, though I’d have slightly more reservations. If it’s really a religious group singing with a religious purpose, yes, I think it may be a bit hypocritical. I don’t think it’s quite as simple as saying that it’s just art and that anyone can enjoy it – the context is important. You wouldn’t go to someone’s funeral just so you could listen to a performance of Mozart’s Requiem; but going to a performance of Mozart’s Requiem at the local concert hall is fine.
But, as Manda said, if you’re open-minded and really respectful of the group’s purpose, I guess it’s cool.
Huh? The blues are relevant to all races – that’s not the same thing (IMO) as singing another religion’s music in a religious context. There may be a stronger case with regards to African-American slave spirituals; I dunno.
I can’t think of a reason you shouldn’t do it. Most of the atheists I know still enjoy the music and lyrics, even though they’re heathens that will never enjoy the fruits of…wait, wrong forum.
If you enjoy the music and enjoy singing it, and the people listening find it comforting or uplifting, everyone wins! If you’re doing it to ingratiate yourself or try to benefit from it somehow other than the joy you get from doing it, there you’d have a conflict. But you said you enjoy singing, and the people listening will enjoy hearing it, so go for it.
Even if the director has Bible passage tattoos on his forehead, you’re not required (from what I can tell) to beleive in them. He beleives in God, you don’t, you both enjoy performing music. Join the choir, have fun, and stop worrying about it. Just try to avoid belting out anything from Slayer during an intermission and you should be fine.
Q: Why are Unitarian Universalists such bad singers?
A: They’re always scanning ahead to see if they agree with the lyrics.
Anyway, I think it’s fine. Some religious people might even think it was good for you…like how people say you should pray or go to church even if you don’t believe in God, to be open to the possibility.
Heck, most of the romantic songs I enjoy belting out do not bear philosophical scrutiny. A lot of the protagonists of romantic songs would be labelled “stalkers” if you met them in real life.
Out of my 40-or-so Christmas music albums, a handful are by Jews (Barbra Streisand and Niel Diamond, for example.) If they can handle that seeming conflict, so can I.
You have a point. But I don’t think your example is in the same category of a major philosophical conflict. I can’t imagine a Jewish actor, who lost his relatives in a concentration camp, in a serious role glorifying the kinder, gentler side of Eichmann’s blueprint for the future.
Certainly you can’t deny that churches exist primarily to promote and celebrate a specific religius belief even tho many of their activities may be community, neutrally-oriented.
I’m not white, or black, or even blue. I’m mostly plaid.
Ah, the Pascal’s Wager concept.
That’s really the crux of the matter, isn’t it? “Worshipping” in church would certainly be hypocritical. The question is, is this worshipping? I’m sure it is to some.
Mythological to me, not to others.
As an interesting aside, one of the choir members just had a Letter to the Editor published in the local paper encouraging us (the community, not the choir specifically) to “serve the Lord”: “God gave us his word in the Bible…either you accept God as your Creator, or by faith accept you are nothing more than a highly evolved monkey…”
As Rogers01 said, the context is important. I have been part of the performance of such religious works as Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s *Elijah, *Kodaly’s Te Deum (To God), Bernstein’s Kaddish (Prayer for the dead), and other works of that ilk. All were presented in a concert setting, and even the one presented in a chapel was devoid of religious trappings outside of the work itself and the non-demoninational setting. I don’t feel these performances were personally hypocritical.
AskNott: Context, context. Does Streisand go to a Catholic church and become part of the communion service? Does Neil Diamond stop singing to preach Jesus worship during concerts?
Note that gospel music is quite intertwined with worship (as is other kinds of music; Bach was writing for the church most of the time). It is common for Southern Baptist preachers to be both singers and ministers (Al Green comes to mind), and they use both techniques in their services, alternating from preaching to singing.
Yeah, why not? Unless it bothers you enough personally to ruin the experience.
I’m an atheist and “O Holy Night” is my favourite Christmas song. If you like singing I don’t see how it’s any worse than reading the Bible or any other number of things that non-religious people sometimes do because they enjoy/are interested in it.
Having read your last post, it occurs to me that what’s key here is the nature of your own athiesm.
Do you see Christianity as something enriches and fufills and give meaning to the lives of many people but just doesn’t fill that role for you, or do you see it as something that is a bit silly but hey, no weirder, really, than stamp collecting, or do you see it as something that is overall a negaitve institution in society?
If it’s the first, sing away. If it’s the second, all long as you are not saying anything condescending to people in the choir, I think it’s ok, though it’s a gray area. If it’s the third, you shouldn’t do it, both out of respect for them and because to do so is to tacitly endorse something you see as immoral.
I would have zero problem with singing gospel music, or a Bach’s passio, or whatever else (that is, if I was able to sing, which unfortunately isn’t the case).
On the other hand, I would have a big problem with participating in concerts that are part of an event of religious nature. I don’t want to be involved in prozelytism. I don’t want to humor a public before a preacher begin a sermon. I don’t want to take part in a prayer session.
It’s not a problem of hypocrisy, but a refusal to support a “cause” I’m strongly opposed to.
Musicat – are the other choir members, including the director, more or less aware of your (lack of) religious beliefs? And even if they do know that you’re an atheist, are they aware that you’re not there because you’re looking for something, that while you respect their message, you’re not particularly interested in it, and that they don’t have much of a chance of converting you? That, essentially, you’re just there for the music and to hang out with some fun people? If they’re cool with that, then go ahead and enjoy.
Not that I’m saying you should make a big confessional in front of the whole choir about your beliefs; it just might be worth slipping it into the conversation with some of your friends to sound them out on it. Or maybe after practice some day you could pull the director aside and present the problem to him and see what he says. My guess would be that he would thank you and welcome you to keep singing in the group for the good it would do for others (even if he privately still thought that the experience might melt that atheist heart of yours just a little bit). That way you wouldn’t have anything to feel guilty/hypocritical about, and you could keep on singing.
That’s a good question. I’m an atheist and have sung in many choral concerts of classicial religious music (requiems, etc.) and have no problems with that, since so much of the classicial repertoire is religious. But if the music were part of a church service, I would have second thoughts about it. Unfortunately, I would guess that most gospel concerts are part of a church service. And I know what you mean, gospel music is GREAT!!! I guess I would say to go ahead and do it. It’s fun, the music is great, etc. If you were not there, the show would go on anyway, so it’s not as though you are the cause of people going to church. But I could also understand the reasons for not doing it.
I doubt it. Would you believe that there are some people, in some societies, who find it so unlikely that a friend, who is not crazy, deformed or wearing a Ben Laden turban, would not be a Christian like everybody else that they don’t think to ask?
