Part 6-What may
happen if we do not distinguish between sacred and profane music.
There isn’t much
use for a church musician to distinguish which music is sacred or profane if he
or she does not make a sincere effort to exclude that which is profane from
music worship. If the criterion for a
music’ inclusion is the will of the people, the church’s musicing will
constantly be enduring the music minister’s leader shift. Dr. Richard S. Taylor put the whole matter in
proper perspective when he explained,
The fact that some people may like this or that is not
sufficient reason for the church to use it. The church should lead the way in such
standards, not abjectly follow every fad and custom which
happens to be “in” at the moment. The
Church has no business adopting the philosophy, “If you can’t lick ‘em, join
‘em.” We should be governed by basic and
eternal principles. There are music
forms, whether secular or sacred, which create moods of pensiveness, or
idealism, or awareness of beauty, of aspiration, and of holy joyousness. There are forms of music which create moods
of recklessness and sensual excitement.
Surely it doesn’t take much judgment to know which forms are most
appropriate for religious function. 1
Only the
essential nature and value of a piece of music gives it the honor of being
considered as sacred music. Therefore,
each piece of music must pass the tests of Bible principles of musicing before
it makes its way into Sunday morning worship.
As Christian musicians carefully consider the nature and value of all
the music use in musicing unto God, a clear line of demarcation between what is
truly sacred and what is definitely profane will become evident. It is the volumes and volumes of music that
is “sort of” or “kind of” that is so difficult to categorize into that which is
or is not appropriate for “religious function”.
So, since there is such a multitude of religious music that is
biblically accurate, appropriate and clearly to be classified as sacred, the
short answer is “when in doubt leave it out”. There is absolutely no excuse for using any
music that is questionable stylistically or inaccurate theologically.
1 A Return
to Christian Culture, p.87 Richard
S. Taylor
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