Here is a quote from Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the willingness of most Americans to enter into dialogue about race with others, particularly those of another race: “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.“ Furthermore, he says this: “the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.” Please allow me to decode this: what he is saying is that people are willing to put up with racial differences when it is to their professional advantage to do so, such as in the workplace. But they are not willing to allow it to interfere with their personal lives. Perhaps even more troubling to me is the fact that he specifically mentions “the weekends,” which is when…
Month: February 2009
Five Reasons for Worship Bands to Lower the Volume
John G. Stackhouse, Jr. at Christianity Today has made an interesting comparison. He says that many worship bands in contemporary churches actually have a lot in common with the Catholic church before the Reformation: the music was sung by professionals and the congregants sat and watched but didn’t participate. Luther used tavern melodies to write hymns because they were singable. Contemporary worship bands often “perform” their church music in such a way as to make them unsingable to the everyday person. I have made the same argument here. Good worship songs should be (1) singable, (2) playable by the musicians, and (3) have good content. Stackhouse then argues that the best thing for worship bands to do is to turn the volume down. He offers these five reasons. 1. Cranking up the volume is just a cheap trick to add energy to a room. 2. Turning up the volume on…