At the moment I’m reading Her Heart Can See, a biography of Fanny Crosby.  The book plods along a big, but in the middle there is a wondeful discussion on the musical transition that took place during the mid-1800’s in Americal.  A movement began to improve congregational singing by moving away from traditional shape-note singing, and towards the European style of “scientific music.”  While there is always some discord in any transition, it seems that this shift in music was very nearly universally embraced by American society in general, and Evangelical religion in particular.  Reading through these chapters has left me wondering, “How did they manage such a radical transition without the acrimony of the ‘worship wars’ the plagued churches in the 1980’s and 1990’s?”  I now have a working hypothesis.

In all my reading of the early republic, I find that the mood of the American people was progressive and almost utopian.  Americans believed that they had emerged on the scene of history in order to inaugurate a new era for the human race.  Evangelical religion, taking it’s cue from the prevailing culture, took up this progressive understanding and was wildly optimistic about it’s ability to help shape a truly just and righteous society.  This utopian impulse led to a great many Evangelical projects – including public school, education for the blind, and general music education for all children.  The last was implemented because it was believed that musical education would work to enlighten children’s minds and souls for the task of being part of a great society.   Even the abolitionist movement took up the language of progress, calling upon America to fulfill it’s true calling.

It was that progressive mentality, then, which made the transition from shape-note singing possible in the mid 1800’s.  People believed in the progress of the American ideal, focused through Evangelical religion, and so any “progress” was generally embraced.

What was so different during the worship wars of the 1980’s and 1990’s?  Well, beginning in some ways with the civil war, the utopian and progressive mentality of America was gradually replaced with a pessimistic and dystopian outlook.  Two World Wars, Vietnam, and the threat of Atomic Annhilation left people worried about the future.  Popular culture began to take on this dystopian fear as well: the disaster movies of the 1970’s, movies like Blade Runner and The Terminator, and novels like Watchmen expressed people’s unease about the future.  Musical styles began to take on this pessimistic outlook as well – punk rock became the swing point for more dystopian vocal expression.

In this America, Evangelical religion became wildy conservative.  It’s not surprising – after all, if the future is a dystopian nightmare then it seems logical that the best way the Church can serve society would be to hold the line against the future.  To a conservative church fearful of a dystopian future, “progress” was a bad thing – the progressive hope of 1800’s Evangelical religion died under the threat of nuclear war.  This new conservative impulse drew the line against the dystopian future by enshrining what was seen at the high point of the 20th Century as the ideal – the 1950’s.  It didn’t matter that the 1950’s didn’t actually match the nostalgic memories of conservative churches (it’s amazing how no one ever mentions segregation, Korea, or Atomic Bomb drills when talking about the golden age) – that was where the line was drawn against the dystopian future.  A line drawn before the shift in musical styles had fully emerged.

Rock & Roll was considered part of the “progression” to the dystopian future – with the noble organ and piano being replaced by barbabic instruments like drums and guitars – and church memebers who wanted to bring in those instruments to worship, and a new style of singing, were not simply people with different styles and tastes – they were agents of chaos who would, in their ingnorance, help to bring about the dystopian future against which conservative Evangelical religion had drawn the line.

Why do we have worship wars?  It’s because the cultural fears of American Society continue to color the practice of the Church in America.  Just like the cultural hopes of American Society colored the practice of the Church in Americal during the mid 1800’s.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.