Emily Zwijack
12/14/2022
MUHL 210.01
Project 3: Musicology of Social Justice
Christian Churches and Vernacular Music in Relation to the LGBTQ+ Community:
My vernacular music social justice research topic surrounds Christian churches and the LGBTQ+ community. I was intrigued by the movement of acceptance towards the LGBTQ+ community in 2020, as well as appalled by the people who still choose to mock or not support this community. I wanted to explore how the church handles this movement and how music is seen through their acceptance or rejection of the LGBTQ+ community. This curiosity leads me to my research question: How have churches helped and hindered social justice towards members of the LGBTQ+ community and what role does vernacular music play in this help or hindrance in 2022?
We generally think of the Christian liturgical tradition as being only cultivated music with the organ and large choirs. Historically, that perspective can be justified, but that’s certainly not true in post-conciliar churches, depending on the parish. Cultivated music is considered to be more refined and cultured. Looking around the city of Chicago, there are parishes that have absolutely a cultivated/liturgical tradition and there are parishes that have solely guitars and tambourines and use a post-conciliar hymnal that is of an American vernacular tradition, which is music that is considered ordinary, everyday music. Christian church music is not solely either just cultivated or just vernacular.
In the post-conciliar period, people tend to opt for parishes based on the attention to liturgical detail. In churches that don’t pay attention to these details, most churchgoers wouldn’t walk in wondering if guitars are playing or how many candles are on the alter. When we look at music in the contemporary catholic church, this gives ideas on how the church wants to orient itself. Overtime, parishes develop their own identities that linger with them and are also influenced by the pastor. How a parish understands themselves overtly to sexuality and acceptance is likely to show a different musical palate in churches that support and accept members of the LGBTQ+ community into their church.
My method within this research was to conduct my own internet searches on what churches are conservative and liberal. I know that pro-LGBTQ+ parishes are likely to be liberal. In contemporary Catholicism, often people mark them along political lines and define parishes as liberal or conservative, even if it’s not work of a parish/priest/parishioners. It’s important to note that this distinction is not theology, its 21st century people not being able to reconcile theology.
I’m going to look at the parish’s website and information that’s on their music ministry, doing a quantitative assessment about what they overtly say about their music. I am going to watch the live streams of masses to receive some aural and visual information on how these masses are conducted, as well as look at images from the music ministries. I am also going to do some simple score study by looking at the hymnals and analyzing the copyright information at the bottom if its composed post-1970 or from earlier years.
When I searched for conservative churches online, the first church that popped up was the Grace Baptist Church. After opening their website and finding the music tab, I was greeted with a surprising paragraph about their approach to music. This paragraph stated “The Bible teaches that when sin entered the world, all things in the world were corrupted. That would mean that music too was corrupted…It would be convenient to say otherwise to accommodate man’s tastes and avoid controversy. We hold, however, that God does have a design for music which can be honored. This is not a field where we claim to have all the answers, but at the least we see the need for caution and humble inquiry. There is not space here to discuss all that is involved, but we can say for the sake of clarity that we see the joining of rock music and Christian lyrics to be an unholy union. We do not allow Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) in our worship services. We see the necessity of having a standard of excellence in music. We want fresh, invigorating, diverse, and doctrinally rich music.” They also offer links to recommended books about music, such as, The Battle for Christian Music and Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement. There are no hymnals with visuals accessible on their website, but I did watch a live stream of their afternoon service on November 20th, 2022. The service opens with piano and a male soloist conducting himself and the accompanist. This piece is very repetitious and has a moving harmony. This soloist sings until almost 18 minutes into the service, which is much longer than I am familiar with. This shows the churches dedication to praising the Lord through song. Although this church is limited to being open to new styles of music, they are certainly open to new technologies by using PowerPoint slides to show the bible verses they are discussing. The last 5 minutes are sung as well, making almost half of the service musical.
When I searched for liberal churches, I was directed to a website that helps people find LGBTQ+ friendly churches. I found Soul City Worship, which is a church in Chicago. As soon as I opened their website, a YouTube video popped up from their service featuring a keyboard, acoustic/electric guitars, drums, and vocalists. People are standing with the band in a circle and worshipping together. They are not holding hymnals in their hands; they are solely singing by memory. This visual is very different from the traditional church sermon where the priests are at the front of the church and the people sit in the pews. Below is a photo of music from one of their services featuring the song “All Things New”. You can see that both parts are written out and its not only the vocal line. There are also lead sheets highlighted in blue. The copyright information at the bottom in from 2013, which shows the difference from a post-1970’s hymnal in a church that is accepting to the LGBTQ+ community.
Their lead pastors both female and male, which is different because usually pastors aren’t allowed to be female. And their photos, the female lead pastor is dressed in leather, while the male lead pastor is dressed in a Hawaiian shirt. This is extremely contrasting to the conservative church that were only men and dressed in suits. Under the values category, it says “Everyone is Accepted”.
Along the way, I was directed to two organizations that are Catholic websites designed to offer ministries that support LGBTQ+ peoples. First, I searched the New Ways Ministry. I was curious about what the search results would be like in the south since southern states of the United States are known to be more conservative. Under Texas, there were only six options that were LGBTQ+ friendly, which was shocking but not unexpected. I was directed to the Holy Trinity Catholic church in Dallas. Under their music ministries tab, they offer a description of music as serving for praise and Thanksgiving to God, “providing a program as diverse as its people”. They offer 5 unique choir groups, one even being a contemporary band. This band uses guitars and piano to provide contemporary music to evening services. Although this church is supportive of the LGBTQ+ community and labeled liberal, it is located in a conservative state. It is interesting to read the ministries different perspectives on contemporary music in comparison to their acceptance of diverse communities. The trend in this research shows that liberal churches that are accepting of the LGBTQ+ community are more likely to be open to singing contemporary music as well. Although Soul City Worship seemed to only offer contemporary music, this church presents a mix of different genres.
In my meeting with Dr. Kernan, he encouraged me to research Saint John Cantius with the Jesuit Priest Father James Martin. He is supportive of LGBTQ+ Catholics, so I searched their sacred music tab on their website. Images popped up of a choir in red robes as well as a group of string players. I hadn’t run across violinists until searching this website. In the sacred music description, this church offers Gregorian chant and sacred music by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Palestrina, and others. I searched their liturgical mass schedule and opened their music for Ash Wednesday of 2023. This piece is by Gabriel Faure, Messe Basse. In the image below, there are no lead sheet symbols present like there were in All Things New. The copyright information is highlighted at the bottom in blue which dates back to 1907 and then renewed in 1934. I also highlighted the separate solo choir and organ lines in yellow.
In conclusion, my research showed that liberal churches are more likely to be accepting to the LGBTQ+ community. In conservative states, there are less likely to be more liberal and LGBTQ plus accepting churches. I saw this when I searched conservative states like Texas, and only found six LGBTQ+ accepting churches. My quantitative assessment also showed that churches that are more accepting to diverse communities are also more welcoming to contemporary church music and instrumentation. My search also showed that churches are most likely to either be entirely accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, or completely against welcoming these new ideas. There is a distinct connection between welcoming diverse groups of people and welcoming diverse types of repertoire into the church.
Bibliography
Chicago and online around the world. Soul City Church. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2022, from https://soulcitychurch.com/
Holy Trinity Catholic Church. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2022, from https://www.htccd.org/
Home: St. john cantius church: Chicago. St. John Cantius. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2022, from https://www.cantius.org/
LGBTQ-friendly parishes & faith communities. New Ways Ministry. (2022, November 2). Retrieved November 24, 2022, from https://www.newwaysministry.org/resources/parishes/
Music-Grace Baptist Church. Grace Baptist Church. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2022, from https://www.gracebaptistsf.org/music/
Patrick Mayberry, 2021, All Things New [Video], YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwE-QUcHx8A&t=56s
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