And now, back to music, and I have something that may have enough upset in it to send us to a Part Two of arguing!

REDEMPTION. Things can be redeemed.

For instance, I have come across a couple of minstrel show items that I didn't know were minstrel show items, and they make FINE songs for our Saturday Night service at church..... up to the last verse, or a hurtful term used, and so forth. Some of the tunes and lyrics, though, are JUST RIGHT except for that. These are not parodies of gospel... they ring too true. What I think they are, are flawed representations of imperfectly understood traditions, or representations of what was true at the time but which were used to build limiting stereotypes.

I'm not asking you all what I SHOULD do with these-- but telling you what we DO do. We use them, just like any other gospel piece I find that I can use. I edit, I modify, I write new verses, and then when we do it, I say it is BASED ON a piece that would not be appropriate today as written, but that can serve us well now in a new form. That's entirely within my purview as music leader for that service-- and I do the same with hymns of other denominations if the theology does not work for ours in a verse or phrase. People are free to ask me for information about the original, and sometimes they do, but we are focused firmly on what we are doing in present time, and we are worshipping, not re-enacting.

Comments?

*G*

~Susan