Looking over the website with just a cursory glance I think that there is a lot of information about who invented what that's a bit skewed. Quartet singing for example existed in the black community for many years and was given show biz treatments early on. It wasn't just Baptist either. These forms of music have been around for a long time as liturgical or secular and often gone between the two.

I think that what a person believes has more to do about the selection of the songs or music rather than the music itself. In our program about the Civil War we sing both the Bonny Blue Flag and The Battle Cry of Freedom to show the fervor of both sides. We are not really into war songs per se but they are significant as part of American history which we feel is important for children and adults to know about. I don't think that actors or writers believe in everything that their characters do or say. I think that a person can be appalled at bloodshed and violence and still enjoy a Shakespeare play or opera. Or a well-made movie such as Scorcese makes.

The problem with evangelizing music is that it tends to disembowl it's content. The content may be negative but instructive such as some of the bloody ballads that trad folkies are used to hearing and singing. They actually were according to Lomax and others a kind of morality play....a don't-do-these-terrible-things in song. Take for example Woody Guthries "1913 Massacre" song. It's a well-written documentary on living conditions in those times. To place a religious value on that is to completely miss the point of why the song was written...as an insight to a serious social problem of how to unionize workers.

I think that attitude about what you are doing has a lot to do with it's reception.
If you sing a song to stir an audience into violence or anger that's out of control then maybe it has a destructive value. But the same song in a different context may have the opposite effect, bringing people together as when the ancient Greeks witnessed their tragedies as a kind of religious experience (not Southern Baptist). There are certain bloody ballads that I don't like to do because for me they're over the top but in certain contexts they might be useful to make a constructive point.

Frank Hamilton