The Music Exchange

There is a mission field that I’ve always struggled to know how to reach with the gospel. It’s made up of what I call ‘choral atheists’.

These are people who belong to church choirs or choral societies, they sing Christ-centred works like Bach’s Matthew Passion or Handel’s Messiah, and yet they don’t believe a word of what they sing. To be honest, I find that choral atheists are more hardened to the gospel than anyone else I meet. Just as hardened are the non-believers who like to listen to this music, which, though I don’t like the definition, I’ll refer to as sacred music.

On the verge

I was prompted to write about this after reading an article someone gave me from the Spectator. The article was written by Stephen Pettitt, who describes himself as a ‘committed agnostic on the verge of fully-fledged atheism’. He wonders why he is so attracted to sacred music despite being a ‘fully paid-up member of the Richard Dawkins tendency’.

Pettitt’s dilemma is a common one. Many of those I knew from my chorister days who were in the choir or indeed in the congregation also professed no particular religious beliefs. They were there because the music drew them. They said the creed with us who believed, they said ‘Amen’ to the prayers, they sang, ‘Praise to Christ our Lord!’ after the gospel reading. What I’ve never understood is why these people didn’t wrestle with this dilemma in the same way as Stephen Pettitt. I’m glad he’s begun to approach the subject.

What amazes me about choral atheists is that they consider it sacrilegious to be made to think about the words they are hearing, because engaging their minds destroys the sacredness of the music. This is what seems to harden them against the gospel. They will do anything to avoid confrontation with the truths they encounter.

Human generalities?

Pettitt is a good illustration of this. His solution is to take the expressions of ‘religious particularities’ in a choral work, and then turn them into ‘expressions of human generalities’. For example, he says, ‘When I hear a gorgeous 16th-century polyphonic setting of the Agnus Dei, I fancy that I do not subscribe to its plea to God to grant us his peace but instead hear an expression of what might be termed the universal ache, part and parcel of that thing we call the human condition. Similarly, the story of Christ’s Passion — a noble story of self-sacrifice — can touch one without one having to believe in it as fact, and certainly without subscribing to the, for me, incomprehensible notion that “Christ died for our sins”’.

Evangelistic event

This is worth thinking about if you’re thinking of putting on an evangelistic music event like a ‘Come and sing Messiah’. These concerts can be really effective, though it takes an enormous amount of work and money to do well. However, don’t assume that the people listening will be directed in any way to thoughts about Christ and repentance. It’s likely that in hearing the words, ‘All we like sheep have gone astray’, some will be reflecting on ‘pastoral’ issues like climate change and recycling. Many will be following the words in the programme to see how far there is to go before they can go home. Some will just be thinking about sheep, fields and Wales.

Choral atheists who come along to these events are very often the ones for whom the beauty of the music clouds any ability to hear the truths it tries to reveal. This isn’t because the music itself deludes people, but because of the capacity of the atheist human mind to translate the ‘sentiments’ of the words to mean what they want them to mean. These people need to have their ears tuned in to the gospel, which is so much more wonderful than 16th century polyphony. Someone needs to explain to them what they are hearing so that they don’t come out with crass GCSE understandings of the cross being a noble story of self-sacrifice!

Pettitt finishes his article, ‘In sum, [music] does for me what I guess religion does for other people.’ No, it doesn’t. Music can never bring eternal salvation, which true cross-centred religion alone provides.

Having said that, let’s keep working hard to present Christ unashamedly to these people. They may sing about salvation, but they need to know that salvation for themselves. This Christmas, if you go to hear a performance of The Messiah, pray for the performers to be hit square between the eyes that they have gone astray, but that the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

What to do with choral atheists

On the verge

Human generalities?

Evangelistic event

Richard Simpkin

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