"Secular" religion, "familial" Xianity, and the power of music

Last night, I went to a great concert featuring Allison Krauss and Willie Nelson. Allison still has her classic pure soprano voice and played all the traditional bluegrass stuff effortlessly.

Willie, at age 85, struggled a bit vocally, but still had incredible guitar chops. It was really impressive for an 85 year old.

Now, granted, you can all do a google search and figure out I was near Atlanta, Georgia last night, but I don't think that gives away the not so secret location of the RabbiCave anyway.

A couple of presuppositions and information you need to consider up front before responding to this thread.

1. The crowd was mostly older. I would guess that 75% of the crowd was 50+ years of age.
2. The crowd was fairly evenly divided male/female.
3. Although this is a large metropolitan area, and although the inner city and inner suburbs are quite liberal philosophically and politically in general, the northern suburbs where the concert was is very conservative.
4. This is still, if not the buckle, at least a good beltloop on the Bible belt.

OK, that being said, at the end of Allison Krauss' set, she sang two numbers from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (One of the greatest movies ever, even if my wife hates it. It's bona fide.) She and two of her friends sang "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," and "When I Went Down to the River to Pray". During "When I Went Down to the River to Pray", folks all over the crowd (roughly 5K) were singing quietly along and I saw at least 30 people raising their hands in worship. It was sociologically a very interesting thing to watch. As an encore.... the only encore, Allison, the Cox family, and her two Union Station band members (Bales and Black) joined her in an a capella version of "When Peace Like A River". Not one verse. Nope, four verses. The Gospel in HD, sung by a bluegrass quintet impeccably.
And you could hear the crowd singing along, thousands of people, and it looked like an altar call at a pentecostal church. It was stunning.

Fast forward. Willie holds court for an hour. Lots of rowdy songs, "Whiskey River," "Roll Me UP and Smoke Me when i Die" "On the Road Again," etc. All WIllie's greatest hits.

And to wrap things up, the old Southern gospel/Stamps-Baxter revivalist standards that Hank Williams (Sr.) did 80 years ago.
May the Circle Be Unbroken
I Saw the Light
I'll Fly Away.

Now, granted, the final three are rudimentary Gospel messages, but still, are an integral part of the poor, Southern faith of the deep South coming through and after the Great Depression. The crowd was electric. Everyone was on their feet, singing and clapping, and clearly moved emotionally. Willie was clearly moved emotionally as well.

Now, I'm an old musiciology/philospher/church musician. I've studied these phenomena for years. So here are a couple of questions for consideration.

1. Given that Jason over at BF is sending everyone to hell (at least while they are lusting, and certainly if they don't repent and beg forgiveness while lusting), and without falling into true antinomianism or licensciousness, what is your view of the grace of God when it comes to the issue of "how much faith is enough?" Not that any of us would condone a sinful lifestyle, or even a casual faith in God, but how do we deal with the phenomenom of the fact that people who in much of their lives are clearly secular do, at some times, -- often emotional times, and often influenced by music and the visual arts -- react to the Gospel in an overtly responsive manner? What do we believe about the faith of someone who perhaps as a child had a childlike faith but grew cold over the years? (And remember, this inquiry comes from a pretty staunch classical Arminian.)

2. Given the recent overt secularization of Western society, how much power do you think the historical roots of Christianity in culture is still beneficial or efficacious? It would, in particular, be interesting to here different thought from our friends in Europe and parts of the US other than the South.

 

Great topic. Your Fear video gave away the cave.

I think we need to coin a new term for Jasonism. He believes in reverse universalism. He just doesn’t realize he’s condemned the entire human race, including himself. I’ll comment more on the substance here as I have time.

 

Hilljacks welcome.

We don't discriminate on number of teeth, number of cousins married to other cousins, or shoes.

 

Perhaps the general location of the current RCave, but not the location of the SHTF hidey-hole...

 

SHTF
StewHippo???Firebrand

 

Close enough....

Um... in prepper teminology, um.... SKUBALON Hit The Fan. Yeah, that's is. Also known as TEOTWAWKI...

 

I’m not even trying that one.

 

The End Of The World As We Know It. ("Tee-O-Twawkee") Rhymes sort of with "Milwaukee"

You know. Any of..

Nyukular bum, electromagnetic pulse, Mexican invasion, pretrib rapture occurs but we weren't part of Episkopos' "New Jerusalem" and were set into outer darkness (although we are apparently still 'saved'), zombie apocalypse, Hillary is elected POTUS....

I can't believe I'm forumcating in my own thread....

 

As for point one, I guess you are asking about the dualistic nature many people in the West are with respect to religion (i.e. its a personal or private issue)?

As to point two, I can't speak for all Canada of course, but we are fairly European as a whole when it comes to the secularization thing. I think Christianity still has a fairly large influence in many spheres, but I believe that most people don't even realize it. Christianity has much blame in retreating from the larger world sphere. The Dutch Reformed tradition that I am part of has always tried to work within society to maintain that voice (i.e. philosophy/theology of Kuyper/Bavinck)

 

You can’t speak for all of Canada but you can speak for half. Bluesky can speak for the other half.