Plagiarism and Christian Songs

A fairly common technique among the new wave of Christian song writers (Chris Tomlin and others have done this) is to take a familiar old hymn ("Amazing Grace" for example), write a new chorus, add a couple of words to the end of one of the verses, and claim that it's a new song. That's how Tomlin wrote "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)".

The old hymnals were more honest. They would give first credit to the original author of the majority of the song (John Newton, in this case) and secondary credit to the newcomer (chorus by Chris Tomlin).

Now an Australian court has upheld a plagiarism judgment against the group Men At Work because one of their songs lifted two measures of "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree". It's worth millions of dollars in unpaid royalties. Note: It's two bars, not three quarters of the Men At Work song. Just two bars.

It would be nice if Christian morality were strict enough to give credit where credit is due.

unChristian: Finished

Well I finished the book. Sort of. I got through all the analytic chapters, but didn't read the final "here's how to fix it" chapter. And I don't think I will, either.

For one thing, most of the material in the book is stuff I already believed. I didn't know just how ineffective mass evangelism is, and I thought I was the only one who finds church a poor place to satisfy spiritual longings or answer spiritual questions, but in general unChristian just confirmed a lot of the material I already was thinking.

So why won't I read the chapter about fixing everything? It seems pointless. Honestly. I'm one guy, totally outside the power structure, and with no prospect of actually getting anything done. When I teach my classes, I try to portray Christianity in a positive light, but on the church level I'm a nobody.

Jared and I were talking the other day about how to set things right if we were in charge of the church. It was a little sad. We knew that even on the most minor level—getting a more frequent church dinner schedule or finding a way for younger people to begin learning leadership skills—we're totally powerless. So if I want a church that does things better, the answer is to move to a different one.

unChristian: Political

OK, I'll admit that this is only one portion of the book's chapter on Christian politics, but ...

When this market research company wanted to find out about support for a "Christianized" country, these were the five items that defined support:

• Strongly oppose removal of "In God We Trust"
• Strongly oppose removal of "one nation under God" (from the Pledge of Allegiance, I presume)
• Strongly oppose removal of Ten Commandments from government buildings
• Strongly favor federal marriage amendment
• Strongly favor adding the teaching of creationism in public schools.

That's what "Christianizes" America? Public memorials to civil religion? We've got the first three right now, and we're such examples of Christian character as a nation?

What about these Christian initiatives on the federal government level?

• Commitment that all future military action will fit the definition of a "just war."
• Commitment to helping the poorest among us find jobs and health care
• Eliminating pay-outs to rescue obscenely rich companies that have screwed up their business.
• Really getting serious about eliminating government corruption and graft
• Caring for the environment (Even if we do believe George W's silly anti-science stance, it's part of Christian stewardship to take care of the stuff God gives us.)
• Guaranteeing justice even for our enemies—those browner, more hispanic or more gay than ourselves (Wait! are those really our enemies?)

That list might have a chance of being called "Christian character." After all, the drug dealer or hit man who pays with money marked "In God We Trust" hasn't gotten the message anyhow.

unChristian: Irrelevant and Isolated

It's no secret that Christians like to pull away from the world and build walls. The medieval monasteries did that. Ironically, foreign missionaries do that. Amish do that.

A recent Yahoo News article on textbooks used by homeschoolers seemed astonished that the textbooks presented a one-sided creationist view of science. The news writers were surprised by this statement printed in the introduction to one book:

"Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God will find many points in this book puzzling," says the introduction to "Biology: Third Edition" from Bob Jones University Press. "This book was not written for them."

The textbook delivers a religious ultimatum to young readers and parents, warning in its "History of Life" chapter that a "Christian worldview ... is the only correct view of reality; anyone who rejects it will not only fail to reach heaven but also fail to see the world as it truly is."

The preference for chiropractors and homeopathy to medical doctors is rooted in the idea that science always sabotages Christian faith. So is the disdain for such mundane matters as academic accreditation, critical thinking, and even statistical analysis. "Don't confuse me with godless facts. I know what I believe." The Bible must not be polluted with comparative linguistics. If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, then it's good enough for me.

But that wasn't what I wanted to write about here.

The book unChristian makes the odd point that younger people, both inside and outside the church, are very interested in spiritual issues, but don't think that the church is a very good place to find answers to spiritual questions. That's just fascinating. It's like saying that McDonald's isn't a very good place to find hamburgers. What can you find at church?

• A weekly public speaking and music event, usually in an idiom that today's people find odd and old-fashioned. (Face it: today's teenagers aren't that thrilled by 1970s folk-songs.)
• Advice on how to be a better person.
• Intense pressure to conform (at least superficially and temporarily) to the outward markings of religious people.
• Intense condemnation of some things that inwardly you really don't object to (having sex with a girlfriend you really love, protecting the rights and safety of your gay friend)
• Lots of politics, and the thinly-veiled implication that America has a Christian political party and a Satanic one. Coupled with this is the dedication to make America's civil institutions into a mechanism for imposing superficial Christian practices on unbelievers.

What can't you find?

• An understanding that we're all "in process" and some of us haven't caught up with the others.
• A way to deal with the tough day-to-day questions: "Will I ever figure out my life?" "Why is God always so silent?" "What if I'm just tired of keeping all the rules?" "Why are you guys always so happy and I'm not?"
• Friendship that will stand by me even when I screw up.
• Intellectually satisfying explanations of some of the tough issues.
• An attitude of confidence and compassion rather than fear and loathing when facing the outside world.

unChristian: Get Saved!

This is one of those chapters that proves the worth of Barna. Most insiders make assumptions that are totally out of synch with the truth. Here's a sample of those assumptions, all false according to Barna research:

• TV, radio, and large tent meetings are effective evangelistic tools.
• Quick little tracts are persuasive.
• Outsiders see and respect the sincerity and love of evangelizing Christians.
• Most outsiders have little experience of the Christian faith, so all we have to do is inform them.
• A "salvation experience" at a meeting or conference usually sticks for the rest of a person's life.
• Many adults are looking for a change in their spiritual foundation.

The truth is that most Americans have tried Christianity, usually as children and teenagers, and resent evangelism as an insincere attempt to bulk up a church's membership numbers. Another truth is that lack of ongoing relationship with outsiders dooms the whole project from the start.

As a personal note, the Alpha Course strikes me as just plain deceitful and wrong. The idea, as I understand it, is to set up a weekly small group, mainly for outsiders with a few church members mixed in, that includes a friendly dinner followed by a discussion of some spiritual or personal issue, with the implication being that Christian faith and community will meet some of the needs of the people who attend. The deceitful part is that the Alpha Course is a dead end. After the course is done, nobody ever has anybody over for dinner again, and small groups are never focused on friendship.

Have you ever noticed how often a newcomer to Grace shows a lot of interest, attends a lot of functions, gets  baptized, then never comes back again?

unChristian: Hypocrisy

Of course, Christians have been accused of being hypocrites for centuries. The problem is a religion with high moral and behavior standards and a population with human tendencies. The book, however, points out a couple of really disturbing characteristics.

As long as Christianity is defined as performance—acting good—something has gone astray. The old silly song, "we don't smoke and we don't chew and we don't go with the girls who do" defines the "true meaning" of Christianity for both the insiders and the outsiders. Add this to the very secularized morals and behavior of Christians today (about the only place where we differ from outsiders is that we don't like the "F" word on television), and you get a recipe for hypocrisy.

If "Christian" means "good, acceptable person," and "Christianity" means "keeping the rules," then everyone who wants to be seen as a good acceptable person will put on a façade of respectability. By definition, a façade is thin and superficial, so it's pretty easy to see through. And outsiders do. We stereotype people morally, we're cold and unhelpful, and we blur the message of Christ. As if that weren't enough, we actually believe each other's false faces, so we don't allow ourselves meaningful interaction with one another.

Proposed solution: transparency and public (yes!) apology for the church's self-righteous judgmental attitude.

unChristian

I am reading a new book: unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters. This one came from the Barna Foundation, a conservative Christian group that specializes in statistical surveys related to church life. (They're the ones to ask if you want to know how many offspring of Southern Baptists end up in the Roman Catholic Church.)

I'm sort of in process with this one, and I don't agree with all the presuppositions, but I'll try to do sort of a chapter-by-chapter review and gloss of the book.

The why

My own history is tied up with the focus of the authors. I came into the church from the outside and I'm still an outsider to a great extent. My daily work is with people who are 18 to 22 years old on secular college campuses, so I'm really not too much in sympathy with the "Christian bubble." Though I'm older than the book's research subjects, I really identify with them: really like Jesus, but not that thrilled with the cultural expression of his church. Nearly every public statement by official Christian types makes my guts clench, but I don't want to bail out.

The book's title, unChristian, refers to both the faith and mindset of the "New Generation." If I can sum it up, it seems like an alienated son—good memories of the Christian faith, lots of cultural lingering, and a nostalgia, but nevertheless going off in a new direction. And if there's one thing that runs through all these incredibly numerous surveys and interviews, it's that Christianity doesn't really understand the outsiders at all. No idea of how outsiders perceive Christianity. No idea of their priorities. No idea of their mindset. The danger, of course, is that the church could become an increasingly isolated faith community, similar to the Haredi Jews who wear special clothing, keep their children away from outsiders, and live in encapsulated communities.