The gospel about Gospel—the power of the ring

Currents in Theology and Mission, August, 2004 by Mark P. Bangert

The response to gospel singing changed from soft weeping, fainting and
speaking in tongues to that of a rock concert, with applause in
recognition of vocal pyrotechnics. And, as in rock concerts, high-volume
amplification now became a part of the performance. (28)

So it is that almost concurrent with its emergence the history of Gospel becomes a history of individuals and groups: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Willie Mae Ford Smith, Mahalia Jackson, Marion Wilson, Roberta Martin Singers, Clara Ward Singers, Sallie Martin Singers, Barrett Sisters, the Winans, and so on.

Those deterred by this seeming preoccupation with the entertainment dimension of Gospel can discover company among Gospel practitioners and scholarly fans themselves. Anthony Heilbut, in his much-quoted study of Gospel, (29) devotes a major section of his work to describing the tension, if not chasm, that exists between those of the old school of Gospel--practitioners predating the lure of public popularity--and those of the new school. Slightly more pointed are recent comments from Obery M. Hendricks Jr., president of Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio:

As the result of the "clowning" that has become normative and its
pervasive performance-orientation, its emphasis on "wrecking the house,"
and shameless appeals to emotion, the contemporary Gospel music genre
has come to function as an opiate for the masses of African American
people.... Like a drug, its goal is not to empower its users to change
reality, but simply to change the way they feel. (30)

A differing view comes from Clara Ward, one of the earliest proponents of contemporary Gospel. She defends the use of the popular venue by pointing out that God intended the message of the gospel also for those who "in many cases never attend a house of worship." (31) Costen, too, though worried that Gospel will belong no longer to the church but to an increasingly large business corporation, nevertheless wants to have faith in Gospel's long and beneficial history of interchange.

For those put off by these tendencies it should be noted that currently most styles of worship music are subject to the dangers of commoditization and, worse, the dynamics of entertainment. One cannot wait around until these issues are completely fixed before taking on the culture that accompanies a new idiom.

Holistic worship. When a musical worship encounter is "gospelized," expectations are that participants become totally involved. Depending on the local context, such bodily investment translates into swaying, clapping, audible interjections, moaning, even screaming, swooning, and trancelike modes of behavior. Total body involvement is endemic to African musics. In that context it finds release in the dance, itself a sign of the dancer's connection to the earth since most dances from Africa originated as outdoor cultic activities. Music and dance together then ritualize the correlation of body, voice, mind, and the earth.

Displaced African musics provided fertile ground for the development of the black spiritual, one of the progenitors of Gospel. Slave culture made possible the support of certain syncretistic elements (32) that evolved naturally from the displacement process. Among those was the welcome extended to trancelike behavior. (33) Openness to physical involvement in worship thus came naturally and could be linked to similar features. From Pentecostal environs, consequently, the Gospel enterprise began to assimilate an appreciation for the importance of intense emotional response to the music. (34)