Musical lives: Don and Emily Saliers on the religious power of song

Christian Century, Nov 20, 2002 by Amy Plantinga Pauw

DON SALIERS holds the William R. Cannon Distinguished Chair in Theology and Worship at Emory University and directs the Master of Sacred Music Program. He is the founder and director of the Emory Chamber Players, and since 1975 has served as the organist and choirmaster for the Sunday service in Emory's Cannon Chapel. A United Methodist minister, Don is widely known in ecumenical circles for his lecturing and writing on liturgical renewal, music and liturgy. His publications include Worship As Theology: Foretaste of Glory Divine, Worship Come to Its Senses, The Soul in Paraphrase and The New Handbook of the Christian Year.

Emily Saliers, daughter of Don and Jane Saliers, is co-founder, with Amy Ray, of the Indigo Girls, a Grammy Award--winning singer-song-writer duo. Their acclaimed recordings and worldwide concert tours exhibit their commitment to social justice and humanitarian concerns. In the back of their CDs are resources for sharing in their activism for a moratorium against the death penalty, for an end to nuclear weapons, for gay rights, Native environmental concerns and other causes. Their latest recording is Become You. The two songs mentioned in this interview are from their 1994 CD Swamp Ophelia. Lyrics to these and other songs are available at www.indigogirls.com.

Emily and Don collaborated on a chapter called "Making Music" in Way to Live: A Book on Christian Practices for Teens (edited by Dorothy C. Bass and Don C. Richter; Upper Room Books, 2002), and are currently writing another book together. I spoke to them in Atlanta about how music and faith have intersected in their lives. I was especially interested in the connections they find between "Saturday night" and "Sunday morning" music, and what these connections imply for the shaping of Christian worship.

When I consider your two different kinds of accomplishments in music, I wonder how you think about the difference between "secular" and "sacred" music and about how the two are related?

Emily: The terms have little meaning for me. A song that is deemed secular is one that has nothing to do with the church, or doesn't come from a sacred text. But if songs can move people to work for justice or inspire people to live fuller lives, then it is sacred music to me.

Don: I suspect that Emily and I might use those terms, but we would quickly want to subvert them. "Saturday night" and "Sunday morning" have much more to do with each other than is often realized. That's a truth certainly recognized in traditional African-American culture.

At times I wish church music would dig as deeply into life as some of the music that Emily admires, as well as creates. More and more in my own career as a liturgical or church musician, I want to see the connections made between the liturgy or church music and the longing, terror and beauty of life--the struggle just to be human, quite apart from religious doctrines.

The music that people encounter Saturday night can be much more unflinching about life?

Don: Yes. I'm thinking, for example, about the Indigo Girls' song "This Train Revised." It's a play on the gospel song "This Train Is Bound for Glory," but it subverts it.

The song is about a railroad car full of people--"gypsies, queers and david's star"--bound for a Nazi death camp. So a gospel song about the assurance of future salvation becomes a condemnation of our present inhumanity.

Don: Right. On the other hand, I think some secular music can be quite destructive and enervating. And misogynist. Often in secular music the rhythm is dominant, which makes it different from music that is contemplative, or designed to help you meditate on a text.

When this style of music is carried over into worship, there are losses. I don't want to be seen as condemning all contemporary services, but I think the rock band approach to songs of praise is different from contemplative music in this respect.

Emily: But all forms of music have their place. To me, the straightest path to God sometimes is to walk into a church when the gospel choir is singing. The choir members are making a very primal, rhythmic connection to their faith. I know what Dad's talking about with the rock band, but I don't think we should get so caught up in our differences. The issue is what moves you.

What bothers me about a lot of contemporary Christian music is its exclusivity: Jesus is the only way to heaven. And a lot of times the message is simplistic and individualistic too: If you have problems, all you have to do is put them in Jesus' hands.

So your problem with a lot of Christian music is really theological. How does your experience in the church affect your own music?

Emily: I grew up listening to the biblical text every Sunday in church, and reading it at the dinner table, and having discussions about it. I felt comfortable exploring the text with Dad and Mom and my sisters. Images from the Bible continue to stimulate me as a songwriter.

Yet you feel alienated from the church.

Emily: Well, the church has alienated a lot of people, and most of the people I know. My church community continues to enrich my life, and I need and love that community. But I grew up in a very open, thinking church environment, so there's been space for me there. I struggle, obviously, with the church's stance on homosexuality, because I'm gay, and I've seen so many people suffer. I've seen people who are in torment, because they grew up their whole lives being told that they're going to hell. And they are burning in hell over the guilt of it. To me, the greatest evil is the way that people twist the messages of Jesus, or of the prophets, and make them hateful and judgmental. I see the alienation the church causes every day. And I don't think the church is really in touch with the suffering of people, especially young people.