{"id":9406,"date":"2018-03-07T07:25:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T15:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=9406"},"modified":"2018-03-07T07:25:05","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T15:25:05","slug":"released-from-the-pews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=9406","title":{"rendered":"Released from the Pews"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One of the challenges and one of the joys of writing blogs about things that you find interesting but know really very little about, is finding sources that inform you and on a good day, teach you.<\/p>\n

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This week, while looking into the connectedness between contemporary music and religion, I lucked out. I located numerous articles, among them the smart writing of a young woman, Lauren Jackson, who is a phD candidate at the University of Chicago interested in language and the roots of pop culture.<\/p>\n

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From her I learned that “Marvin Gaye, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, John Legend, Katy Perry, Whitney Houston, Lou Rawls, Diana Ross, Jessica Simpson, Usher, Avril Lavigne, Faith Evans, Kristin Chenoweth, Beyonc\u00e9, Ethel Merman, Tina Turner, Britney Spears, all started out in church,\u00a0in choir, on keyboard, as a soloist, each in their own way.”<\/p>\n

She also argues in a review of contemporary singers that “Beyonc\u00e9 Giselle Knowles-Carter is a Christian and a black Christian at that, which, all due respect to all other Christians, is an important distinction. Black folks with a love for God\u2014or a fear of God\u2014just aren\u2019t the same.”<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/thepointmag.com\/2017\/criticism\/touched-by-the-sacred<\/a><\/p>\n

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That sentence vividly reminded me of my first encounter with black worship – namely sitting in a movie theater in Germany watching the Blues Brothers movie, startled at what unfolded on the screen, certain it was an insane parody. Not entirely so, I was told by my American friends, who enlightened me about tent revivalism, voice-filled services, gospel choirs and the like. All quite outside my experience.<\/p>\n