Songs by late reggae legends Bob Marley and Peter Tosh ”” both devout Rastafarians ”” will be included in a new collection of Anglican church hymnals in Jamaica.
Marley’s “One Love” and Tosh’s “Psalm 27” will be the first reggae tunes to appear in songbooks alongside traditional worship music on the island that gave birth to reggae, said church leaders preparing a new collection of hymns.
The two songs mentioned pass muster, if my memory serves me well (questionable). When using reggae, one must always check the lyrics for Rastafarian stuff. They use a Biblical vocabulary that won’t in and of itself lead a Christian astray, but occassionaly something specifically about eccentric Rastafarian religion gets in there… “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” is Jesus for Christians, but Haille Selassie for Rastafarians.
But, that warning in place, this is positive enculturation. “Give thanks and praise to the Lord, and it will be all right” is as catchy and worshipful as any of the baby boomer “worship choruses” we glom onto for contemporary services.
In a church in which enculturation has been a process of diluting and poluting the faith I find this worrisome.
I spotted this little story and was going to send a request to Kendall to put it on Titus. He had already posted it. What a news junky!
My first medical mission was to southeast Jamaica. No beaches, hence no tourists, hence no money. What they lacked in monetary wealth, they made up for in spiritual. It was a wonderful experience, but I was left wondering who was ministering to whom. We traveled to Montego Bay to fly out the next morning. We checked into a hotel about the same time as “the most famous” reggae band since Bob Marley and the Whalers(?). They were civil to us. I noticed they greeted each other by one saying “Haile” and the other saying “Salaise”. (They also were outside smoking large marijuana stogies at 8AM when we left in the next day.) When I got back, I did some investigating and learned about the very dark side of the reggae religion. It is very anti-caucasian and very anti-Christian. Sort of an Ahaa moment, “That’s why we were there, to counter that darkness.”
I’m a fan of Tosh and I don’t recall him doing a song called “Psalm 27.” He did use Psalm 27 in the song ‘Creation.’
For some interesting scholarly reading, I would recommend this long (9 pages) scholarly article on the use of Psalms in reggae:
http://www.crosscurrents.org/murrell.htm
I think the more important issue here is the tension between the Rastafarian religion and the Anglican Church. Historically they represent the antithesis of each other – one the religion of the slave-master and the establishment, the other the religion of protest.
The Anglican Church ( as well as most of the other ‘established’ churches) have long tried to ignore the elephant in the (small) room.
One hopes that the adoption of these songs marks a decision towards enculturation. Personally I doubt it. The priest who is quoted, Fr. Ernle, used to be regarded as too revolutionary (read ‘ethnic in perception’ or ‘left of center politically’) in some quarters.
Back in 2003 he said “we have to rewrite the liturgy, use old words to new beats. We have to use a liturgy the people understand.â€
These new ‘hymns’ seem to be the result.
On the other hand, despite the appropriateness of “Psalm 27†(more of a chant), one wonders whether this song, by a person who is known for his hyper-vitriol against the church and Christianity, should be included.
For use in your next service.
http://www.mikestrickland.net/reggae/oneluv.mid
http://www.mikestrickland.net/reggae/ishotthesheriff.mid
http://www.mikestrickland.net/reggae/nowoman.mid
Yes, “Let’s get together and feel all right,” in Mr. Marley’s words. Marty Haugen couldn’t write a better ditty. Won’t be long now until “Easy Skanking” makes the hymnal…
“Excuse me while I light my spliff; (spliff)
Good God, I gotta take a lift: (lift)
From reality I just can’t drift; (drift)
That’s why I am staying with this riff. (riff) ”
With rich theological depths like that, who needs Ave verum Corpus natum ?
What next? Allowing chickens to be sacrificed to make inroads with Santeria?
7. St. Jimbob of the Apokalypse and 8. libraryjim
I think you are both unfair. I don’t think the church is saying all of Marley’s music is good – your hyperbole (I hope that’s what it is) is unwarranted.
Libraryjim, don’t know how much you know about Jamaican culture/religion. Santeria is definitely not a part of it.
For the record, I don’t particularly like the drift, but let’s not get carried away here.
#9: But rastafarian programs are in fact wholly unfriendly to christian programs, aren’t they? Am I wrong about that? If it is true, how can one reasonably include their music in a Christian service?
LM
#10 True Larry, I made that point in #5 above. All I am saying is let’s not be happy with gut reaction and hyperbole alone.
I’m also suggesting that there is a complex relationship between the Rastafarian religion, Jamaican culture and the church, any church.
The linked article says that both Marley and Tosh were “devout Rastafarians”; however, while Marley was a Rastafarian most of his life, he converted to Christianity before he died. The Wikipedia article on Marley states:
[i]After his travels to Ethiopia, Bob Marley became a convert to Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church after receiving the sacrament of baptism. Marley died an Orthodox Christian.[/i]
That does not make his earlier songs Christian if they are not, but it certainly entitles us to interpret his music from a Christian perspective as far as that is possible.
Peter Tosh, so far as I know, was a Rasta to his life’s end.
Yet, a lot of music if written for a particular spiritual dimension is difficult to divorce from that dedication later on. In other words, a song written for a Rasta service cannot always be used in a different setting without having that spirit accompany it.
Case in point: The Beatle’s “My Sweet Lord”. While on the first part one hears “halleluia” behind the verse, in the second part, that changes to “krishna, krishna, hare krishna”. Kind of hard to bring that into the church, even if one just sings the first descant. People know it enough to subconsiously put it back in.
Same with marijuana songs. “One toke over the line, sweet Mary” can in no way (as Mike Douglas found out interviewing the composer) be seen as being about the Virgin Mary. Many people also think the Beatle’s “Let it Be” was about marijuana (“Mother Mary comes to me, whispering words of wisdom, Let it be”), not about his mum or the BVM (who would never say “let it be” but ‘Do as He tells you”).
Actually, I think she did say “Let it be (to me according to your word)” according to Luke 1:38. Use of a hymn is to honor God, which is a matter of the devotion of the singer, not the orthodoxy of the author. Use of a hymn with appropriate intent does not imply accepting the theology of the author. Two examples:
How many Protestants belt out “Faith of Our Fathers” without the key verse:
[blockquote]Faith of our Fathers, Mary’s prayers
shall bring our nation back to Thee,
And with the peace that comes from God,
England shall at last be free,[/blockquote]
and don’t realize that the hymn is about the martyrdom of Roman Catholics by Anglicans and Protestants during the Penal Times?
How many of those who sing “Tis the gift to be simple” share the opinion of the author that Mother Ann Lee was the definitive embodiment of the Divine Maternity?
Dale,
LOL, but that’s not the way it goes in the Beatle’s song. 🙂
As to the others, I think we DO need to exercise care in what we sing during worship. It’s spiritually dangerous to ignore the message of what is sung thinking that it doesn’t matter. I think it does, which is why I stay silent during some songs at church.