Fear Mongering East and West

If you are a Chinese bureaucrat or an administrator of arts endowment funds in any of the Western democratic powers, it might help you keep your job if you evidence distaste for and disinclination to fund, or even tolerate, art  that is based on religious themes.  Most notably, you might benefit by showing aversion to the Western musical tradition that began with Gregorian Chant and culminated in the musical masterpieces of Bach, Handle, Mozart, and works of even many anticlerical composers such as Brahms or Verdi.  Christian theology so permeates Western music that it is impossible to disentangle the theology and the art.  The headline Western sacred music banned in China is reminiscent of the Maoist era in China and seems a bit startling when Wal-Mart and Costco are trading partners with China on a scale larger than any remaining Communist state.  It is a bit more of an offense when a noteworthy British composer warns that atheist liberals are using “increasingly aggressive” means to drive religion out of public life and culture.

On reflection I’m more surprised by China’s ban on music with Christian themes than by the hostility to faith James MacMillan identifies in the “metropolitan arts, cultural, and media elites” of his milieu.  The cathedrals of Britain and Europe, though still acknowledged architectural marvels, are not anymore anchors of culture as they have been historically.  Young ministers in what has come to be called the “emerging church” speak of Christianity as again a subversive influence.  On this view, the era of Christendom has come and gone, and the church, if it is to remain viable, must acculturate to postmodernism.  This tends in the direction of pop music idioms and the same kind of art one finds in trendy galleries, but surprisingly, some of these groups are suddenly discovering liturgical chant, incense, and candles. 

I asked a Chinese friend what she made of the ban in China on The Messiah and his ilk.  After this friend took her children to the Olympics, she commented on the strenuous attempt to find historic spiritual roots for Chinese culture that she saw in the opening ceremonies.  Her father is a scholar of historic Chinese culture, so she said she could see things in the Olympic ceremonies that were opaque to most Chinese.  Apparently the authors and designers of this presentation had to go back the sixth century BCE and Confucianism to find something worthy of celebration.

About the recent ban on religious music Jing says:

“I am not surprised about this development.  It seems that government is concerned about things that are powerful yet, hard to compete with.  Historical European music that has a strong Christian background can be seen as a challenge that could alter people’s minds.  Sacred music is very powerful. But I am sure that there are people, including government officials, who continue to listen to them either in public or in private.  Anything that is calling for peace, is good for the human soul, no matter where we live. “ 

When I sent the link to the article on the Chinese ban to a discussion list at work, I got the following reaction from an atheist:

“They’re scared out of their wits of Christianity. They’ve been studying some history most likely.”

This is typical of the stereotypical identification of Christianity with the Spanish Inquisition and the supposed persecution of Galileo.  Reading Rodney Stark’s great book, The Victory of Reason or Robert Royal’s similar historic analysis, The God that Did Not Fail will dispel any nostrums about the supposed historic suppression of progress by the church.  The truth about science, religion, and the Galileo affair is also quite contrary to the current myths.

One more perspective from a rather surprising source of inspiration: Ayn Rand.  Another respondent to my query on the work discussion list sent this:

“Per James MacMillan – ‘They are also impractical, unattractive and, I suggest, oppressive. A true sense of difference, in which a genuine pluralism could thrive, is under threat of being reduced to a lowest common denominator of uniformity and conformity, where any non-secular contribution will automatically be regarded as socially divisive by definition.’

Don’t know if you are familiar with Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.  While I disagree with her beliefs about God, she was dead on about how socialism affects the arts or any creative sphere.  Socialism doesn’t aspire to greatness - it aspires to equality.  And that equality by definition means that success is has to be the lowest common denominator so that everyone is able to reach it.  Any reaching beyond that is a threat to their status quo.

My wife pointed out that this doesn’t apply to the Chinese in areas such as gymnastics, but it may well apply to the popularizing and postmodern trends in the the West.  I’m going to have to get to work this morning, but I’ll conclude for the moment by noting that Christianity has always been controversial.  The gospels of Matthew and Luke both attribute to Jesus the following unnerving discourse:

Matthew:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household.”

Luke:

“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division;  for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

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