Sacred Cows!

It has recently been brought to my attention, on pretty good authority (although not first hand), that a territory in the western world has mandated that, in the future, 75% of all music used at youth councils must be “Salvation Army music,” excluding even contemporary Salvationist compositions; only traditional stuff from the red song book.

I hope I heard this wrong, or that there is something missing in the translation, but even the fact that this issue has raised its ugly head again is problematic from a lot of different perspectives. It is, in fact, another in a series of “déjà vu all over again.”

The question isn’t even, “What is Salvation Army music?” although it’s an interesting one. I haven’t taken time to go through the song book (nor am I going to) and tabulate the origin of each song, but I can assure you that many of them were borrowed, begged and…well maybe not stolen, who knows? William Booth is purported to have said, “Why should the devil have all the good music,” or something to that effect. I wonder, would Barry Gott’s brass arrangement of songs from the musical, “Godspell,” count in the 75% or should it be tallied as part of the 25%? Who’s counting anyway? I hope another line isn’t going to be added to the statistical report.

The question is much bigger and broader than this, “What is our mission?” If we answer that correctly then all of our “sacred cows,” be they music or whatever, will fall into place…or out of place, whatever? Or to put the question another way, “Have we now moved from being a mission to becoming an institution.” Institutions are, in part, defined by their “sacred cows.” I’ve covered this subject thoroughly with a series titled, “Rediscovering the Mission,” beginning with the February 1, 2008 post – “What was once mobile and fluid has now become static, ingrown, methodological and institutionalized.”

Further, this piggybacks on my recent post below. “Salvationism” is mission in action. Mission is “Genesis in motion.” It removes the “No!” from “in(no)vation,” and replaces it with “Yes!” Reread the Orbiting “obsessing” quote below and put it into context here. Replace the word, “statistics,” with music or one of the many other sacred cows now mooing in our vineyard.

What is TSA’s DNA anyway? What makes us uniquely who we are? Catherine Booth defined the answer to those questions forcefully and succinctly for us: “Adaptation, expediency, is our only law” (Feb 9 post). And who do you think her model was?

I’m having trouble determining whether these are irregular or irreverent thoughts, so to be safe you will find them at both locations.

J