wfn.org | Commentary: Wedding, funeral music should glorify God

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Sept. 4, 2001   News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-71BP{371}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of the Rev. Mike Macdonald is
available.

A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Mike Macdonald*
 
Are church members consumers of a product the church has to offer, or are
they disciples of Jesus Christ?

This is the crux of a dispute reported recently on National Public Radio's
"Weekend Edition." Father Bernard Healey, a priest in Providence, R.I., had
written an editorial encouraging priests and congregations to follow church
guidelines, which forbid secular music in funeral masses. The song "Danny
Boy" was singled out for particular attention. Although he was merely
calling for the enforcement of national guidelines already in place,
Healey's editorial stirred up a lot of anger.

The inappropriate use of secular music is not just a Roman Catholic or a
funeral issue. Most United Methodist clergy have had to deal with requests
for secular music at funerals, but even more commonly at weddings. Many
simply surrender and try to appease their customers, er, parishioners. Those
who try to exclude secular songs meet with reactions ranging from sincere
bewilderment to outright hostility.

The bewilderment arises from people who have not stopped to consider that
both a wedding and a funeral are worship services. By definition, the
purpose of a worship service is to glorify God. The problem with "Danny Boy"
at a funeral or "Kiss Me" at a wedding is not that the songs are evil. It is
that they do not glorify God. They are out of place within a worship
service, just as "Jingle Bells" is not sung to celebrate a birthday.

My experience has been that most people who are at first bewildered when
they are told they cannot use secular songs end up content with the
decision. Some have even told me they hadn't thought of it that way, and
they are glad to have the opportunity to select something more appropriate.
They had assumed the purpose of a wedding was to glorify the love of the
couple and that the purpose of a funeral was to glorify the life of the
deceased. They find thinking of these rituals as worship services rather
refreshing.

But those who react with hostility tend to remain hostile. They see
themselves as customers who are being arbitrarily denied what is rightfully
theirs. As Healey said in his interview, the deeper issue of using "Danny
Boy" is the "lack of authority a priest, or the church, has in the lives of
many people." He describes the attitude people have as, "We're in charge of
my father's funeral -- not you, Father, not the bishop - nobody. My father
was a great Irish-American and [pounding the table] I'm going to have 'Danny
Boy'!"

The problem is even more acute in the United Methodist Church, where the
"priesthood of all believers" is often interpreted in such a way as meaning
the pastor and church are not supposed to have any authority over the
members, even theoretically.

Some of the disgruntled people interviewed acted as if Healey was being
"theologically correct" - the ecclesiastical version of "politically
correct." The noted Irish writer Frank McCourt was quoted as saying, "I
don't know why the church is getting its knickers in a knot" over the issue.
But Healey says that those who insist on singing "Danny Boy" miss the point:
"The central point is the person's faith. The central point of the funeral
mass is the person's relationship with Jesus Christ. It isn't their
relationship with the Emerald Isle."

The fundamentalists are correct to worry about the danger of humanism in our
society. But they misidentify the source of the threat. I am not overly
concerned about the self-professed humanists outside the church who are
hostile to our message. I am far more concerned about the Christians inside
the United Methodist Church who are humanists and do not realize it. The
people who think of themselves as consumers of a product provided by the
pastor and the church. The people who think the purpose of a wedding or a
funeral is to glorify their families and their human accomplishments. The
people who think it is their God-given right to have the rites they desire.

These are the humanistic, secular, attitudes that are the true enemy of the
Gospel.

# # #

*Macdonald is pastor of Broad Street United Methodist Church in Mooresville,
N.C.
 
Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily
represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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