© 1992 Jack Rogers
© 1992 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
| Will The Urantia Book Inspire a New Religious Institution? | Fall 1992 — Index | The Power of New Spiritual Insight |
When Christ called his disciples to “go forth and make disciples of all nations,” there ensued a missionary movement that continues to this day. Millions of young men and women have left their homes and traveled to foreign lands to share the gospel of Christ. Throughout the course of history music has proved exceedingly effective in gaining a hearing for the spoken word and in serving as a communicative vehicle of values.
Anthropology and ethnomusicology have demonstrated that music is a powerful carrier of culture. While missionaries were sincere in their desire to share the gospel, history has shown that they may have also shared cultural messages through music that were as destructive to many indigenous cultures as the measles and flu viruses their bodies carried.
While missionaries were sincere in their desire to share the gospel, history has shown that they may have also shared cultural messages through music that were as destructive to many indigenous cultures as the measles and flu viruses their bodies carried.
The celebration of the 500th year of the voyage of Christopher Columbus to America has given rise to a new understanding of the impact of missionary activities on indigenous cultures. Recent PBS programs on history and culture along with a number of commercially successful movies have cultivated a new popular understanding of the impact of Western culture over native peoples. Individuals are slowly becoming aware of the powerful and often negative influence of our cultural exports. This is especially true when such exports are attached to religion. The stark scenes in the popular movie Mission, which show Indian children playing violins, graphically demonstrate the role that music has had in missionary activities, and the havoc that it can cause within an indigenous culture. The message was given added poignancy when the same children were later enslaved or slaughtered for political expediency.
Christians are beginning to evaluate the cultural packaging of the gospel message through music. They are recognizing that the cultural implications of missionary activities are profound and lasting, and there are now many examples of indigenous musical forms being extinguished under the weight of Western music. Our own nation has witnessed the demise of many native Indian ceremonies and musical forms. Ethnologists have recently expressed concern that we may be close to losing our native Hawaiian music, and it is indeed ironic that the largest storehouse of Hawaiian music now resides in Berlin.
From a theological perspective it is questionable that the wholesale cultural destruction and displacement of native cultures was what Christ had in mind when initiating the “Great Commission.” The Bible and The Urantia Book both celebrate the vast diversity of humankind. While there is unity in the message of hope, love, brotherhood, and the elements of service, there is great room for diversity of worship forms and music. We can and must expect great diversity of cultural expression. This diversity is not something to fear but celebrate, for it is an indicator of the power and versatility of the gospel to transform and inspire all of the peoples of the world. There is, after all, no specific blue print establishing the “correct” form or style of music in the religion of Jesus. Although it is mentioned many times that the disciples sang hymns with their worship, musicians today can only theorize about the content, form, and style of these hymns, and are unable to reproduce the music of that day with any degree of authenticity.
While attending a certain evangelical seminary, I was taught that Christ is the transformer of culture. The conservative theological dogmas of this church dictated its “acceptable norms” for a Christian culture. When this happens, the gospel tends to be associated with specific culture forms, and such religious groups often have trouble adjusting to progressive social change. The Urantia Book cautions against linking social, economic, or political trends with the gospel message:
Modern religion finds it difficult to adjust its attitude toward the rapidly shifting social changes only because it has permitted itself to become so thoroughly traditionalized, dogmatized, and institutionalized. The religion of living experience finds no difficulty in keeping ahead of all these social developments and economic upheavals, amid which it ever functions as a moral stabilizer, social guide and spiritual pilot. (UB 99:2.6)
Modern religion finds it difficult to adjust its attitude toward the rapidly shifting social changes only because it has permitted itself to become so thoroughly traditionalized, dogmatized, and institutionalized.
Religion is only one of the many shapers and carriers of culture. “The greatest twentieth-century influences contributing to the furtherance of civilization and the advancement of culture are the marked increase in world travel and the unparalleled improvements in methods of communication.” (UB 81:6.25) The advent of the communication age and a growing sense of world community have brought to the forefront of popular discussion the issue of cultural dominance.
What is of interest to me is how much of the popular discussion of cultural dominance has focused primarily on our 20th century materialistic experience. The concern for maintaining cultural identities throughout the world in the face of Western commercial exports has made headline news. Thousands of missionaries are contributing to this exportation of Western culture throughout the world. The increasing high-tech approach to missionary efforts incorporating massmedia methods are reaching incredibly large audiences. This contemporary commercialization of the gospel message is a serious concern for many mainline Christians.
We should remember, however, that indigenous cultural faith and forms are not easily wiped out by commercial, missionary, or evolutionary social changes. In fact, we appear to be entering an era of indigenous cultural resurgence around the world. Missionaries are astounded at the cultural resilience of indigenous religious practices in the face of strong oppression. Christianity appears to have survived the repression of the Communist era in the Soviet Union and China. In the former Soviet States the Orthodox Church can hardly accommodate the new flood of worshipers. In China there are enclaves of worshipers singing hymns brought to them by missionaries over 100 years ago.
The lesson from these examples is clear: indigenous cultures are difficult to destroy. Whenever missionaries bring a new religious faith into an indigenous culture, an accommodation takes place.
In Central and South America, after 500 years of dominance of the Catholic Church, there are indications that native celebrations with indigenous music remain intact today. Among North American Indians there has been a strong resurgence of Indian beliefs and a return to traditional expressions of worship, music and spiritual traditions. A recent rise of interest in “Aslan” and the celebration of ancient Aztec ceremonies has captured the imagination of Chicano youth. What is significant about this movement is that the music used to carry the teachings of this ancient religious cult is rap music — the sociopolitical language of inner city Afro-Americans. The use of a modern medium to express old ideas is a powerful method for sharing the message, and that message is being heard from the barrios of Los Angeles to the villages of New Mexico.
The lesson from these examples is clear: indigenous cultures are difficult to destroy. Whenever missionaries bring a new religious faith into an indigenous culture, an accommodation takes place. The new faith is adopted into indigenous expressions which result in worship forms that are unique to that culture. I have contemplated the meaning of these cultural-religious dynamics and have been profoundly impressed by the wisdom which The Urantia Book has to share with us as missionary ministers of the gospel. Consider the following passages among many which could be selected:
The mortals of the realms of time and space may differ greatly in innate abilities and intellectual endowment, they may enjoy environments exceptionally favorable to social advancement and moral progress, or they may suffer from the lack of almost every human aid to culture and supposed advancement in the arts of civilization; but the possibilities for spiritual progress in the ascension career are equal to all; increasing levels of spiritual insight and cosmic meanings are attained quite independently of all such sociomoral differentials and the diversified material environments on the evolutionary worlds. (UB 5:1.4)
Eternal survival of personality is wholly dependent on the choosing of the mortal mind, whose decisions determine the survival potential of the immortal. When the mind believes God and the soul knows God, and when, with the fostering Adjuster, they all desire God, then survival is assured. Limitations of intellect, curtailment of education, deprivation of culture, impoverishment of social status, even inferiority of human standards of morality resulting from the unfortunate lack of educational, cultural, and social advantages, cannot invalidate the presence of the divine spirit in such unfortunate and humanly handicapped but believing individuals. (UB 5:5.13)
The philosophical foundation for missionary activity presented in The Urantia Book has important contributions to make to the contemporary church. It calls us to recognize the worldwide activity of the Spirit of God among all the peoples of the world. It suggests that indigenous forms of worship may not only be acceptable to God but may also have something to teach us as well. And finally, it challenges the very notion of the “salvation of the lost,” that all nonChristians are damned, as the foundation of missionary effort.
In the foregoing observations this column has entered a minefield of challenges for contemporary Christians, both mainline and conservative. I believe we must ask ourselves hard questions about what theological and cultural messages are presented in our preaching and in our music. Music is in a unique position to help us with this evaluation because so often it is the primary carrier of theological messages to the people we serve. Therefore, I would like to continue this discussion in the next column which will be entitled “The Quest for Indigenization” in the hope that our discussion may contribute to the local church’s outreach efforts both within its own neighborhood and throughout the world.
| Will The Urantia Book Inspire a New Religious Institution? | Fall 1992 — Index | The Power of New Spiritual Insight |