When I was still a Christian, I worked for many years as a music-minister in my church. In this entry, I want to discuss the role that music has in manipulating people within the church.
I am a trained musician and am quite aware of the emotional impact that music can have on a human being. I love music. I love the fact that music has such an impact on the emotions.
Here is what I don't like: I don't like the fact that churches are playing on the emotions of countless people in order to accomplish their mission. Week after week, churches everywhere are psychologically and emotionally manipulating people in some way or another. One of the key tools used to manipulate people is music.
Countless times, as a music leader, I would be meeting with my pastor to plan the upcoming church service. Over and over again, I was encouraged to play music that would have the greatest emotional impact on the congregation in relation to the theme of the service.
Now wait a minute, pastor, are you relying on the holy spirit or on emotions to affect the lives of your congregants? You claim to rely on the holy spirit to affect change within the heart of a person. Yet, in practise, you rely on the emotions to affect change. Is the "almighty" holy spirit's power limited to the emotional power of a song or hymn? It always seems that the holy spirit's "power" is directly proportional to the emotional magnitude of the music or message presented during the church service.
Even when I was still a Christian, it bothered me somewhat that we had to rely so heavily on the effect of music in order to reach people for this "almighty" god. Now that I'm on the outside looking in, I find it sickening that churches are manipulating and toying with people in such a way.
Here's an example of a typical church service that I would have been involved in: As an intro to the service, we would generally do an upbeat song to get everyone going. After the opening prayer, announcements, and often a scripture reading, we would do a number of songs. These songs would form the core of the "worship" portion of the service. The first couple of songs are generally fast or upbeat to get everyone going. Then the songs become slower and more melancholy. After one of these slower, emotional songs, it is prayer time. Now that the music has gotten everyone emotional and vulnerable, the prayer leader can really start to manipulate the congregation and trick them into believing that their god is speaking to them or that they are feeling the holy spirit. Perhaps, after the prayer we would do one more slow song. After a short coffee break, we would do one more song as a prelude to the sermon. Naturally, this song is usually related to the theme of the message being preached. Now, the last part of the service can go one of two ways. If the sermon is more of an inspirational or motivational (rah rah rah) theme, we would generally end with an upbeat, rousing song to send everyone off with. If the sermon is meant to convict the hearts of the congregation, the preacher will usually spend the latter portion of the message poking and prodding at the hearer's heart. The service will end with a slow, emotional song to solidify the mood of the service.
I'm not super concerned about the upbeat, motivational themes. The effects of these services, in my experience, are usually quite superficial. Although, I suppose it is possible that a person can get so ramped up that they go out and do something stupid.
I am concerned, though, about the emotionally penetrating themes. This emotional manipulation (achieved through the partnership of the music, praying, and preaching) will impact each individual differently. Some people will be made to relive past trauma. Others will be made to feel a heavy weight of guilt or shame (in which case they would be encouraged to repent). And those going through present trauma are vulnerable to a wide range of damaging effects. This kind of manipulation often borders on and may even cross over into psychological abuse. Depending on the degree of damage done, those affected by such manipulation may need and should seek the help of a licensed psychologist.
All over the world, week after week, this thing goes on and on again and again... And I'm so sorry that I used my talent to help enable this kind of thing for so long.
