2 of 2

Another story places Booth at a revival meeting in a Worcester theater, enjoying a popular Christian chorus titled "Bless His Name, He Sets Me Free." Booth was surprised to discover that the song's tune came from a music-hall ditty, "Champagne Charlie is My Name." Turning to a family member, he delivered Hill's famous line, "That settles it. Why should the devil have all the best tunes?"

The Army proceeded to adapt for their own use such popular music as Stephen Foster's minstrel songs, music hall favorites, and—yes—even drinking songs.

In doing so, Booth and his followers were tapping a tradition that dated back at least to the sixteenth-century origins and seventeenth-century elaboration of the sacred "oratorio" form. This form borrowed much from secular opera and chamber pieces in order to attract people to church.

Whatever the roots of the practice, Booth could soon testify that songs adapted from the streets often triggered "overpowering scenes of salvation," both in England and in America.

Hmm. OK, so there are historical precedents for Baxter's Elvis song rewrites. But surely the dramatic elements—the costumes, the poses—are something new.

In fact, the rousing Salvation Army meetings of the nineteenth century featured not just upbeat popular music but innovative uses of "illustrated sermons" and dramas. This tradition, too, had venerable roots, dating (despite the church's often violent objection to secular theater) back to medieval "mystery plays."

Nor did this highly effective practice die with the Army. To give just one example, when near the turn of the twentieth century a young girl attended Salvation Army meetings in Canada with family members, a new era of evangelistic pop-culture absorption was launched. This was Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Los Angeles, California.

From the founding of her Angelus Temple a block from Sunset Boulevard in that city, on January 1, 1923, McPherson wowed her Hollywood-savvy audiences with the lavish dramatic productions she offered under its vaulted dome. These included everything from punchy vignettes ("Sister" once brought a motorcycle on stage with her to make a point) to glittering extravaganzas presented on a stage festooned with flowers and illuminated with batteries of lights (Read Edith L. Blumhofer's Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister).

And so it has gone, in every imaginable area of artistic expression. The church has eagerly borrowed from the most popular forms offered by the world. Next week, we will look at some of the results of that borrowing and ask, How have Christians reacted? And, from purely aesthetic and pragmatic points of view, how successful have such Christian forays into popular forms been?

Chris Armstrong is managing editor of Christian History magazine.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

first page |  2 of 2

share this page

FREE E-Newsletter Sign up for the ChristianHistory.net e-mail newsletter. Discover more about your Christian heritage with this weekly e-newsletter that features key people, topics, and events from the history of Christianity.      RSS Feed   RSS Help