Seminole County School Board Announces New Guidelines Which P ermit High School Choir To Sing At Religious Events

[Michael Newsom]

I don't see how Tom's arguments do not apply with equal force to Bible
reading. Is Schempp wrong?


----- Original Message -----
From: "Berg, Thomas C." <TCBERG at STTHOMAS.EDU>
To: <RELIGIONLAW at listserv.ucla.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 12:02 PM
Subject: Re: Seminole County School Board Announces New Guidelines Which P
ermit High School Choir To Sing At Religious Events


> In response to Alan's question below:  There is not a plausible secular
> cultural reason to focus on Protestant theology alone in a public-school
> course.  The academic value in such a course would consist solely in
> learning, understanding, grappling with the theological assertions
> themselves; and when that is the focus, I agree that (at a public high
> school, at least) the school should be concerned to expose students to a
> variety of theologies/faiths.
>
> The gospel choir is a tougher case precisely because there are secular
> musical and cultural reasons to focus on this genre -- its distinctive
> harmonic progressions, "call and response" structure, bending of tones and
> other solo moves and devices, etc., and the way the music itself
> communicates certain emotions (stemming from the African-American
> experience).  There was an international choral festival in Minneapolis
this
> summer, and it ended with a concert by several leading area choirs, which
in
> turn concluded with all those choirs assembled onstage to do a couple of
> songs together -- the last song was a gospel song whose words I don't even
> remember, but it had everyone in the audience standing, clapping, singing
> the response phrase, etc.  I'm sure that the audience contained many
> non-Christians (both local and from around the world) who nevertheless
could
> enter into the mood created by the music itself.  The same could never be
> true with a public reading from a Protestant theologian, whether it's Karl
> Barth or Billy Graham.
>
> At the same time, I recognize that with a gospel choir, it can be very
> difficult to separate the music from the theological message.  Any good
> choir director wants the singers to identify in some way with the message
> and the emotions of the lyrics, in order to be able to bring the music to
> life again in performance.  In the case of religious music, there is a
fine
> line between encouraging that kind of identification and encouraging an
act
> of corporate worship by the choir as a whole.  I agree that it is easier
to
> cross that line when (1) the gospel music is not simply one among many
> genres performed, but is the whole repertoire of a choir, and (2) when the
> music is also the familiar church music of a majority of students in the
> choir or the high school.
>
> Although it may be fairly easy for a high-school gospel choir to slip over
> into an unconstitutional worship program for a single faith, I do think
that
> courts have to be fairly deferential about such questions, for the reasons
> I've tried to raise in previous posts.  There can be secular reasons for
> focusing on a musical or artistic genre that overlaps with one religious
> faith, and so precise religious equality shouldn't be demanded;
> correspondingly, if our standard of religious equality is too demanding,
we
> make it very difficult to include religious themes in the  school arts
> programs at all, and that produces an unwarranted and improper
> secularization.  That's all I'm saying.  (Plus, as I said before, I'm
really
> just prolonging this thread because I like to talk about choral music.)
>
>
> *******************
> Thomas C. Berg
> University of St. Thomas School of Law
> Mail # TMH 444C
> 1000 La Salle Avenue
> Minneapolis, MN   55403-2005
> Phone: (651) 962-4918
> Fax: (651) 962-4915
> tcberg at stthomas.edu
>
> ************************
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Brownstein [mailto:aebrownstein at ucdavis.edu]
> Sent: Friday, November 29, 2002 12:42 AM
> To: Berg, Thomas C.
> Subject: RE: Seminole County School Board Announces New Guidelines Which
> P ermit High School Choir To Sing At Religious Events
>
>
> I don't know much about music but I would think that a choir director with
> such a narrow and rigid perspective should not be directing a high school
> choir. Still I understand Tom's point. There may be some circumstances
> where a musical program can not include significant diversity of religious
> music, but the non-religious basis for choosing the program and the
> non-religious content included in it effectively negates concerns about
> religious favoritism and endorsement. The Madrigal Choir at Davis High
> School might be an example. I believe they sing a few songs with religious
> subjects -- and probably all of the madrigals with religious subjects are
> Christian. In my judgement, the burden is on the school that creates a
> program with religious content limited to a single faith tradition to
> demonstrate that there is no religious favoritism in the selection and no
> endorsement of a religion in effect. I think it is far easier to make that
> showing for a Madrigal Choir than a Gospel Choir -- for obvious reasons.
>
> Tell me Tom. How would you handle my prior example of a high school with
> just two courses in Philosophy, one in Logical Positivism and the other in
> Protestant Theology. If the school offers a class in Rhetoric, may it
> include an alternative class in Prayer and Commentary from a single
> religious tradition. Students can certainly study theology, prayer and
> religious commentary from an academic perspective. But I have a hard time
> accepting a class in the theology, prayer or commentary of a single
> religion being taught in a public school -- even if there is a secular
> alternative. And if a class in just Protestant Theology or Protestant
> Prayer and Commentary is unacceptable, how is a Gospel Choir any
different?
>
> Alan Brownstein
> UC Davis
> visiting at UNSW
>
>
> Tom wrote:
> >  A question concerning Alan's post
> >  Alan:  You point out, correctly, that music from a variety of religious
> >traditions could be incorporated (along with secular music) in an overall
> >music program.  But what if the choir director thinks that only a certain
> >repertoire has music or cultural value, and that repertoire coincides
with
> >only one religious tradition?  Suppose, for example, that the director
> >thinks that only the classical Western European tradition from, say,
> >Palestrina (16th century) through Brahms (mid-19th-century) has musical
> >value; as a result, although the repertoire has both secular and
religious
> >pieces, the religious pieces are only Christian in content.  While that
> >choice might reflect a narrow musical vision, I doubt that it is
> >unconstitutional, since there is plainly a secular reason for the choice;
> >and I don't think that the director is nevertheless under an obligation
to
> >maintain religious equality in the results (unless it could be shown that
> >the choice of classical Western European music was made *because* it
would
> >favor Christian content).  In other words, I still wonder whether your
> >emphasis on religious equality can really be fully operative in this
> setting
> >-- where there may be secular cultural reasons for choosing music that
> turns
> >out to reflect one religious tradition.  Similarly, secular musical and
> >cultural concerns could explain the choice of the gospel choir, although
I
> >concede that it's more of a stretch.  I'm just questioning how much we
can
> >really demand religious equality in this sort of context.