Promise Backlund (@eve_wasframed) is a former worship leader turned counter-apologist. I first heard of her on Seth Andrews’s podcast. She wrote a book called Gospel of Lies (the title sounds harsher than it actually reads).
There’s one chapter where she discusses the impact that music, architecture, mood lighting, and large gatherings can have in producing feelings of transcendence and euphoria for the human “spirit.” She writes of going to her first secular rock concert and finding it just like church. “My belief that God was as involved with a rock concert as he was with a worship service turned out to be closer to the truth than I realized. It turns out God was equally uninvolved. But my confusion was by evangelical design, as there is little difference between their worship services and a live concert. Music is already manipulative by nature; that’s why we listen to it.”
She doesn’t mean that musical manipulation is necessarily a bad thing–we listen to music to help us feel good; it’s like art or literature, where the creator of the piece is trying to evoke certain thoughts or feelings to the audience or reader. But you need to be aware that it’s human-made. Otherwise, “these emotional moments can convince you that of course there’s a god…”
“Music’s ability to impact our emotions, physical state and behavior has been widely studied and universally recognized.” Look at the minor keys for the “Imperial March” in The Empire Strikes Back or the Emperor’s theme in Return of the Jedi and contrast that with the uplifting major key of the Rebel fanfare. That’s John Williams who did that, not God.
As a worship musician myself for many years, I have experienced the manipulation from both sides. If a pastor wanted to really turn on the tears during a prayer service, he would give me the nod and I’d gradually shape the improvisational droning of my violin into an upwelling theme that sounded like something out of the Braveheart soundtrack. I didn’t see myself as doing manipulation in that moment, though; I thought I was just being “used by God.”
Find her book here: https://medialabbooks.com/products/9781964487557_gospel-of-lies
Cover photo by John Price on Unsplash