In church last week, our worship leader introduced the song “Stand By Me”, almost apologetically explaining that this classic of early rock and roll was actually a Black Gospel song sung in churches for years before it was secularized in 1962 and became one of the best selling singles of all time.  This reminded me that the Joe Cocker hit “Love Lift Us Up” was originally “Lord Lift Us Up”.  The truth is, much of early rock and roll was strongly influenced by the African American Churches across the United States as well as the music of poor, rural white churches of the south.   That is why the likes of Mahalia Jackson and the Staples Family are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as early innovators.  In fact, over a decade before Chuck Berry wailed out “Johnny B. Goode” for the first time,   Gospel music already had the world’s first electric guitar superstar in Sister Rosetta Tharp.

It also occurred to me that the secular / sacred debate has been raging for centuries before the invention of the electric guitar and the evolution of rock and roll. Before rock was the devil’s music, it was jazz, before that, ragtime.  William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, scandalized the faithful by taking drinking songs and changing the lyrics for his street corner bands to use for evangelism.  “Handel’s Messiah” and “Silent Night” were both considered too modern sounding for many churches of their day.  Hey, even Old Testament David was criticized for praising God in such an undignified way as dancing in public!

This all goes to show that Solomon was right when he wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun.”  And it’s not just music.  I’ve written before about my book “An Encyclopedia of American Crime: From Black Beard to Jeffrey Dahmer”.  Today’s drug cartels are yesterday’s bootleggers.  Today’s car-jackers  are yesterday’s horse thieves.  Today’s high end call girls are the Wild West’s saloon girls and turn of the century New Orleans ‘mattress ladies’.

When Naomi was a freshman in high school, she did a project on the history of teen idols.  Like crime, celebrity is another area where it is clear that there is nothing new under the sun.  One of the most interesting discoveries from my daughter’s project was that John Wilkes Booth was a teen matinee idol in the 1850’s and 60’s.  Not only are teen idols not new, but apparently neither is their tendency to turn criminal!  In the book “Fame Junkies” author Jake Halpern makes the point that even  primitive cultures have their ‘idols’; legendary hunters who are the object of embellished stories and the admiration of the youth.

There is another verse from Solomon in Ecclesiastes that also applies well: “ Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.” There is always a tendency to think that life in the past was better, but is that really true?  Before Islamic extremists there was Communism, before that, Nazis, and so it goes:  Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Nebuchadnezzar, and more.  The truth is, life is both hard and wonderful.  People are created in the image of God yet simultaneously fallen sinners needing redemption.  It has always been this way, and it shall always be.  There is nothing new under the sun.