On Thursday evening, I attended Verizon’s “How Sweet the Sound” choir competition here in Charlotte. It was great to see choirs bring their best before legendary gospel greats like CeCe Winans, Donald Lawrence, Marvin Sapp, John P. Kee and my personal favorite, Fred Hammond.

As a music enthusiast, with emphasis on gospel, I was in my element. In addition to new releases like “He Saw the Best in Me” by Marvin Sapp and “Back to Eden” by Donald Lawrence, several of the choirs performed classics like “Going Up Yonder” by Walter Hawkins.

The evening was enjoyable, but one thing did concern me -- comments made by Lawrence to the music director of an all-white choir from a Wesleyan church following their performance. The established format was, when the choirs exited the stage, the choir director hung back and received general comments by Lawrence, followed by specific feedback from each of the judges.

The only choir where race was discussed was the white choir.

Listening to Lawrence make comments like, “I didn’t know ya’ll had that much soul,” and “I am surprised you weren’t intimidated to come up in here,” bothered me. In the moment, the choir director was a good sport, despite appearing uncomfortable. I felt like I was at a D.L. Hugley comedy show with three white people in the front row of the audience.

I am sure that Lawrence’s intention was to be funny, but I couldn’t help but ask myself, why did race enter the discussion? I don’t know about you, but I have grown tired of worship services and many Christian-themed events still showing signs of segregation. Aren’t we one under the Body of Christ?

This just happened to be a white choir performing in the midst of choirs that were predominately African American. However, I am confident that if the reverse were the case, the results would have been the same. Why it is that diversity is so limited within our worship and praise experience?

If you were in attendance Thursday night or not, and you have an opinion, I welcome your thoughts to this discussion.
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Tanya Wilson is an inspirational speaker located in Charlotte. Friend her on Facebook and learn more.

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