Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

These are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the Lord after the ark came to rest there.  They ministered with music before the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, until Solomon built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.  They performed their duties according to the regulations laid down for them.

• 1 Chronicles 6:31-32

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!  But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.  Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

• Luke 1:39-45

“Music has charms to soothe a savage breast.”

• William Congreve

My wife was in a family singing group when we first got married.  She has told the story many times about coming to the United States when she was young.  There were six children at the time that they emigrated the Netherlands and immigrated into the USA.  Her father was the only one who knew English.  They waited in New York City until just before the deadline to get a sponsor to stay in the USA, but finally, they got a sponsor, moving to El Paso, Texas.  Her father was very strict, not allowing anyone to speak any of the several languages that they could speak until they could speak English.  Since my wife’s English skills were not perfect, she was enrolled into the first grade, even though she had already completed the first grade in the Netherlands.

What does this have to do with music?  When her father was satisfied that everyone, including his wife, could speak English, he allowed one night each week to be “Another Language Night.”  And to celebrate, they sang songs in that language.  The singing and guitar playing became a family tradition, especially with the girls.  When they moved to Port Arthur, TX, the chamber of commerce in nearby Nederland, TX found out about them, since they sang some of their songs in the Nederland founder’s native tongue, Dutch.  My wife sang a solo performance for a Chamber social gathering, but when she and her mother were asked to sing at the Folklife Festival  in San Antonio, Texas, the younger girls wanted a free trip, and thus the group was formed, Moeder Molly and her Dutch Dochters.

The song below is an Indonesian song.  My wife is the furthest to the right.  Her baby sister, one of three on stage born in the USA, is the person introducing everything.  Moeder Molly, my late mother-in-law, is sitting behind, playing the guitar.  And a lot of their “darkness” as is mentioned in the song’s introduction, also means they enjoy the outdoors.

That is a lengthy introduction to say that when my wife was pregnant with our younger son, she sang to him every day while he was in the womb.  To rest her vocal cords, she would also play music on our stereo system.  We were in Germany at the time, and I had just set up a modular stereo system.  We had an amplifier, turntable, and reel-to-reel player/recorder.  We also had huge headphones, with each headphone speaker being as large as a man’s fist.  To not disturb our older son, she would turn on the music, open the headphones and place the speaker flat against her belly.  As the music played, our unborn son would leap in her womb and then become really calm.  As she said, the only way to get him calm.  He was enjoying the music.

When we returned to the USA, I was stationed at an Army research center that was located where the Watertown Arsenal had been in Watertown, Massachusetts.  We had a postage stamp sized apartment, literally what had been the hayloft for the stables at the old arsenal.  One day, our younger son, at that time about one and a half years old, snuck into the living room while I was at the kitchen table doing some work, and his mother was in the kitchen, probably cleaning up after lunch.  When I spied him, he was asleep in my Papasan chair, or at least the comfortable chair that I sat in.  He had the headphones over both ears. With the extra large headphones, it more than doubled the space taken up by his head.  Without ever being taught how, he had turned on the amplifier and the reel to reel player, with either disco music or classical music on play.  I checked to make sure the volume was not too loud and let him have his nap.

A few years later, he played the piano for a school Christmas performance, with having just the basic of pointers, no real lessons, and as his friends said, “And you don’t even have a piano at home!”  That was the year he got a keyboard for Christmas.

Music has become his life.  The following is a video from his music classes.  Since everything at his elementary school is taught online, he tries to add new videos to weave into the lessons.  This one shows him incorporating what the Physical Education (PE) teacher was teaching the children.  Before the end of the year, I am sure he will have lessons in math, science, etc. all while teaching music.  For this song, a folk song that originated in Virginia, he created a PowerPoint presentation that gave the children, Kindergarten through 5^th grade, a tour of the state of Virginia.

Why did I take this little musical journey?  The story in Luke tells about how John the Baptist (or Baptizer as many call him) leapt inside his mother’s womb when the pregnant mother of Jesus approached.  Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, knew before Mary could say anything.  Of course, this passage of Scripture is followed with Mary speaking – the Magnificat.

Our son leapt inside his mother’s womb when she placed the headphones on her belly.  Without being taught, he learned how to use those headphones in order to soothe himself and take a nap.  Music was part of his life before he was born.

I see this as proof that the unborn child is alive, a sentient being long before birth.  Our son went from listening to music in the womb to becoming a lifelong musician.  And to pile on, he speaks several languages, picking them up easily, maybe because his mother sang several languages to him while he was in the womb.  I cannot accept that any of this is a simple coincidence.

I do not think that the argument regarding abortion is about killing a living person, although the madness has spread to killing children that are already born.  Once you are infected by the insanity, dpes it not expand exponentially?  The key to most sane arguments is at what point is the baby alive and able to respond to external stimuli.  From our experience, that point is very early while in the womb.

Abortion clinics are not offering these children to Molech, but is it not a similar thing?  If abstinence is not an option, there is adoption if the child is not wanted.

Please, can we stop killing innocent children?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.