I've heard both "preaching to the choir" and "singing to the choir" used to mean that something is unnecessary. That doesn't make a lot of sense with the former, though. Why would preaching to the choir-or to anyone at church, for that matter-be useless?
"Preaching to the converted" is similar, but seems to implies knock-on-door-preaching (whereas "choir" suggests pulpit-preaching). I've also never heard anyone say it ... (archaeic?)
In some limited googling, I found:
On fine spring Sunday mornings, attendence at church has been known to be very sparse.
Whatever the rest of the faithful are doing, the preacher and the choir have a reason to attend. In fact, the choir may be the preacher's only audience.
This suggests an entirely different meaning, but sounds the most logical to me.
Anyway, can someone provide more information? What's the meaning behind these?
"Preaching to the converted" is similar, but seems to implies knock-on-door-preaching (whereas "choir" suggests pulpit-preaching). I've also never heard anyone say it ... (archaeic?)
In some limited googling, I found:
On fine spring Sunday mornings, attendence at church has been known to be very sparse.
Whatever the rest of the faithful are doing, the preacher and the choir have a reason to attend. In fact, the choir may be the preacher's only audience.
This suggests an entirely different meaning, but sounds the most logical to me.
Anyway, can someone provide more information? What's the meaning behind these?
Welcome to English Forums!
I've never heard singing to the choir, but I'm sure it means the same thing as preaching to the choir. The saying assumes that the choir are in total agreement with what the preacher has to say. So the preacher really doesn't have to work very hard to make them believe what he has to say. They already believe it. So preaching to the choir means urging someone to believe what you say when they already do believe it. You can save the trouble of arguing strenuously for your point of view when you're "preaching to the choir". Your audience already agrees with you.
CJ
I've never heard singing to the choir, but I'm sure it means the same thing as preaching to the choir. The saying assumes that the choir are in total agreement with what the preacher has to say. So the preacher really doesn't have to work very hard to make them believe what he has to say. They already believe it. So preaching to the choir means urging someone to believe what you say when they already do believe it. You can save the trouble of arguing strenuously for your point of view when you're "preaching to the choir". Your audience already agrees with you.
CJ
Comments
(But then my singing is always out of tune.
Preaching to a group of people who don't need preaching to (the choir).
Don't read into it so much.
Oh the irony of this forum.
It's just one of those accidental drifts of language. I think they call it a malaphor.
It's a mashup of the two original phrases: singing to the choir and preaching to the converted, which both mean the same thing. At some point people just mixed up the starts and it kind of stuck around!