And Singing Gospel in the 1980s : SANDI PATTI The Voice of Gospel <i> by Don Cusic (Dolphin/Doubleday</i> : <i> $8.95</i> ; <i> 240 pp.)</i>

Gospel singer Sandi Patti is a special American phenomenon: a musical superstar with the manner and physique of a self-described housewife, sweet and middle-class and a little concerned about her weight. That she possesses an operatic soprano voice and sings songs of divine worship suitable for church or home are, of course, the main trappings of her appeal, but it’s the utter unlikeliness of such an average choir member type rising to the ranks of true celebrity--singing for Johnny Carson, the Reagans and the Statue of Liberty dedication; earning People magazine profiles--that makes her a potentially intriguing figure.

The massive church audience needs stars it can call its own. These used to come almost exclusively from the preaching ranks, but seeing what letdowns those have been lately, it seems doubly prudent of the evangelical world to have thought ahead earlier this decade and started raising some non-ministerial talents to the heights of stardom--chiefly, the flashier (but still girl-next-door-ish) Amy Grant and the more conservative, matronly Patti.

Don Cusic writes, “Philosopher Thomas Huxley once summed up Christianity as ‘being nice’. . . . The truth remains that it seems to be an inherent trait of the Christian culture.” Indeed, Patti appears here to be a “nice” person, if her apparent lack of complexities makes her thin book fodder. And this is a “nice” unauthorized biography, long on historical details and context and “inspirational” quotes, short on sin or any possible inner spiritual struggles.

Cusic does coyly get a few digs in at the sillier trappings of the American evangelical subculture, and how Patti’s music panders to it. He provides an amusing glossary of the “Christianese” language: “Christians do not just talk, they ‘share,’ do not just socialize, they ‘fellowship,’ do not have drive and ambition, they have a ‘vision’ . . . do not have professional or personal urges but a ‘calling’ . . . and are not just pleased or satisfied, they are ‘blessed.’ ” He astutely points out how many of Patti’s pleasant musical pep talks have “the ‘God is Santa Claus’ type of theology so prevalent in contemporary Christian music.”

After all these skeptical asides, though, Cusic is a cheerleader through and through, and his book comes back around to endorsing the inspirational quality of the singer’s (and, by implication, her fans’ and the book’s readers’) soaring niceness . Just why church folks might crave such an average-appearing star--when more secular types prefer idealized idols--doesn’t seem to interest the author, though he does speculate that “there is a sex appeal here, especially among men who like a maternal figure. . . .”

Considering that this otherwise exhaustively researched tome was done without the cooperation of Patti or her family-run organization, Cusic comes up with some good scoops. In the first two pages, no less, he enters the singer’s thoughts as she is awakened by her baby one night at exactly 1:22 a.m.; he then quotes the Almighty entering those thoughts. “ ‘You are My child,’ He seems to say. ‘Go and sing. It is My will.’ ” Quoting God talking to Sandi Patti without having interviewed either one of them? Introduce this man to Bob Woodward!