Hoods in My Hymnal<\/a>.” In it, the author points out that James D. Vaughan, founding father of the Southern gospel genre of hymnody (though not the author of “Love Lifted Me”, despite what the article implies) was a leading figure in the local Ku Klux Klan. James Rowe (who was the author of “Love Lifted Me”) wrote racist lyrics for temperance-movement songs.<\/p>\nThis is not terribly surprising. We are talking about Southern gospel, after all, a worship-music movement that flourished in the states of the former Confederacy a hundred years ago. By modern standards, both the ones who wrote those hymns and the ones who originally sang them were dyed-in-the-wool racists. The author implies that we need to “have a conversation” about whether those hymns should remain in the repertoire, the kind of conversation that ends with things getting canceled.<\/p>\n
Really, though, the issue that the article raises is much larger than racism. How do we handle hymns that were written by people with significant spiritual problems? From the perspective of New Testament Christianity, the most famous hymnists of all time come with baggage that is as bad or even worse.<\/p>\n
Isaac Watts, the author of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” and many other great hymns, was a hyper-Calvinist minister. Charles Wesley, who wrote “Love Divine”, was the brother and partner of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. Among modern writers, Keith and Kristyn Getty, the authors of “In Christ Alone”, are staunch and vocal Calvinists. I could say much the same about the authors of literally hundreds of the hymns in our repertoire.<\/p>\n
Scripturally speaking, is the false teacher to be preferred to the racist?<\/p>\n
One response is to say, “We should not sing such things.” Unless we approve of your life, we aren’t going to sing your hymn. However, if we follow through on such a conviction, our repertoire shrinks by at least 95 percent. Everything from “Abide with Me” to “As the Deer” – gone. Off to the bonfire, it all goes!<\/p>\n
I think most brethren would consider such a solution a trifle. . . extreme. The alternative, which is what all of us do in practice, is to separate the hymn from the hymnist. I don’t have to agree with everything Isaac Watts stood for to sing “When I Survey.” I only have to agree with “When I Survey”. Nor, indeed, am I endorsing anything about Isaac Watts other than the words that I am singing.<\/p>\n
So too, I think, with Southern gospel hymns written by authors with murky pasts. Yes, they believed and in some cases wrote some awful things. However, if our minds are on the human author when we sing a hymn, our minds are in the wrong place.<\/p>\n
Those hymns are not memorials to Confederate generals or leaders of the KKK. They are memorials to God. If we use them for their intended purpose, we are glorifying Him. To that, what Scriptural objection can be raised?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew W. Bassford The other day, Steve Wolfgang sent me a link to this article, “Hoods in My Hymnal.” In it, the author points out that James D. Vaughan, founding father of the Southern gospel genre of hymnody (though not the author of “Love Lifted Me”, despite what the article implies) was a leading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[846,520,521],"class_list":["post-62473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-hymn-study","tag-music","tag-songs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34759,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/review-of-songs-for-worship-and-praise\/","url_meta":{"origin":62473,"position":0},"title":"Review of Songs for Worship and Praise","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker The newest general hymnbook published for use among churches of Christ is\u00a0Songs for Worship and Praise, edited by Robert J. Taylor Jr., and published in 2010 by Taylor Publications of Montgomery, TX.\u00a0 Brother Taylor has been active in church music for many years.\u00a0 I believe that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/SongsForWorshipAndPraise-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35011,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-history-of-our-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":62473,"position":1},"title":"A History of Our Hymnbooks","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker originally published in Faith and Facts, October 1999 Back in the very late 1700s and early 1800s, the conditions in this new nation appeared just right for a number of different men from different denominational backgrounds in different parts of the country to begin calling for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60633,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-most-churches-of-christ-use-shaped-note-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":62473,"position":2},"title":"Why Do Most Churches of Christ Use Shaped Note Hymnbooks?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Question: I'm still doing some research as time permits regarding hymnbooks and how certain practices arose among our brethren. I know the history of shape notes well, but not how the system came to be used (and how widely it still is) among our brethren. A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28218,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-of-songs-of-faith-and-praise\/","url_meta":{"origin":62473,"position":3},"title":"What do you think of Songs of Faith and Praise?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am writing to you because I came across a blog you had on your website concerning your review of the Songs for Worship and Praise\u00a0hymnal. \u00a0I have owned the hymnal for a\u00a0couple\u00a0of months and also own\u00a0Songs of Faith and Praise\u00a0and\u00a0Praise for the Lord. \u00a0I am trying to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59338,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-review-of-the-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":62473,"position":4},"title":"A Review of the Hymnbooks","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Originally published in Torch, October 1988 Please understand that my review is of necessity going to be biased by my own view of what constitutes a good hymn selection. With that in mind, I shall begin by saying that I grew up using the old \"brown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20632,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/review-of-sacred-songs-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":62473,"position":5},"title":"Review of Sacred Songs of the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker The first new hymnbook among churches of Christ for the 21st century (notwithstanding the late Alton H. Howard's\u00a0Songs of the Church 21st Century Edition\u00a0which actually came out in 1990) is now available.\u00a0It is\u00a0Sacred Songs of the Church, edited by William D. Jeffcoat, copyrighted in 2007 by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/SacredSongsOfTheChurch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}