Skip to main content

Hated Hymns

A colleague in Grand Rapids, Michigan sends out a weekly email to all the ministers in her jurisdiction, and one of my friends there is kind enough to forward it too me every Monday.
It is one of the regular emails I really look forward to.
This week was no exception as she confessed that her least favorite (sic) hymn is "How Great Thou art." In response I sent her this YouTube link to Eddi Reader's fabulous rendition of this old standard (I should warn you that she employs some weird hand movements but it is beautiful all the same).



Anyway... her confession set me off thinking about my least favourite hymns... after all, how could I possibly restrict myself to just one, given that I could rant at length on any number of them...
To help me restrict my list I first decided on some broad categories of the hymns and worship songs that cause me to inwardly (and sometimes audibly) groan:
1) The gore-fest "washed in the blood" stuff of the 19th and early 20th century revivalists, that really needs to be translated for a modern non-church goer lest they think they have wandered into some kind of sadistic sect.
2) Most hymns/praise songs written in the 1960s and 70s - trite & theologically illiterate
3) The macho-marching songs of the 1980s... too triumphalist for my tastes, so only to be used sparingly.
4) The cloyingly personal "Jesus is my heavenly boyfriend" stuff that has characterised so much that has emerged in the 1990s and 2000s, especially from Hillsong etc. Again, OK in small doses, but any more than that likely to cause a spiritual diabetic hypo!
That said (and if those opinionated sweeping generalisations don't generate some comments I don't know what will), I will leave my list of specifically hated hymns until tomorrow. Bet you cannot wait...
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
As a child I was particularly disturbed by "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins."
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 6:05:00 AM
Virtual Methodist said…
Exactly what I am talking about... It's like a scene from CSI...
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 7:52:00 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-
2 comments
Read more