Saturday, June 04, 2005
Words Matter
The Blue Fish Project posts on church music and how the lyrics matter.
The sad truth is that some of our songs, even some of our favourites, are plain bad and wrong theology. I've long had a bug-bear about "Lord, let your glory fall". I was encouraged to see Ian Stackhouse agree with me that this song demonstrates a "peculiarly pre-Christian hermenutic" (if you know what that means!). Likewise, we don't need another pentecost (though I agree with the sentiment). And I honestly don't think its particularly helpful to view the cross as the place where Christ "...took the fall, and thought of me, above all." Actually, I think Christ's chief concern was the glory of God (though the cross does concern us too).I have mentioned before that I am no fan of a lot of musical trends in church these days. Traditional hymns are so rich. I understand that musical tastes change, but I have often wondered why the old hymns cannot be set to new tunes and beats? I know of a couple or old hymns where that has happened and it sure does make my soul a lot happier, and I think give the singer more to chew on.
