Singing Hymns and Hers

By Richard N. Ostling

Is nothing sacred? After church leaders set about updating the United Methodist Hymnal in 1984, their most controversial acts were to excise one of the most popular hymns in the Protestant repertoire, Onward Christian Soldiers, and to strip verses from The Battle Hymn of the Republic. The literal-minded rationale: a pro-peace church should not use "militaristic imagery." Outraged parishioners would have none of it. The two hymns were restored -- banners, watch fires and all -- after the revisionists were inundated with 11,000 protest letters.

( Other well-worn lines have not fared so well in the new hymnal, the most thorough overhaul since 1878. The latest version, 3 million copies of which are being shipped to churches, carries only half the 547 hymns contained in the previous, 1966 edition. Of those, 162 survive with rejiggered words. The most significant alterations involve not war and peace but the battle of the sexes. With women destined to form half of Methodist clergy early in the 21st century, the 16-man, nine-woman hymnal committee desexed many a familiar line that was deemed to perpetuate male bias.

In most cases, the classic masculine metaphors for God and Jesus have survived (for example, The King of Love My Shepherd Is). But a few modern hymns were added to ascribe feminine attributes to the divine. Syntax permitting, male pronouns referring to the Deity were shunned. In O Worship the King, for example, "his power and his love" becomes "God's power and God's love."

As for texts using masculine terms for humanity, the editors took greater liberties. Not even works of Methodism's co-founder and greatest hymnodist, Charles Wesley, were spared. In his Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, "pleased as man with men to dwell" becomes "pleased with us in flesh to dwell." In Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, "sons of men and angels say Alleluia" is recycled as "earth and heaven in chorus say Alleluia." As for other hymns: God of Our Fathers is now God of the Ages; Good Christian Men, Rejoice metamorphoses into Good Christian Friends, Rejoice; and O Little Town of Bethlehem's angels promise peace to "all on earth," not "men on earth."

Revampers also bent over backward to avoid offending other constituencies. In Have Thine Own Way, Lord, sinners no longer ask Jesus to wash them "whiter than snow," because of objections from blacks. In Wesley's O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing, editors originally dropped a verse proclaiming the spiritual uplifting of the "dumb" and the "lame," lest the handicapped take umbrage. They later restored the words, but suggest in a footnote that the stanza may be omitted.

The Rev. Carlton Young, chief editor of the 1966 and 1989 hymnals, confesses that the previous edition was too "elitist." Opting for populism this time, the editors downplayed King James verbiage and included songs that highbrows scorn but the people love (for instance, the treacly In the Garden). The wide- ranging collection features such songs as the civil rights anthem We Shall + Overcome, Duke Ellington's Come Sunday and gospel singer Bill Gaither's He Touched Me.

Feminist clout also shows up in the book's liturgical section. In the new wedding ritual, for example, the father no longer gives away the bride. Another change in worship concerns the Lord's Supper. The abstemious Methodists specified in their 1966 hymnal that only "the pure unfermented juice of the grape shall be used." Teetotalers attending last year's Methodist conference failed to get that clause inscribed into church law, and the new hymnal omits the rule. So congregations may use wine if they wish, but most Methodists still opt for grape juice. Score one for tradition.