I've heard tell of people leaving congregations because the hymnal was changed.
Heh. That would be me, but not necessarily for the reasons you'd think.
I grew up in a relatively mainstream Protestant environment (United Church of Christ, specifically the Congregationalist side), but fell out of active participation some years back -- and one of the major reasons was annoyance with the forces that were "updating" hymnals and hymn lyrics to politically-correctify the gender pronouns and references to unfashionable political titles ("Lord", "King", etc.).
I objected on multiple grounds. I think it's disrespectful to the original lyricists. I think it disconnects the hymns from the historical context and tradition in which they were written. I think it's intellectually lazy, if not outright dishonest, to tinker with the lyrics of old hymns instead of writing wholly new lyrics (especially when you take away all the copies of the old hymnals, so that you can't go look up the prior versions of the hymn and see how the lyrics have evolved). And worst of all? Way too many of the PC adaptations are badly written; they don't scan well, and the substituted constructions don't fit well into the text. [As far as I know, no one has yet tried to render Sydney Carter's lyric as "Leader of the Dance". But it wouldn't surprise me....]
If I ever happen to run across a mainline Protestant congregation that has actively resisted the stupid-ization of classic hymns, I will probably be very tempted to sign on. But I'm not holding out a lot of hope.
no subject
Heh. That would be me, but not necessarily for the reasons you'd think.
I grew up in a relatively mainstream Protestant environment (United Church of Christ, specifically the Congregationalist side), but fell out of active participation some years back -- and one of the major reasons was annoyance with the forces that were "updating" hymnals and hymn lyrics to politically-correctify the gender pronouns and references to unfashionable political titles ("Lord", "King", etc.).
I objected on multiple grounds. I think it's disrespectful to the original lyricists. I think it disconnects the hymns from the historical context and tradition in which they were written. I think it's intellectually lazy, if not outright dishonest, to tinker with the lyrics of old hymns instead of writing wholly new lyrics (especially when you take away all the copies of the old hymnals, so that you can't go look up the prior versions of the hymn and see how the lyrics have evolved). And worst of all? Way too many of the PC adaptations are badly written; they don't scan well, and the substituted constructions don't fit well into the text. [As far as I know, no one has yet tried to render Sydney Carter's lyric as "Leader of the Dance". But it wouldn't surprise me....]
If I ever happen to run across a mainline Protestant congregation that has actively resisted the stupid-ization of classic hymns, I will probably be very tempted to sign on. But I'm not holding out a lot of hope.