Hymn writers vs Song writers

    My father was a Lutheran school teacher for 32 years.   He also was a church organist, choir director (children and adult), and Sunday School superintendent.   I had him as a teacher for 3rd and 4th grade and remember him combining his love of music with other areas of education.  I remember well him combining music and history together by having us students take a hymn writer and research their life and music to present a research paper to the class.  In doing so, he showed us the incredible lives these men and women lived that made them the hymn writers they were.

   My favorite was John Newton.  Born in 1725, he could be described as one of the foulest humans to have set foot upon the earth.  He became a captain of a slave ship carrying black slaves from Africa to the Caribbean.  He often had sex with the female slaves on these voyages and was known for his cruelty.   When he was in the navy he tried to leave and was stripped to the waste and lashed with a whip in view of 350 men.  During a voyage his ship nearly sank and promised to God to change his ways if he was spared.  Newton was spared and he did change his ways.  Even while still in the slave trade, John Newton held services on board his ship, but after several years decided that this was not acceptable and left the slave trade altogether.  He became a minister and an advocate against the slave trade with Wilbur Wilberforce.  His most famous hymn is of course, "Amazing Grace" which has been the subject of countless books, movies and documentaries.   John Newton later said, "My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things; That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour".   Only by his life can we truly see the grace of God.  Like a diamond put on black velvet, so Christ's grace is only seen more brightly by our sins darkness. 
   
   Other famous hymn writers of note are:

• Martin Luther: reformer and hymn writer wrote "A mighty fortress is our God".  Luther was declared a heretic by the Pope and was a marked man.  He had to move from town to town in disguise to keep from being killed.  
• Issac Watts : a non-conformist (did not attend the Church of England) was unable to attend Oxford because of his beliefs.  His father was imprisoned for his beliefs as well. He wrote songs like "Joy to the World", and "When I survey the Wondrous Cross" and many more
• Paul Gerhardt : wrote "O Sacred head now wounded", suffered horribly in Germany during the "30-years War".  Because he refused to sign an edict of Elector Friedrich  Wilhelm I, which limited free speech regarding religion, he was deposed from  office in 1666 and wasn’t even allowed to conduct private worship in his own  home
• William Cowper : wrote "There is a fountain filled with blood".  He suffered depression and was even committed to a mental hospital.  Later he worked with John Newton to write hymns
• Anne Steele: wrote "Father: What'er of earthly bliss".  She was paralyzed due to a horse accident.  Later she lost her fiance just hours before their wedding when he died while bathing in a river.
• James Montgomery: wrote "Angels from the realms of glory" was imprisoned twice for his views on abolishing slavery.  
• Horatio Spafford: wrote "It is well with my soul". He knew suffering. Lost everything he owned in the Chicago fire.  Later, for health reasons moved his family to England but lost his 4 daughters when their ocean-liner crashed into another ship. It was later that he penned this famous him.

Now compare these men and women to the likes today and they pale in comparison.  For example, one such new artist by the name of Rebecca St. James, became Christian song writer at the age of 12 (I am sure she learned a lot about the hardships and difficulties of living in her short 12 years).  Sandi Patty who was the darling of the Christian Music industry and sang at President Bush 41's inauguration, later filed for divorce from her husband after it was revealed she was having an on-going affair with a member of her band.  Amy Grant married Gary Chapman in 1982 and later divorced him in 1999 and in 2000 married Vince Gill who had been previously married to Janis Oliver.

But its not just their lives that gives you pause, its also their songs:

• "Me and God" by Josh Turner.  All I can say here is, "me first"

• "Holes in the floor of Heaven" by Steve Wariner:  better get a termite inspector up there ASAP

• "When I get where I am going" by Brad Paisely:  
• When I get where I'm going,
  On the far side of the sky,
  The first thing I'm gonna do
  Is spread my wing and fly.
  I'm gonna land beside a lion,
  And run my fingers through his mane.
  Or I might find out what its like,
  To ride a drop of rain

             All I can say here is "What drivel!"

• "Jesus Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood:  This is by the same artist who in another song condones breaking headlights, keying the cars paint and ripping leather seats in the song, "Before he cheats".  (I think she won a Grammy for that one too)

• "Angels Among Us" by Alabama:  sorry, but knowing the our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ promises to "be with you always" is enough for me.  Many today opt for "angels" because they are not seen as "judgmental" as God is.

• "The Little Girl" by John Michael Montgomery: this song barely can be called a Christian song. Talks of a girl abused by her father and mother and taken by social workers to a new family.  Only talks of Jesus in that she held onto a picture of him when she hid from her parents. 

Kind of sickens you doesn't it?

Writing Hymns vs. Writing Songs
   The main problem with songs used in churches today is that they were never written to be used in churches.  Unlike the hymn-writers of old, who wrote their hymns specifically for the purpose of being used in a church and sung by old and young alike, good singer and bad singer; the songs written today are meant to be sung by professional singers on the radio or in concert.  While a professional singer can take a hymn and sing it as a solo, the opposite is hardly ever true.  Too often, congregations struggle to keep up or hit the notes required by the song and the "praise band" leading the church ends up being a "concert band" instead (and I sometimes wonder if they want it that way).
 
Personal Story
   I personally have come full circle in my life in regards to Christian Music.  When I was in high school I loved the Christian music scene.  I had "The Imperials", "Don Fransisco", "Stryper", "Amy Grant", "Rez Band" and many others.  I went to their concerts, bought their tapes, and listened to them constantly on the radio.   I used to argue with my Dad saying "Why can't we sing these songs in church?"  and felt that other churches were more "with it".  But these songs infected me with a disease that almost killed me.  That disease was Emotional Spiritualism.  I "felt" I was saved by what I "felt" in my "heart".  I would sin and then "cry" to God for forgiveness.  I developed an unhealthy relationship to God in that I thought God forgave me because "I was sorry" and not because he was a gracious God.  I often used these songs and records to heighten my awareness of being "forgiven".   Like  a drug dealer it always took more of the drug the next time, until finally in college there was no more.

   It has taken a long time for God to dry me out.  When I began to attend church again after college I thought I would just go back to my old ways.  But God had a better plan.  He stripped me of all that.  It didn't work anymore.  It was fruitless. I needed to rely on God and what he has already done for me in Jesus Christ and nothing more.  Thanks be to God he didn't let me continue in my destructive ways.