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Department of Inexplicable Omissions

By Uncle Pavian

We learned recently that our denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, is issuing its new hymnal. This is a major event in Baptist circles, since the decision to reissue a hymnal is fraught with theological and cultural implications.
The Southern Baptists have tried to avoid some of the anomalies that have turned up in other denominations' revisions to their hymnals, as this notice from the Baptist Press explains:

Each song's suitability is based on these questions:
-- Does the hymn speak biblically of God?
-- Is it God-honoring?
-- Does the hymn present a biblical view of man?
-- Does the song help us to cover the depth and breadth of our theology?
-- Does the hymn call us to true discipleship, service, repentance, witness, missions and devotion?
-- Does the hymn speak biblically of salvation?
-- Does it engage the whole person - allowing a person to express his deepest feelings?
-- Does the hymn emphasize that Christ is the Christian's Lord, Master and King? (the idea of total submission)
-- Does the hymn present an Americanized/Westernized gospel? (civil religion)
-- Is there a balance with corporate and individual response in worship? (immanence and transcendence)
-- Does the hymn speak biblically about the church, the body of Christ?

More by way of explanation lives here.
That part about "an Americanized/Westernized gospel" sounds like it's there to avoid things like "Daw-Kee, Aim Daw-Tsi-Taw" ("Great Spirit, Now I Pray"), a Kiowa prayer sung to a Native American melody and found at No. 330 in the United Methodist Hymnal. We think this defeats the purpose of Colossians 3:11. This is a Bad Idea, but we're not going to make an issue of it. We're just happy that they're not going with "Belief Systems of Our Adult Caregivers" or "Siblings, We Have Come To Gather" (hymns which we haven't actually been able to find, but which we're pretty sure are out there).
It's probably just as well that nobody asked for our opinion on this.
We would have pressed for inclusion of this item, which, strictly speaking is not an actual hymn, addresses some of the issues of multiculturalism, ecumenism and civil religion (see for example, Luke 11:21):

A slightly different version of the lyrics can be found here. More information about the song's origins lives here, on a page at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History .

Full post as published by West Neanderthal Drive on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).