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Left-Handed Hymns for Left-Handed Christians

by Travis Tamerius

Reprinted from Grace Notes, August 1996.

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I am a Christian. But there is something else you must know about me. I am a left-handed Christian. Being a left-handed Christian makes me a minority easily marginalized within this community of believers by right-handers wanting to assert their dominance. It accounts for my feelings of spiritual inadequacy, my difficulties in relating to a right-handed god, and my lack of discipline in reading the Bible. If you don't understand what I am talking about, realize that you can't understand - it's a left-hander's thing.

Just recently it has been suggested to me that my Christian life has been hampered by the fact that the Bible was written by people who were decidedly biased toward right-handers. Last week I read about a new hymnal composed for people like myself. It not only made me aware of my plight and malady, it promised to supply a musical salve to heal my brokenness.

A recent Washington Times article (July 21, 1996) reports on the United Church of Christ's New Century Hymnal issued in 1995. This "politically correct" version provides the congregation with language suitable for moderns so that now-dead lyricists such as William Cowper and Charles Wesley are touched up and toned down where they need be. With a sensitive pen in hand, the PC thought police cracked down on those hymn-writing perpetrators who fostered oppression at every note of their songs. Songs referring to the "right hand" of God were changed to say the "mighty hand" or "strong hand" of God. "Faith of our Fathers" became "Faith of the Martyrs." "Good Christian Men Rejoice" was changed to "Good Christian Friends Rejoice." Songs using "blindness" or "darkness" to symbolize spiritual ignorance were reworked so as not to offend the physically impaired.

Other more serious changes have been made to songs in order to soothe a conscience otherwise sensitive to sin. The goal seems to be that if you can rename the problem, then you don't have the problem. If you can re-image sinfulness, then you will not be a sinner. Isaac Watts' song, "At the Cross," originally asked the question, "Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?" Now it reads, "Would he devote that sacred head for such a one as I?" In "Just As I Am," the fourth verse of the original was changed to remove the reference to "poor, wretched, and blind".

Trying to prop up my self-esteem through language games only furthers my sickness. Massaging the ego of an already self-indulgent sinner through new words cannot get rid of the persistent cramp brought about by sinfulness. For the way the soul feels its real worth is to see the depth of God's love in Christ. Christ died for His enemies - you and me - who were wicked, unbelieving and undeserving. Help comes not in calling your cancer the hiccups but in knowing your disease and knowing the Doctor.

I think I will choose to sing the songs in the original tune and with the original words. Grace for sinners sings more sweetly from yesterday's hymns than it does from the modern re-writes.