Unbelievable
Blogress The Anchoress notes that the self-image police have apparently struck the hymnal publishing industry.
Miss Kelly is distressed to find that some hymnals (including - sigh - the one in my church) features a change in the words to Amazing Grace.
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…†Has been changed to reflect both the freedom that comes with salvation - which is very nice - and also the decree from some publishing house on high that we never, ever sing a lyric that might suggest a negative. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved and set me free…â€
Aside from being just plain stupid, is there anything particularly amazing about grace that saves good people? I mean, that's the easy stuff. Grace that saves Mother Theresa is frankly not nearly as amazing as grace that saves Chuck Colson, which both pale in comparison to grace that saves Karla Faye Tucker.
Idiocy.
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That change has been in the Catholic hymnal since I was in Catechism (late 1970's-mid 1980's). Where has the Anchoress been all these years!
I had a professor who told me you could often judge a hymnal by how many (and which) verses were included for "The Church's One Foundation." Often the "feel good" lobby would leave out verse 4 or even 5.
However, this is just sickening. I wish there was more information available about why this change was made, because, frankly, I can't think of a defensable reason. No matter what the motive is, they are robbing God of the credit He deserves for sacraficing His Son to save pieces of garbage who spit in His face. They are demeaning the price paid by Christ as He suffered and died.
Paul, I agree with you on the song, but Jesus died for all of us, even those you term "garbage." In fact we are all sinners and I guess you could call all of us garbage who spit in His face when we sin.
My point was that we are all garbage. "While we were yet sinners..." We were all spitting in His face, and still, all to often, do. So removing "wretch" takes away from the "amazing" part of the grace. If we're wonderful people, there's nothing amazing about it. We would deserve it.
We are all wretches. "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." I doubt the "other" Paul would like the removal of the words either 🙂
I have two sons, and I wouldn't (even grudgingly) give either of them for any of you no matter how much I profess to like you.