Moving toward “The Generic Harp”

Did the Sacred Harp Publishing Company and their 2025 Revision Committee move The Sacred Harp 2025 Revision towards words with less explicitly Christian meaning? I believe so (and, whether carelessly or deliberately is a question to consider).[i] I analyzed the texts/words of the new songs added to The Sacred Harp 2025 (as well as the old songs removed from The Sacred Harp 1991) and divided the texts of these songs into 3 categories: (1) texts that might be generally accepted in principle as true by singers with any religion or no religion; (2) texts that might be generally accepted in principle as true by singers who believe in some idea of “God” or a higher power, though not necessarily the Christian God; (3) texts that could not be generally or readily accepted in principle as true by those who are not Christians. Here are the specific songs categorized and the results/conclusions from that. (You should hopefully be able to select the images and enlarge them for reading.)

Old songs that were added to The Sacred Harp 2025 (32).

32 songs from older/other sources were added to the 2025 Edition of The Sacred Harp.

• 3 with “Category 1” lyrics; this is 9% of the old songs added.
• 14 with “Category 2” lyrics; this is 44% of the old songs added.
• 15 with “Category 3” lyrics; this is 46% of the old songs added.

53% of the older songs that were added have somewhat generic texts, that could be more acceptable to non-Christians.[ii]

New songs that were added to The Sacred Harp 2025 (81).

81 songs by 49 living composers were added to the 2025 Edition of The Sacred Harp.

• 12 with “Category 1” lyrics; 15% of the new songs added.
• 38 with “Category 2” lyrics; 47% of the new songs added.
• 31 with “Category 3” lyrics: 38% of the new songs added.

62% of the new songs have somewhat generic texts, that could be more acceptable to non-Christians.

Considered together, 59% of the total songs added to the 2025 Edition have somewhat generic texts, that could be more acceptable to non-Christians.

Songs that were removed from The Sacred Harp 1991 (77).

77 songs that were in the 1991 Edition of The Sacred Harp were removed in order to make way for 113 songs added to the 2025 Edition of The Sacred Harp.

• 9 removed songs with “Category 1” lyrics; this is 9% of the songs removed.
• 15 removed songs with “Category 2” lyrics; this is 19% of the songs removed.
• 53 removed songs with “Category 3” lyrics; this is 69% of the songs removed.

These actions show favoritism toward removing explicitly Christian words over more generic ones.

Conclusion.

Of 113 newly added songs in 2025, 15 have “Category 1” lyrics and 52 have “Category 2” lyrics (a total of 67). This is 59 % of the songs added, exhibiting a tendency toward favoring songs that can be considered less explicit in the Christian message they contain.[iii] When comparing added songs to removed songs, the choices exhibit removing more songs with more explicitly Christian texts, while adding more songs with more generic texts. 59% of the newly-added songs have somewhat generic texts. 69% of the removed songs have somewhat more explicit texts.

This analysis is enough to raise serious questions and heighten further concerns about the theological and cultural “drift” of The Sacred Harp, its songs, and its message. These concerns should not be dismissed with a hand wave, but considered and addressed by a community whose tradition is based in and fed by Christianity. Overall, the Sacred Harp Publishing Company failed its trust.

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[i] For example, was the committee (or some members of it) complicit in favoring song texts that would be less-offensive to non-Christian and anti-Christian singers? (If you do not believe there are anti-Christian singers, see footnote 3.) Was the committee careless in not articulating a committment to explictly Christian texts for an explicitly Christian songbook? How will these questions be answered?

[ii] As a plurality, the total old songs added slightly favor Category 3, but the total of Categories 1 and 2 favor generic readings. That fits well in the overall situation of past versus present, seeing that the older composers would have been less likely to specifically desire generic texts in the same way or for the same reason that modern non-Christian composers would choose them.

[iii] This is not to say they are not Christian hymns, but that the texts appear to have been picked in order to favor hymns or stanzas of hymns that are not as explicit in directly speaking of Jesus Christ, his atoning blood, his bodily resurrection, salvation through Christ alone, the exclusivity of the gospel, and so on. In past times, Christian singers would just understand all the songs from within their Christian worldview. The current participation of many non-Christians who like the music but not the theology turns that once-common understanding on its head. Shockingly (in his audacity), one composer who has a song in the 2025 Edition wrote on Bluesky that “Christianity isn’t morally acceptable.” (Perhaps it is not that audacious, since he hides cowardly behind a pseudonym.)

Questions for the Revision Committee

The following thoughts and questions about the latest Sacred Harp Publishing Company songbook revision were addressed to two members of the 2025 Sacred Harp Revision Committee. First, after the October 2025 Board meeting, the committee’s music editor offered to answer questions about the revision committee music selection and editing process. However, after receiving the specific questions, he declined to answer but instead directed me to listen to remarks made at the symposium in Atlanta in September 2025 – none of which videos that are available directly address my questions. Some of the videos (even if they do answer the questions) are still not even available online over nine months after the fact. Failing in that effort, I next addressed the questions to the revision committee chair. His reply offered no answers. After reading the reply four times, I came away with the feeling that – written between every line was the mantra “we could care less about the singers who have concerns about the new book.”

So, here are the questions asked, presented for public consumption. I have changed the formatting somewhat in order to make it easier viewing for the reader. If there was nothing done unethically in or wrong during the process, why are the questions so hard to answer?

Submissions. The committee reported to the Sacred Harp community that 1155 song were submitted for consideration. 

• How many of the 1155 were new compositions and how many were previously published/old songs?
• Are there any statistics on how many songs were submitted per composer – that is, not how many did each individual submit, but perhaps an upper number (the largest amount submitted by a composer), a lower number (presumably one), and an average?
• Of these 1155 songs submitted, how did the committee arrive at the 113 chosen?
• Did the committee select songs based on what the song itself was, or what they envisioned it could be (considering the kind of editing that was done to some of them)?

Blind selection process. The Sacred Harp community and composers were assured that only the committee chairman knew the names of the songs and their composers. I have no doubt that the chair sincerely envisioned it that way. But perhaps such an ideal was a pipe dream from the start, considering the digital age in which we live. There were so many variables -- such as songs being printed in The Trumpet, submitted to FaSoLa Songwriters, the New Harmony Facebook group, YouTube, SoundCloud, composiums, other songbooks, on various websites, and such like. With all this, managing to keep the process “blind” not only to the committee but even to others singing at trial singings must have been an impossible challenge. Songs written by the committee members were obviously known to themselves.

• I have found 75 tunes that are publicly available and that could possibly have been known by the revision committee through various means (twenty-five are on Jesse’s site, SacredHarpTunes.com, so obviously  he knew those). 
• Considering the disconnect between what we were told and what was the situation, what assurances do we have against the appearance of conflict-of-interest, and that all composers were treated equally and respectfully?

Editing process. One of the more shocking revelations to some of us outsiders is the heavy editing of the songs that were selected for the new edition. I know you are aware of the situation with Linda Sides’s song, and you may be aware that she has demonstrated how her song was edited without her collaboration, then sent to her with a week’s notice to sign off on for inclusion in the book. This is when I first began to take close notice of the process. Other credible reports have surfaced of songs receiving the same or similar treatment, and of possibly one other composer refusing to sign off on the edited product. 

• Who decided that songs should be edited? (Not talking about fixing errant notes and typos, but changing the songs themselves.)
• Who decided which songs would be edited? Who did the editing? Did the entire committee approve the process both before and after editing?
• Of these 1155 songs submitted, were there not more songs that were deemed good enough substantially “as is” without having to edit possibly 50% (per Mike Hinton) or more of the songs to make them worthy to include in the book?
• What was the time frame of editing the songs?
• Were all composers given only one week to accept the edits proposed for their songs (in a process that overall covered nearly seven years)?
• Or did some receive preferential treatment? (For example, on a recent podcast, one composer said that after he submitted his songs, the revision committee reached out to him to say one of them had potential. So, he worked on it, and eventually his song made the cut.)
• I also noticed there are three songs in the 2025 edition whose composition dates are after the time for submitting songs was over.

Removal of songs. 

• What method or methods were used for removing songs that were not among the bottom 77 songs?
• For example:
• The song FEDERAL STREET ranked 187th overall, out of 554 songs. It was sung more than 367 other songs over the course of 30 years. It was removed.  
• The song CHARLTON ranked 552nd overall, out of 554 songs, over the course of 30 years. That is, this song was down near the very bottom among the least used songs. It was not removed.
• The old B. F. White arrangement SOFT MUSIC (ranked 293) was removed, while the weird THE BRIDE’S FAREWELL (ranked 545) was kept.
• How do you explain these kinds of choices?

I realize that the revision committee took on an enormous task beyond the scope of previous revisions (particularly in the number of songs submitted), and can appreciate that fact. However, I think that fact actually calls for all the more transparency, not less.

Al Mohler on Sacred Harp

On “The Briefing” podcast, June 26, 2026, Al Mohler (president of Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky) answers a question sent in by a listener: “[Would] Love to hear your thoughts about the leftist takeover of the sacred harp singing community.”

Here is an excerpt from the answer. Go to the Part V at the link to the podcast to hear Mohler’s answer in its entirety.

“My thoughts are, here’s the way the world works. The sinful world will hijack anything and so what I think you have here is another example of something good and wonderful and beautiful and true being hijacked by a culture committed basically to subverting those very things while using the music and even taking the tunes. And what surprised me coming from some of these folks is they say they’re even taking the words because they don’t mind singing the words because they are just words. Those original sacred harp communities who sing those words never saw them as mere words.”

https://albertmohler.com/2026/06/26/briefing-6-26-26

Lowest common denominator theology

“‘Lowest common denominator theology’ is a rejection of the perspicuity of scripture.  It undermines the certainty and conviction of God’s Word. Someone can always excuse his behavior and even his faithlessness, because he couldn’t know. Even if he does know, he could embrace the label of ‘non-essential,’ and excuse his behavior or provide deniability to his laxity. This is now the norm.  Some even blame this on the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit didn’t provide the necessary conviction or feeling to believe or stand strongly enough.”

Kent Brandenburg

Preach the word

2 Timothy 4:2 preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

1. Preach the word, the holy word,
Lade with meat the heav’nly board,
Stewards of the store of God,
Sound the saving truth abroad.
You are sent the world to draw
To the Saviour and His law,
Praying them to leave sin’s road
And be reconciled to God.

2. Preach the word, O ministry,
Let the earth salvation see.
Tell it, woman, child, and man
Where you may and where you can,
Let no sluggish spirit bind,
Let not earth absorb your mind,
Keep salvation on your tongue,
Roll the Saviour’s praise along.

3. Preach the word, ’twill faith produce,
Turn the struggling captive loose,
Heal his pain and give him sight,
Turn his darkness into light,
Cheer his soul on heaven’s way,
Keep him watchful day by day,
Cause him happy here to be,
Save him for eternity.

Charles Price Jones, preacher and songwriter, wrote this hymn about “preaching the word.” He also wrote the tune, which has been designated by the title Gaines. Charles P. Jones was born December 9, 1865, at Texas Valley near Rome, Floyd County, Georgia, the son of Mary Jones.[i] He grew up in Kingston, in Bartow County to the east of Floyd County. His family attended Shiloh Baptist Church at Kingston. After the death of his mother, Jones wandered about to live and work in various places. He was saved in 1884 at Locust Grove Baptist Church, while living in Cat Island, Arkansas. He soon surrendered to the call of the ministry and began preaching. Jones started attending Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock in 1888, and was ordained that same year by the Mount Zion Baptist Church (also in Little Rock). He graduated in 1891, and married Fannie A. Brown in 1892 in Pulaski County, Arkansas. They had one child, a daughter, who died in 1897. Fannie was still living in Jackson, Mississippi when 1910 census was taken. She died, possibly in Jackson, in 1916.[ii] While living and pastoring in Arkansas, Jones served as the corresponding secretary of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

In or around 1894, Jones accepted a holiness view of a second work of grace, while pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama. When he began teaching this view in the church he pastored in Jackson, Mississippi in 1896 – the Mount Helm Baptist Church – some members of his congregation as well as other Baptist churches in the area opposed the new-fangled teaching. He eventually came to reject the teaching of eternal security as well.[iii] The congregation removed Jones as pastor, and he and his followers eventually built the Christ Temple campus in Jackson.[iv] In 1917, Jones organized Christ Temple Church in Los Angeles. In early 1918, C. P. Jones married Pearl Eleanor Reed.[v] They had three sons, Charles Price Jones Jr., Vance Reed Jones and Samuel Sherman Jones. Charles Price Jones died January 19, 1949 in Los Angeles. He and Pearl are buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California.

C. P. Jones is the author of over 1000 songs, many of which can be found in His Fullness Songs, published by the National Publishing Board of the Church of Christ (Holiness). Some of his better-known hymns include “Hark, ’tis the voice of love I hear,” “Hear the blessed Saviour calling the oppressed” (Come Unto Me), “Jesus Only is my motto.” The majority of Jones’s song were written in a ten-year period, between 1895 and 1905. Jones and Truth Publishing Company in Jackson, Mississippi published Jesus Only, Songs and Hymns in 1901.

Note: I found some discrepancies in various records about Charles Price Jones, and have tried to sort it out to the best of my ability. An early biography of Jones appears in The History of Negro Baptists in Mississippi (1898, pp. 613-615). A later reflection on his life can be found in History of the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. 1895-1965.

The History of Negro Baptists in Mississippi, 1898, p. 614

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[i] Various sources list Charles’s father as Edmond Jones or William Jones. It is uncertain who was his father or what happened to him. His mother later married Barry Latimer, who became his stepfather.

[ii] Wikipedia says she died in Little Rock, Arkansas, but does not give a source for this information. History of the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. 1895-1965, (p. 311) says she died in Jackson, Mississippi. Both History of the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A. 1895-1965 and Hymnology Archive give the name of their daughter as Ola Mae, saying she was born in 1893 and died of severe burns in 1897.
[iii] Jones’s modification of views eventually led to the official organization of the “Church of Christ (Holiness)” denomination in 1920. Several sources (e.g. Handbook of Denominations) give the origin of the church as 1894. This is anachronistic at best, possibly trying to identify when Jones first adopted his new views. He was still pastor of a Baptist Church in 1896, and the first “holiness convention” connected with Jones was held in Jackson, Mississippi in 1897. Jackson, Mississippi is still the headquarters of the denomination.
[iv] “Church of Christ (Holiness) Founded in Jackson,” The Clarion-Ledger, Sunday, March 4, 1979, p. 1G. The removal of Jones from Mount Helm was a battle that took place over several years. The new denomination eventually rejected Baptist congregationalism and adopted an episcopal model of church government.
[v] Probably in January 1918. The California Eagle (Saturday, January 12, 1918, p. 6) describes C. P. Jones as lately married and “spending his honeymoon in Fresno.”

In other words, adamant to zeitgeber

• adamant, adjective. Utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals, urgings, etc. (noun) any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance.
• cataract,  noun. A place in a river where the water falls to a lower level.
• chyron, noun. A digital text-based caption superimposed over usually the lower part of a video image (as during a news broadcast). Named after the Chyron Corporation, manufacturer of a character-generating device that created such captions.
• desultory, adjective. Leaping or skipping about; jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another.
• divagate, verb. To wander or drift about; ramble; digress; stray.
• dysania, noun. An extreme difficulty rising from bed or an inability to leave the bed.
• eidolon, noun. A likeness; phantom; apparition; a shade or specter; a confusing reflection or reflected image.
• exercise, verb. Do repeatedly, especially to improve.
• exorcise, verb. Free from evil spirits; cast out demons.
• idioglossia, noun. An invented language developed by an individual or a very small group of people (e.g.,  by children in close contact, such as twins).
• kritarchy (aka kritocracy), noun. A system of government characterized by rule by judges, especially the system of rule by Hebrew judges described in the Old Testament Bible.
• nudiustertian, adjective. Of or relating to the day before yesterday.
• pastrix, noun. Female who claims to be a pastor, a term usually used pejoratively by Christians who do not recognize female pastors, but embraced by some supporters of female pastors.
• pismire, noun. An ant; emmet.
• rückenfigur (or ruckenfigur), noun. A compositional device in painting (or photography and film) in which the subject is depicted from behind, typically facing away from the viewer to contemplate a distant scene (German, meaning “back-figure” or “figure from the back”).
• stupor, noun. The feeling of distress and disbelief that you have when something bad happens accidentally; marginal consciousness.
• telluric, adjective. Of or pertaining to the earth; proceeding from the earth.
• torpor, noun. A state of mental or physical inactivity or insensibility; the dormant, inactive state of a hibernating or estivating animal.
• veridical, adjective. Truthful; veracious; showing what is true or real.
• zeitgeber, noun. An external stimulus or cue, such as daylight or a regularly repeated occurrence, that serves to regulate an organism’s biological clock.

A Greater than Satan in Here

In Satan we have a great adversary (1 Peter 5:8), but in Christ we have a greater advocate (1 John 2:1). In Satan we have a great accuser (Revelation 12:10), but in Christ we have a greater intercessor (Romans 8:34). Satan is a great fiend (Ephesians 2:2), but Christ is a greater friend (Proverbs 17:17; 18:24).

1 John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

God is our natural environment

When God created fish, he spoke to the sea. When God created trees, he spoke to the earth. But when God created man, he turned to himself. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

If a fish is taken out of the water, it will die. If a tree is taken out of the earth, it will die. Likewise, when a man is disconnected from God, he dies.

God is our natural environment. We were created to live in his presence. We must be connected to him, for only in him is life.

Water without fish is still water, but fish without water is nothing. Earth without a tree is still earth, but a tree without earth is nothing. God without man is still God, but man without God is nothing.

Copied. Original author/source unknown.

Elder Robert G. Green

I am hoping/trying to identify Robert G. Green, who was involved in the organization of Union Baptist Church in 1838 near Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas and Plum Grove (Hopewell) Baptist Church in 1839 near La Grange in Fayette County, Texas. Morrell mentions him three times in his book Flowers and Fruits from the Wilderness.

Flowers and Fruits, page 187

At the time of the organization of Union, Reed lived probably 30 miles north of Nacogdoches

Flowers and Fruits, page 141

In this Morrell is quoting from the letter of the church to the Union Baptist Association

Flowers and Fruits, pp. 200-201

This last mention of Green by Morrell is concerning Baptist ministers who were in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas around the time he was trying or organize a church there. It is certainly not complimentary, but perhaps instructive of both from whence he came (Tennessee) and the last-certainly-known place he was living in Texas. He was evidently around Nacogdoches early in 1838, and was living in or near Bastrop when he helped organize the church at Plum Grove. He may have only been passing through Nacogdoches. The Union Church was organized in May 1838, and at least as early as September 1838, Green was advertising as an attorney-at-law in Bastrop. Though Morrell describes Green in Huntsville, he evidently had still been a member of Providence in Bastrop County up to the time he was excluded for drunkenness. The Robert G. Green in the 1830 Tipton County, Tennessee census may well be him. (For example, an R. G. Green filed a Tipton County circuit court legal notice in 1832.) If so, his age range puts his birth between 1781 and 1790.

J. M. Carroll in A History of Texas Baptists (pp. 124-125), quotes from History of the Primitive Baptists of Texas, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory, by J. S. Newman (pp. 37-38, 1906). According to Carroll, Newman had access to the minutes of the Providence Baptist Church, which met on or near the Colorado River in Bastrop County, about 12-15 miles south of the town of Bastrop. The church was organized in 1834, in the district of Mena (Mina) of the State of Coahuila y Tejas – while this still belonged to Mexico. Both Asahel Dancer and R. G. Green were members of this church when they organized the Plum Grove Church. Newman writes:

“Elder R. G. Green joined by letter in December, 1838, and was excluded for drunkenness in February, 1840” (p. 125).

Green is not mentioned as a member of the Union (Old North) Church near Nacogdoches. He served on the organizational presbytery, prayed the organizational prayer, and served as moderator of the conference when the organized church adopted the name Union.

It seems easy to believe – though proof is not positive – that this could be the R. G. Green who briefly edited a paper in Lexington, Holmes County, Mississippi; who served on the Board of Trustees of the Judson Institute, while living in Choctaw County, Mississippi; and who married Mrs. Elizabeth Boren (or Bowen) in Warren County, Mississippi December 25, 1837.

Perhaps because R. G. Green disgraced himself with drunkenness, was excluded from his church, and is left frenzied in the streets of Huntsville in Morrell’s history – no one has bothered to discover what happened to him. Additionally, he may have been estranged from wife and children (the former of which would seem to be suggested by Morrell, assuming domestic troubles means family troubles). However, if he is found to be the R. G. Green, Esq. of Crockett, Texas, he may have recovered at least a modicum of respect.

A proposed outline suggesting a line for further research on Robert G. Green.

• 1781-1790. Birth; guess based on 1830 census.
• 1815. Possible marriage; guess based on 1830 census.
• 1830. Tipton County, Tennessee. (Census)
• 1831. Tipton County, Tennessee (A Commissioner).
• 1834. Ordained by or before 1835, when Z. N. Morrell left Tennessee.
• 1835. Lexington, Holmes County, Mississippi.
• 1836. Choctaw County, Mississippi.
• 1837. Warren County, Mississippi.
• 1838. Bastrop, Bastrop County, Texas.
• 1840. Bastrop, Bastrop County, Texas.
• 1842. Huntsville, Walker County, Texas (at least before September 1844).
• 1845. Crockett, Houston County, Texas.

With nothing obvious turning up for R. G. Green after 1845, perhaps his death occurred 1845-1850. The use of “Esquire” after the name R. G. Green in 1835 in Lexington, Tennessee and in 1845 in Crockett, Texas might suggest a man who was an attorney-at-law (which our R. G. Green was) – though not necessarily. This Crockett R. G. Green seems to make a court filing in 1844. It would be good to discover that R. G. Green came to repentance and recovered respectability before the end of his life.