In a sad state of affairs, leftists, liberals, and lost unbelievers asked for the keys to shape note singing, and some shape-note singing leaders gladly handed them over. They put them in official capacities in their organizations and teaching positions in their camps. They invited them to teach singing schools. The placed them on boards and committees.
Consider an example of how far we have traveled from a once-Christian singing tradition to acquiesce to the promotion of the leftist political and sexual agenda of (politically) correct pronouns. The prodigal son and his father are identified as male (in both the Greek and English). Nevertheless, persons who regularly complain about people misgendering others are fine with misgendering the prodigal son and his father. What is good for the goose is evidently not good for the gander.
Many “correct pronoun” sites tell us that “singular they” is used when referring to a single person whose gender is unknown, non-binary, or not specified. None of these three things apply to the prodigal son or his father. Jesus identifies the gender of both persons, which is clear in both the Greek original and the English translation. John Newton also specified the gender in his hymn “The Prodigal Son.” So, those who promote the supposed use of “correct pronouns” are inconsistent and freely contradict their own dictums. Such cases prove it is an agenda to be pushed, rather than a rule to be followed.
The following text (below) of the hymn “The Prodigal Son” by John Newton is presented in the left column. The hymn as corrupted and used with the tune Prodigal (Song No. 7) in the 2024 shape-note songbook The Valley Pocket Harmonist is shown in the right column.
[Note: I primarily marked the misgendering, with strikethrough for removals and yellow highlight for additions. However, I did mark a couple of other things, such as the apparent distaste of the editor for killing a fatted calf. Some other minor differences may be in their sources rather than 2024 changes.]
The prodigal son becomes a plural amorphous they, and so does the prodigal’s father. That is not how Jesus told the story, is not how John Newton wrote it, and is not how Christians have passed either the story or the hymn down. This is a most egregious form of cultural appropriation – not only of the traditional form of shape note singing, but also turning the 18th century author of “Amazing Grace” into a purveyor of their modern (and unscriptural) ideas about gender and their “ideals” about pronouns!
If you want to have and eat your cake, go find your own hymns – or make your own – but please leave our Christian hymns alone!
Note: In East Texas, our Baptist forebears and other Christians sang from The Sacred Harp songbook. We know the book was present here shortly after it was published in 1844, and some of us still sing from it today. The songs are Christian-themed, Bible-based, and provide a form of praise & worship to God. While we do not have this problem locally, for a number of years there has been a move afoot that has placed in leadership positions those who do not believe in the exclusivity of salvation through Jesus Christ alone. This leads to a watering down of the faith and practice of the singings (i.e., people sing what they do not believe). The editors of The Valley Pocket Harmonist –the traffickers of this textual travesty – run in Sacred Harp circles. How long before such settles into The Sacred Harp? Will there be subtle shifts when the curtain is drawn back and we can actually see the 2025 Edition of The Sacred Harp?
4 comments:
I read the 10Sept2025 Post first and just now saw this. Raise your voice! What they did to the hymn lyrics is wrong. Period.
E. T. Chapman
Give me a break. The Valley Pocket Harmonist is patently a Christian publication, just not your flavor of Christian. Regardless, I eagerly await your screed about how that perfidious heathen B.F. White dared to change the the pronouns of the lone pilgrim as given by that most godly of men William Walker.
Hi, John. I could probably hear you better if you were not anonymous
John, you asked for a break, so I will give you one. A break from posting here anonymously. I am usually very lenient to leave any comments – even anonymous ones – as long as they are not spam and are not vile. However, I now put on notice that shape note singers will not get a pass to hide behind anonymity to take potshots. If you look like John Brown or any of his body parts, your post will be deleted. If you are willing to use your name and own your comments, your posts will not be deleted. (I am leaving the one above because it was made before I gave notice.)
There is only one flavor of Christianity – God’s flavor. Whether I or the Valley Pocket Harmonist measure up, or neither of us do, God will be the judge. The “Lone Pilgrim” illustration is a case of biting into an orange and saying it tastes like an apple. Not the same thing.
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