From this morning's service:I believe in Jesus Christ,This is what I call "emasculating Jesus," since there's no practical or theological reason to avoid gender-specific pronouns with regard to a human male. I suspect our pastor is actually embarrassed that Jesus was a man. I also wonder if his spell-checker is set so that it flags the words "he", "him", and "his" as misspellings.
God's only Child, our Sovereign...
Although I go to a Lutheran church, the above creed version is from a UCC text, I think.
We also sang a William Mathias piece with this text:
As truly as God is our Father, so just as a truly is he our MotherThis text is by Julian of Norwich (pictured above), a female medieval mystic who purposely mixed gender pronouns. Pastor's spell-checker flagged the word "he" and changed it to "God" in the bulletin, thus undermining the author's intent, without even notifying the choir director (who is not me).
I'm not sure what it is about Trinity Sunday that brings out this pronoun absolutism, but several of the service hymns got similar treatment.
3 comments:
I think that much meaning is lost as traditional texts - creeds, lyrics, and especially Scriptures - are "updated" to reflect the unfortunate agenda of the offended. The Trinity is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit... one God, in three Persons. Transcending humankind, He has revealed Himself (yep, I used two male pronouns) as "love."
I also think that the "updating" of the text is extremely offensive to the original poets.
Even the changing of the older English language upsets me to no end "Thy hand o God as guided" to "Your hand o God..." just doesn't sing the same. Or the worst example I've seen is "Deck thyself my soul with gladness" to "Deck yourself .. " All I can picture is the choir telling people to punch themselves out cold.
I couldn't disagree more--while I insist on the original words in a 'classical' or academic performance. Historicity is not the goal in a liturgical setting--inclusion of all those who come to worship, however, is. Your or my insistence that the "Thee"s," Thou"s, or "He"s be retained is just as persnickety as the "unfortunate agenda of the offended" types insisting that they be changed. Those who are more interested in having their own way are, on both sides, reacting in a way counter to Christian charity.
If inclusive language helps some people feel more welcome--I can move beyond it. We should all try to focus on something more important and less self serving.
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