I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while.\u00a0 I went to the first new PC(USA) hymnal launch event in Pennsylvania last fall, and I’ve heard this hymn sung MANY times – at Field Ed, at General Assembly, at Princeton Seminary many times in chapel, at the Worship and Music conference.\u00a0 This hymn is quickly becoming a favorite of churches and seminaries.<\/p>\n
It’s catchy.\u00a0 It’s easy to sing.\u00a0 It has a central message of unity, though it stumbles with some equality concepts.\u00a0 The refrain is really pretty and mentions all sorts of good things.<\/p>\n
But it has a problem.\u00a0 Several problems really, but I’m going to concentrate on one.\u00a0 This problem has been pointed out to me by several friends.<\/p>\n
Recently I’ve been noticing a pattern among my friends – primarily my female friends and close relatives.\u00a0 I’m becoming increasingly alarmed at how many have been abused – usually physically or sexually.\u00a0 It’s not that far from the truth to say that all adult women that I know well enough to have heard such stories have experienced some form of sexual or physical abuse.\u00a0 Or controlling behavior.\u00a0 ALL of them.\u00a0 Some more than once.\u00a0 I’m alarmed, and trying to figure out what to do with the anger.<\/p>\n
For these friends (and certainly others), verse 4 of For Everyone Born is a problem.\u00a0 Here’s the verse:<\/p>\n
For just and unjust, a place at the table,At a first glance it seems pretty benign – that abuser and abused should be able to participate in the church and Eucharist equally.\u00a0 We truly believe that.\u00a0 It’s not really a problem.<\/p>\n
Best greyandgrey.com<\/a> buy cheap cialis Ways To Maintain Your Health 60 ounces of water. Most patients expect cialis australia http:\/\/greyandgrey.com\/christa-m-collins\/<\/a> pain relief, better joint function and improved quality of life after the surgery. But, what I viagra online cheap<\/a> see and hear on consistently (and remember, this is middle school) tells a different story. You may take it up to four hours before sexual activity. discount viagra<\/a> is not supposed to be taken more often than not, the reason behind a sexual disorder is a hectic lifestyle and the high amount of stress they entail with them. <\/span>But then you read it again.\u00a0 And you notice that the injunctions are all against the abused.\u00a0 The abused has a need to forgive.\u00a0 (What does the abuser have to forgive?)\u00a0 The abused is called to have a mindset of mercy.<\/p>\n And worst of all – the abused is expected to be at the same table as the abuser.\u00a0 THIS is psychologically damaging for everybody that has talked to me about this.\u00a0 The idea of sitting at a table, a Holy Table, with one’s abuser is painful.\u00a0 It causes panic attacks.\u00a0 It causes anger.\u00a0 One friend felt a call to walk out of a service in the middle of the hymn (though she didn’t).\u00a0 This verse of this hymn turns our sanctuaries from places of safety to places of danger.\u00a0 Danger in the triggering of abuse victims, and danger in the very real implication of sharing space with their abuser.<\/p>\n This becomes even more insidious when the abuser is a family member or significant other.\u00a0 People who have suffered abuse have it repeated again through family pressures.\u00a0 Family members urge or even demand that they reconcile with their abuser (often without knowledge of the abuse) “for the good of the family.”\u00a0 The abused person becomes the problem in that they split the family, rather than having the responsibility for the split properly lodged with the abuser.\u00a0 Some people continue years later to have nightmares about the abuser and the abuse, and this demand in this hymn can bring up all of that again.<\/p>\n The refrain calls on us to create justice, compassion and peace:<\/p>\n I question whether any of these are possible when calling for abuser and abused to be in the same place.\u00a0 The abused will not feel justice.\u00a0 They will not feel compassion – they will feel the opposite.\u00a0 They clearly will not feel peace, or joy.<\/p>\n I doubt that the hymn’s author intended to make this statement.\u00a0 Still, the verse remains imbalanced.\u00a0 Some call for repentance and reparation might balance it.\u00a0 But perhaps it would be better just to leave it out.\u00a0 When this hymn was sung as the Class Hymn at my Princeton Seminary graduation last May I chose not to sing this verse.\u00a0 I almost sat down for the verse, but I was in a place where that would have been difficult and nobody would have understood what I was doing anyway.<\/p>\n So if you want to use this hymn, please consider skipping verse 4.\u00a0 Or consider skipping the hymn entirely – there are other hymns that say the same thing without triggering the many (many more than you realize) victims of abuse.\u00a0 Or at least know that you may have some work to do after it is sung.
\nof justice and joy, compassion and peace:
\nyes, God will delight when we are creators
\nof justice, justice and joy!<\/address>\n