A congregation in another faith used a creative fundraising idea. Parishioners could bid to block their least favorite hymn from being sung during the coming year. This is an idea whose time has come. Here are my top 10 picks for hymns I would block:
- I Believe in Christ. This is 8 verses masquerading as 4. It. Never. Ends. In my mind I keep changing the words to “This song is too long. It goes on and on.”
- As Sisters in Zion. It’s not that popular in my current ward, thank goodness, but it is just so cloying and sweet it makes me want to gag.
- Follow the Prophet. It’s not a hymn, but I’d block it in a heartbeat, particularly the crotchety second verse that sounds like Bill O’Reilly wrote it while warning the neighbor kids to stay off his porch. Plus it ends on a creepy minor chord that sounds vaguely Halloweenish.
- Families Can Be Together Forever. I’m opposed to any of the so-called hymns that got upgraded from the Primary songbook. Let’s keep the kid songs in the kid book and the grown-up hymns with a rich Protestant tradition in the hymn book.
- Love at Home. It’s also very cloying. However, it’s the only hymn that inadvertently contains my maiden name.
- In Our Lovely Deseret. It sounds like something written by women in the temperance movement for Nazi youth to sing (perhaps because it was originally a Primary song). Plus the wording is very staccato and doesn’t exactly flow.
- Praise to the Man. The words are idolatrous and weird, although I love the Scotland the Brave music.
- Who’s On the Lord’s Side. All the “hoo-ing” makes me feel like an owl. Plus it sounds like the background music to a sea-faring melodrama.
- There is Sunshine in My Soul Today. Something just irritates me about the phrasing “for Jesus is my light.” I guess again it sounds like a Primary song to me.
- Scatter Sunshine. OK, so I hate to word “sunshine.” Sue me. The melody on this one is also pretty terrible.
What hymn would you pay to skip hearing for a year?
Discuss.
Wheat & Tares 
Do What is Right
We sang this almost every day in Seminary one year. We took turns organizing opening devotionals, and one of the tasks was to select a hymn. The teacher organized the first one and used Do What is Right as the hymn. With that precedent having been set, the less enthusiastic members of the class (i.e., most of them) went on to pick the same hymn when it was their turn (I suppose as a passive-aggressive protest against having to organize a devotional in the first place).
I can only agree that “Follow the Prophet” is one of the most appalling songs I’ve ever heard, and the opening lines from verse 9, “Now we have a world where people are confused. If you don’t believe it, go and watch the news.” are probably the worst religiously themed lyrics ever put to music.
True to the Faith – say no to the “No!”
Be Thou Humble – I’ve never been fortunate enough to be a ward where they could hit the high C.
I guess I should have said why I think it is appalling. It’s a down tempo, funereal dirge crafted for innocent children to sing. Hearing them perform it makes me think of the flying monkeys singing in The Wizard of Oz movie. And what a promise to those listening, if we follow the prophet will it make us into spiritual Eeyores too?
Mormons think “Love at Home” is one of theirs, but it was borrowed (commandeered) from elsewhere. If you hear it sung in a sacred heart motif (shaped notes) you would gain a new appreciation of it. On the other hand, attend a sacred heart sing nd you will come away struggling to sit through the same hymn (or any hymn for that matter) in the LDS dirge interpretation.
I would pay all the money to ban Praise to the Man and Follow the Prophet forever and ever.
A year long hiatus from “If You Could Hie to Kolob” would be high on my list…there is no end to that song. And it’s ridiculous.
While we are on the subject (sort of) may I just say that I want to scream every time we sing the fourth verse of Come Follow Me and stop? The last line is not a sentence (despite the random period)! It’s a clause and the sentence continues in the 5th verse! It is so irritating. Harumph.
One of the worst experiences I had was to sit through God Speed the Right at half tempo. We may be praying God speed the right, but I would rather we had sped up the song.
FTP is just as idolatrous as PTTM.
And I don’t hate the AOF songs simply because I don’t believe/agree with all of them. They were not meant to be put to music.
I actually enjoy singing many of the hymns. But, I would pay to eliminate 6-10 of them, such as: Count Your Blessings, anything with 4 verses, all the ones where the Bass part sings a counterpoint (different words, like a child’s “round”), and any that I don’t already know (I can’t sight read).
Further, I would pay to release any chorister trying to copy the Tabernacle Choir (slow then fast then slow, long holds, quieter on the 4th verse of Come, Come Ye Saints, etc). We aren’t performing. And, especially those choristers that lead every song like it was funeral dirge.
And, in general, “rest” hymns. Most adult speakers do a very poor job at timing their talks. The meeting often ends 10+ minutes late (even with the final speaker trimming down their talk) and 3-4 minutes of that was an extra, unnecessary hymn (the meeting is only lasts 70 minutes!)
IMO
“Scatter Sunshine” sung in German sounds like the best drinking song ever. All you need is a beer stein in your hand to wave back and forth to complete the actions. At least that’s how it felt singing it in the MTC back in the day.
I completely agree with your number 1. I Believe in Christ is far too tedious.
Me thinks there are a bunch of Saints with too much idle time on their hands and nothing to do but whine. Return the handcart to the east, put your shoulder to the wheel, build up Zion, and gain a testimony.
Where do I start? The majority of the sacrament hymns. Yeah, I know, they’re supposed to make us all reverent and what not, I just can’t stand the slow dirge-like pace.
Scatter Sunshine sounds like a Scottish drinking song.
PTTM: A friend brough her non-member and anti-Mormon grandfather to church where they sang PTTM in sacrament meeting. He thought the song was about Jesus and sang with gusto until “millions shall know Brother Joseph again.” She said he was crestfallen at having participated in such sacrilege.
Stop complaining, most of you don’t even sing the hymns. I’ve seen you….
I joined the LDS church when I was 13, so I missed Primary. As a result, I never encountered “Follow the Prophet” until I was an adult with my own children. From the first time I heard it, that song completely creeped me out. Remember the scene in “Wizard of Oz,” when the soldiers are marching and chanting outside the Wicked Witch’s castle? That scene actually scared me as a little kid for some reason. Somehow, the minor chords and “marching” beat of “Follow the Prophet” immediately reminds me of that soldier scene. Even though the movie doesn’t bother me anymore, the song somehow pings that early childhood unease.
Of course, I could also point out the sheer creepiness of the song as an indoctination tool. Getting little children to chant “Follow the Prophet” over and over, especially in those ominous minor chords, just sounds to me like brainwashing of the worst kind. I’m sure that somewhere, there’s an LDS person who thinks it’s the most glorious, wonderful thing they ever heard, but I can’t imagine what that person would be like.
I Stand All Amazed.
Hate that song. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate. HATE IT. I don’t sing it anymore. I don’t even open the hymnal.
“If You Could Hie To Kolob” is a shameful waste of an ethereally lovely melody. I’d ditch the lyrics (“There is no end to race”? Really? In 2015?) and replace them with something that at least a LITTLE matches the tone of the music.
Thanks Nick, it was the soldiers singing that song in the Oz movie and not the flying monkeys, but that is exactly what I also thought of the first time I heard “Follow the Prophet”.
Called to Serve sounds like calliope music. Also hate Book of Mormon Stories (not a hymn, but still hate it).
I’m so relieved to find other people who dislike “I Believe in Christ.” I always figured it was my personal beef with BRM that was clouding my judgment (everyone else seemed to adore the song).
I didn’t mind teaching “Follow the Prophet” to the Primary kids because it’s a good way to introduce OT prophets they normally don’t hear about. I highly object to any primary that doesn’t let kids dance to the chorus, though. It’s just mind-numbing otherwise.
What about paying to sing hymns (or to sing all the verses in the correct order). I’d love to hear Amazing Grace or “They have builded him an altar in the evenings fees and damps…”
Actually, “Hope of Israel” is the best German drinking song, especially if you add a hearty “HEY” at the appropriate breaks in the chorus.
The hymns to cut are “A poor wayfaring man of grief.” Most of the restoration hymns could disappear too and no one would ever notice (e.g. What was witnessed in the heavens).
“God Speed the Right” is the worst offender for message. “If we fail, we fail with glory”? What kind of lyrics are those?
The type of lyrics that justified the Prop 8 fight…
I am an organist, and the first app I got when I got a smartphone was a metronome. I don’t care how slow the conductor is leading it, how slow the congregation is singing it, I am going to play to tempo, and maybe a bit faster if I think I can get away with it.
I went to a training with Richard Elliot, the main organist for the Tabernacle Choir, and he boiled it down to three things:
1. Play faster than you think you need to
2. Play louder than you think you need to
3. Practice more than you think you need to.
If every organist in the church followed these guidelines, I think we as a church would enjoy singing the hymns more than we do.
lastlemming: I can’t agree about Do What Is Right for this one line only: “And with stout hearts / Look ye forth to tomorrow.” There’s just something appealing and optimistic about stout hearts. Any hymns with stout hearts get a pass with me. I agree that the chorus is a bit too bouncy, though. I hate staccato.
Bid Time Return: True to the Faith is one that can only be sung by a choir. It’s true that no lay member can hit the highs on that one. It hurts my head just thinking about it. Plus the rhetorical back and forth with the “Nos” and “Yeses” is gimmicky. Is it a hymn or a game show?
Hawk at her snark best in the OP
“Praise to the Man” plays right into the hands of the critics that allege that Mormons “worship Joseph instead of Jesus”. I don’t have issue with THE prophet’s accomplishments, but we have had 15 more since.
Agree that many primary songs are how Quark described root beer: cloying and annoying, just like the Federation. Bear with it, show some humility.
I’d prefer that Priesthood meetings, for one year, refrain from “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet”. As there are many hymns for men’s voices, using it shows lack of imagination.
I’m so relieved to find other people who dislike “I Believe in Christ.”
I’ve blogged about my beef with this song on multiple posts of this nature. I would expand Hawkgrrl’ lyrics to: “This song is too long. It goes on and on, you’ll wish the electric chair’s turned on.”
I would, however, put in a vote for Love at Home. Just listen to the David Glen Hatch arrangement (from the CD ‘The Master’s Touch’) that juxtaposes the melody with the classical music masterpiece ‘Reverie’ by Claude Debussy. It is absolutely gorgeous. And let me guess Hawkgrrl…Angela Cottage for the maiden name?
Here is my new rant…I’ve stopped singing the words at the end of the second verse of ‘We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet’. “The Wicked Who Fight Against Zion will surely be smitten at last”—what about Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you? Sure the Second Coming might not be a good day for them, but should we really be jubilant about that?
“If You Could Hie to Kolob”
This right here is why people think we’re weird. Without fail, when visitors or investigators show up we sing this song.
A) I think My Country Tis of Thee should always be sung as God Save the Queen.
B) ^^^ “If You Could Hie to Kolob”
C) Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel – Sounds more like a Stalinistic era diddy.
D) I think Ave Maria should be added to the hymn book.
When I was last active the Church still used the blue hymnal. So I wasn’t familiar with several on Hawk’s list. I just listened to them on YouTube. Then I applied brain bleach. Listened to the the Sacred Six I keep on my iPhone to get these new harmonies out of my mind. CCYS, Spirit of God, yes, even PTTM are pleasant nostalgia.
I Know That My Redeemer Lives is monotonous, just like I Believe in Christ.
Rigel: Alas, C is my married name. My maiden name is accidentally in the line “Making life a bliss complete.”
I’m one of the oddballs who likes “If You Could Hie to Kolob” for its uniqueness, and I like the melody. The race bit obviously is outdated. However, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard it played in church. I only hear it at Mormon funerals.
“Come Oh Thou King of Kings” includes the line “while all the chosen race, their Lord and Savior own.”
Because if you don’t have the right bloodline, God loves you less.
I Know That My Redeemer Lives is twice as monotonous than I Believe in Christ.
The church missed the boat as a fundraiser idea…. did you know they let you submit music and they give out awards for it?
https://www.lds.org/music/submit-music?lang=engine
At least your top 10 list are songs I’very heard of. Our chorister wants us to learn new hymns by picking the most obscure….they are awful…which is why we never sing them.
I think we should pay money to get rid of #341 “God Save the King” in light of 2 Nephi 5:18 “But I, Nephi, was desirous that they should have no king”
We should not conflict Book of Mormon scripture with our hymns!
“Reverently and Meekly Now” makes Jesus appear dictatorial about the atonement. “Bow your head!” “Remember what was done for you, sinner!” “At the throne, I interecede, be obedient so I can be your Savior.” Yuck. I can’t imagine Jesus talking about his atonement in such a self-centered way.
“As Now We Take the Sacrament” has always made the sacrament feel sappy, like we might as well put a rose-colored filter onto the scene and carve our initials onto a tree. The poetry gets a bit overdramatic, too.
Anything by Evan Stephens needs to go. Way to long, grandiose, and hive mentality (pioneer-industriousness to the extreme) for my taste. And the music doesn’t fit the setting, really, ever.
I don’t care for “I Believe in Christ.” When I was Ward Chorister, I rarely selected it because my arm would nearly fall off by the time we were done. I don’t care much for “The Lord is My Light.” Just don’t care much for the tune or the arrangement. I am currently a primary pianist and one of the songs for this year’s Primary Program is “Follow the Prophet.” Our chorister’s teaching technique is to sing the same song OVER AND OVER AND OVER. My eyes were nearly crossing by the time we were done…and it does sound a little weird when little children are singing/shouting the words.
“As Now We Take the Sacrament.” I LOVE Elder Perry, but those lyrics are just bad poetry. And the tune is soporific.
“I Know That My Redeemer Lives is twice as monotonous than I Believe in Christ.”
Even if I agreed with this, which I don’t, you would have to have twice the monotony in the 4 verses of IKTMRL to equal the monotony in the 8 verses of IBIC.
IKTMRL may be ‘plodding’, but not monotonous. 🙂
The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close – is the sickest of all LDS hymns – and the only one I don’t like at all.
Jeff Spector #12 – “Stop complaining, most of you don’t even sing the hymns. I’ve seen you….” Bravo. If the Hymn book didn’t have the one I mentioned, I would have no complaint except the speed we sing them.
Page 37, is not only unbearable, but in four verses, it is eight verses in length. I call it The Weather Report. When that is done, it is mentioned that “Where roamed at will the fearless Indian band” now there are temples. Well, after all, we had to get those fearless savages out of there.
I mean like yuck! And to think that the blue/brown hymn books (one or both) used to have “Through the Outword Church Below”. The melody was written by Mozart and was a much better hymn.
Anyway. Stop complaining.
I really like some of the hymns on your list, especially the sunshine ones. I would do away with There is a Green Hill Far Away. The first zillion notes are all the same boring note! And when the pianist/organist decides to play it slo-o-o-o-wly, as most do, it feels like you will never get to sing another note ever again.
Late to the party…
Ok, those folks who don’t like ‘I know that my Redeemer lives’ can’t be singing it fast enough. It’s way better than ‘I believe in Christ’, and it doesn’t need to be plodding.
There are other hymns sung elsewhere to the tune of ‘If you could hie to kolob’, of course there are. RVW didn’t harmonise the music for us! The tune is ‘Kingsfold’ from English Country Songs. Hymns sung to it include: ‘I heard the voice of Jesus say…’; ‘When out of poverty is born…’; ‘How shall we sing salvation’s song…’.
Hymns I prefer not to sing:
‘Come, come ye saints’
‘Praise to the man’
‘The light divine’ (can’t stand that ‘teach us to obey’ line in the chorus, otherwise the music is quite pretty, if slightly screechy in the chorus).
Anything that belongs in the primary songbook (I’m with you on that hawkgrrrl), but especially: ‘Families can be together forever’ (the tune is dire) and ‘Keep the commandments’.
Anything that goes on about how we are surrounded by mountains/hills – we aren’t where I am.
Our primary have been doing ‘Follow the Prophet’ gangnam style this year! Not sure they’ll be able to stand still for the presentation in a few weeks. I like the song for the verses about the different OT prophets. The chorus not so much. And I do like the tune, but I take it fast, and even faster for the chorus – a bit like one of those whirling Cossack dances.
Hey Hawkgrrrl, I didn’t realize our maiden name was in Love at Home. No wonder we sang that song almost every week for family home evening. I always liked that song because it reminded me of that, now I have new reason to like it. I may be alone in my love for Scatter Sunshine and There is sunshine in my soul. I like them because they are peppy and they make me want to get up in sacrament and march around the room. Most of the songs are dirge like and dreary. If I could Hie to Kolob is great until about the fifth time you start singing there is no end to this and there is no end to that and I start thinking there is no end to this song.
As the temporary chorister I told the person playing the organ that I wanted to speed up I Believe In Christ, which is usually sung at a ponderous dirge pace. She agreed. It was so much better when it was sung faster – quite stirring.
Fun discussion. As a family we’ve changed the words at the end of Hie to Kolob to sing “there is no end to GRACE” which I much prefer.
I suspect that “I Believe in Christ” was set to melody and put in the hymnbook only because an Apostle wrote it. It is a very nice poem, but makes for a very awkward song. John Longhurst, who wrote the melody even said so in a Church News interview.
I like the hymns based on classical melodies, like “Be Still, My Soul” and “If You Could Hie to Kolob.”
The key to any hymn is playing it up to the correct tempo are a bit faster. Durges do not invite the spirit anymore than a gallop does,
You guys are all crazy! I loooooove “Follow the Prophet”, probably because I am culturally Jewish and as everyone has failed to observe, it is in the style of traditional Klezmer music!!!
Klezmer music: traditional Eastern European and southeast European Jewish/Yiddish style of instrumental music that swoops into pitches, mimicking the human voice laughing or sobbing. Eastern European klezmer musicians influenced American jazz. Think clarinets, brass, violins and accordions playing the wedding music in Fiddler on the Roof or in Thoroughly Modern Millie. It’s not completely minor, it’s actually modal and completely awesome!!! It’s supposed to be played fast and furiously. ) Most wards are playing it completely wrong. Kids are supposed to have fun with it!
I cheered when the primary hymnal came out…and included songs and melodies from different cultures (granted, mostly different European countries, but including klezmer and calypso). It was a start.
I find that the departure from harmonic parallel major thirds (e.g. Traditional Germanic and Scandinavian folk music), seems to unsettle Mormons a lot. The knee-jerk repulsion to the klezmer tune is culturally niaive and frankly smells of anti-semitism.
Has anyone seen the female prophetess verses that were authored and posted on the bloggernacle for this song? Yet another compelling reason to sing it!!!
So, instead of FTP, take “How Great Thou Art”, out which I can never hear without thinking of Elvis curling his lip or Johnny Cash crooning, or the Oak Ridge Boys singing.
I also think we should bring BACK “Come thou fount of every blessing”, “Jerusalem”, the song about not killing little song birds (gods creatures) from the blue hymnal, the Wheat and Tares song with Mozart’s original lyrics about eternal marriage and love (not the dumb wheat and tares words that painfully don’t fit), and Brigham’s favorite hymn-a wild and fast dance reel that the saints actually danced to- “the reassurection day”, an RLDS hymn by Joseph and Emma’s son Hyrum David, and finally the shaker song “simple gifts”.
But, hands off the Klezmer! Schmooze it up!
JAT,
“You guys are all crazy! I loooooove “Follow the Prophet”, probably because I am culturally Jewish and as everyone has failed to observe, it is in the style of traditional Klezmer music!!!”
Oy vay, JAT, what are you, mesugah? These guys wouldn’t know Klezmer music if their life depended on it.
And they are not objecting to the melody, either.
JAT, thanks for putting a name to that style of music. The other similar style song I love in the Children’s song book is ‘Truth from Elijah’.
#46 – Oy! So THAT’s why everytime I hear “Follow the Prophet” I ‘hear’ Chaim Topol’s rendition of “If I Were a Rich Man”.
As much as I appreciate the LYRICS of “I Believe in Christ”, the monotonus, droning tone (as if organists and the ward in general don’t tend to slow the tempo as it is…) calls to mind another movie quip, from one of my fave sub-themed flicks, “Down Periscope”, where LCDR Dodge, dressed up as a pirate, tells PO2 “Sonar” Lovacelli to “Play me a DIRGE, Matey!”. My beloved Snips points out that I tend to mumble this expression under my breath for that hymn and others that seem intended to sub for Sominex.
Ang as soon as I read the comment about your maiden name I tracked it down. Heh, I never would catch something like that but, am unsurprised that you did.
I love Follow the Prophet if only for the reason that I have taught my kids to sing Swallow the Prophet on the chorus after the Jonah verse. Awesome!
Oh My Father is another that feels like it lasts forever. I think that song is appropriate for funerals and should remain there. However, at my Grandfather’s funeral we sang this as a family well beyond the intended tempo and it was pretty good.
Remove the fermatas from I Know That My Redeemer Lives and it is even more fun to sing. Especially since no one in the congregation has any clue how to sing it that way. MoTab did it 30 years ago or so and I have loved that arrangement ever since.
I love the songs where the Men sing a counterpoint to the main words especially in Let Us All Press On. I still sing it that way in High on the Mountaintop even though it is no longer lyrically written that way the music still is written for it to be sung that way.
April Young Bennett – we must just have opposite tastes. I LOVE “There is a Green Hill Far Away.” It’s probably in my top 10. It’s so short and succinct and yet ponderous for the sacrament. Different strokes I guess!
“Scatter Sunshine” sung in German sounds like the best drinking song ever.
OK, I’m curious. Anyone able to share those German lyrics???
-Jeff Spector, Oy Vey, I’m not mesugah, but I do like to kvetch about this. All that brainwashing stuff is bupkis, what are they thinking? Oy. It’s a nice song, it’s a good song, let it be : )
-Thanks Hedgehog, I don’t know that song, I’ll have to check it out.
We can’t possibly do away with “Follow the Prophet”, at least not now that I’ve written lyrics for a verse honoring President Monson!
http://ldsorganplayer.com/2015/04/09/follow-the-prophet/
I must admit that the Follow the Prophet lyrics greatly improve with a Yiddish accent. Not sure why that is.
“-Thanks Hedgehog, I don’t know that song, I’ll have to check it out.”
You shouldn’t know from it.
“I must admit that the Follow the Prophet lyrics greatly improve with a Yiddish accent. Not sure why that is.”
It would be perfect with a good hora. (dance). A shaina hora….
Jeff, “You shouldn’t know from it”
?
Mark N – great post on your thought process to create a new verse for Pres Monson!
Hawk, not just a Yiddish accent, the kids should form a circle, link arms, kick their legs and sing the chorus to the tune of Hava Nagila, ending with, “he won’t lead you astray, Hey!”
Hedge,
“Jeff, “You shouldn’t know from it”
?”
You have to have a Jewish Grandmother to fully understand this. But in essence it means, “that should never happen to you”
Rigel Hawthorne, I *love* your full alternate version of “I Believe in Christ.”
I’m a darned long song;
I’m way too long.
It’s like you’re singing two whole songs.
You sing me once then repeat again
I cycle back and never end!
I’m a darned long song;
I’ll make you yawn.
You’ll wish the electric chair’s turned on!
I’m like a torture chamber’s rack
I’ll make the terror suspect crack.
(link: http://mormonmatters.org/2008/03/04/my-top-ten-cultural-sins-or-why-i-dont-mark-my-scriptures/#comment-6999)
Yes, Hawkgirrl, we can be friends but we shouldn’t sing in the same choir.
Jat, I actually heard the author of Follow the Prophet speak once. He was commissioned by the Grneral Primary presidency to write a song about the Old Testament that “sounded Jewish.” He sang the song while playing it on the guitar, quickly and not at all reverently, and it was delightful.
If I had my way I’d have “Why can’t we be friends” by War (1975) added to our hymm list.
I’m undecided about “Jesus is Just Alright” by the Doobie Brothers (1972)
I always think of follow the prophet as something the oompa loompas would sing, especially with that intro. I can just see orange faces and white gloves bobbing up and down in precision 🙂 so I always find it entertaining. I used to hate singing ring out wild bells (every new years day) until I embraced the durge, and try to sing “the year is dying, let it die!” in my very best cromudgeony prodestant non-melodic voice. I have yet to keep a straight face on that verse, you can’t buy that kind of sacrament meeting entertainment.
For all of those “kolob-haters” committing historical collapse. “No end to race” is referring to God s race, we are his children, the race of God, not to racial animosity.
“Who’s On the Lord’s Side. All the ‘hoo-ing’ makes me feel like an owl. Plus it sounds like the background music to a sea-faring melodrama.”
That’s because the tune for that hymn is “Over the Bounding Main” (Google it). I can’t sing it without thinking of a group of sailors with their hands together and swinging their arms from side to side.
In “If You Could Hie to Kolob,” the line “There is no end to race” isn’t referring to, say, Africans vs. Asians vs. Caucasians, fer cryin’ out loud. It’s referring to the *human* race in relation to that of the Gods. Can we please try to look past our modern worldview for just a second or two?
“Lord Dismiss us With Thy Blessing”. It sounds just like “Go Tell Aunt Rhody (the old grey goose is dead)”.
“Through the Outward Church Below” and, to get used to a grace oriented church, how about “Amazing Grace”.
Late to the party as usual, I’ll just mention that I’m the one at Minnesota shape note (sacred harp) singings who always leads “Duane Street,” the original “Poor Wayfaring Man.” It’s beautiful, and much less tedious than our modern version. If you want to know what the Prophet _really_ heard John Taylor sing in Carthage Jail, go look it up.
I shared my strong feelings about “I Believe in Christ” in a blog post here.
In re. comment 69, it IS “Go Tell Aunt Rhody.” There are a lot of borrowed tunes in hymnody.
At this time of the year, it saddens me when we sing the tedious “Improve the Shining Moments” for New Years, instead of the gorgeous “Ring Out, Wild Bells”.
We were supposed to sing “Ring Out, Wild Bells” this last Sunday, but somebody somewhere changed it to something else, I don’t even remember what it was. Do some members have a fear of hymns written in a minor key or something?