Part of the debate over the Renewing Worship materials has to do with the fact that the task force has done all it can to remove any words that refer to God as masculine. A few are left, but a task force member has admitted that what they have done is intentional. During a hearing tonight on the subject, one participant, a male, said that even he was uncomfortable with male pronouns referring to God. What he said, paraphrased, was "So many people have been hurt and abused, we want to make it clear that God does not have a penis!"
No duh, as my children might say.
He doesn't have a body either, but Jesus refers to him as masculine, so should we not follow his example? We are talking not only about pronouns, but words like king, lord, father.... Do you want to sing hymns with those words removed?
The proposed hymnal is really the stealth issue of this assembly. What we sing, pray, chant, and read in church are what we come to believe. This radical revision of our worship practices includes not only language changes, but it incorporates practices from other traditions, further diluting our Lutheran practice.
The logical thing is to delay approval and give folks more time to try the materials and make comments. The problem is that Augsburg Fortress is counting on hymnal sales in 2006 to get them out of trouble. I spent some time in their store today and I am a big buyer of books - I could not find anything that I was dying to read. They need to do something about that, if a person who loves theology, Bible study, and philosophy could not find something to want, there is a problem. A hymnal, especially one that butchers our time treasured hymns, is not going to solve their basic problem.
---Katie
1 comment:
It is right to give HIM thanks and praise!
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