Commercial Break: Atheists Who Love and Enjoy the Old Hymns

 

Atheists who love hymns

 

 

 

I have said in the past, "The program runs deep"...and it do. 

Growing up Dutch Reformed, the old church hymns were an ever present part of life. We sang them at church every week, twice. We attended both morning and evening services every Sunday. Hymn sings were a standard part of our youth group and I was always there. Just about every hymn of my youth is firmly set in my memory and those memories a source of the best and most stable part of my life personally. 

Mom was an awful alto and dad, well, he tried.  I can hear their attempts to this day in my mind as I stood next to them in the pews growing up. 

I also have said that I never really liked the vast majority of the "Hymns" in the purple hymnal of WCG.  I always missed the deeply comforting hymns of youth. Alas, they were the product of "Churchianity" or "Christianity, falsely so called," and to be rejected. 

It drove me somewhat to distraction when "This is my Father's world" was redefined at times as a hymn of Satan who was "the god of this world."  Stupid and ignorant beyond measure.  Go read the lyrics. 

I had heard that Dwight Armstrong, who I only believe I had ever seen one time in my life at church in WCG, rewrote all the hymns for the "True Church". Evidently getting as far away from out false Church past was imperative.

Herberts family strangly hung around the periphery of the Church like phantoms. Dwight based his hymns on the Psalms for the most part and I found them too aggressive, militaristic and without the emotion and secure feeling of the hymns of my youth provided. They were hymns of conquest and law. The kinder gentler side of the Christian faith was eradicated. Actually, the themes of the New Testament were ignored for the most part.

I never liked climbing through the windows me leaping or "Death shall them seize and to the tomb, ALIVE! they shall go down."  Creepy.  In either church experience, "Onward Christian Soldiers march as to war.." never really did much for me either. Too pushy.

I hated the occasional flip to "Oh Israel, Oh Israel " in place of "America, America, God shed his grace on thee." For one, I always wondered what the Canadians or other non-God's true nations in the audience felt about that.

Also, it seemed some kind of  religious paranoia to sing, "In the beauty of the lillies, Christ was born across the sea..."  "Autumn" had to be substituted. I think lillies, someone thought,were sex symbols and, of course, we could not have a Jesus born in the Winter."

With the emphasis on British Israelism, as I see it, the church was indeed racist and Dwight Armstrong's hymns and toying with the old standard ones leaned towards that feeling for me. WCG was forced to outgrow the racism of it's first years but the sense of being special and why European lingers even here on the GMF in some. Usually the most literal and prejudiced in their views and still connected with the old WCG paradigms. That program also runs deep. I my own case, the program of my youth is stronger, evidently, and over writes my later WCG one. 

In all men that is not so.

That said, I fairly often have the old church hymns of my youth playing in the background, both at home and in the car. For many reasons, any number I have explained here on the GMF, after years of ministry and study, I have arrived at atheist/agnostic when it comes to the message being true or not.

I had hoped it was true for decades but "not literally true" seems so to me. 

But the program runs deep and I will always find some solice in life from it and the hymns embedded deeply in my psyche from my youth, especially as we age and live, yet again, and ever,in the "End Times", which we actually are not save for ourselves of course. 

What currently plays in the background as I write with observations to why unbelievers still enjoy the old hymns. 

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Atheists who love hymns

https://www.christiantoday.com.au/news/atheists-who-love-hymns.html

 

A friend emailed about an atheist she knew who came to church. He came with his wife in order to listen to the hymns. Although he wasn’t a believer, there was something about the hymns that drew him.

I also discovered that Richard Dawkins, probably the Western world’s most well-known atheist, still likes to listen to hymns.

It’s probably only the older generations who were brought up on hymns who are drawn to them. I think it was during the 1970s that hymns were phased out of state secondary schools in New Zealand. Previously, it was standard fare to have a hymn and a Bible reading during a state school assembly.

Nowadays the TV programme ‘Praise Be’ still has a steady following in New Zealand, but those watch it are far more likely to be either believers or have a musical heritage that included hymns. (Friends of ours, who are believers, record the programme and often finish off their Sunday evening by watching it. On the occasions when we have joined them, I have found it is a lovely way to complete a Sunday.)

But is it just a cultural nostalgia that draws non-believers to listen to hymns? Their appeal doesn’t appear to register with younger generations – ‘What’s a hymn?’ asked a young guy when he lined up as a groomsman during a wedding rehearsal.

And even if younger people recognise and know what a hymn is, there are scarcely any hymns known by the general populace now – the notable exception is probably Amazing Grace because of the number of times it is sung at funerals.

When you are older you do like to dwell on some of the things that fashioned or influenced your youth, and particularly music. The popularity of concerts when aging rock or music stars visit illustrates that – the Boss (Bruce Springsteen) has just been to New Zealand with sell-out crowds and a big media focus.

It may just be that hymns are in a similar category for older people, but without the fuss and fanfare stirred up by the visit of a rock icon.

I am wondering though if the appeal is more than nostalgia. Is it more than the poetic memorability and quality of the language used, more than the deep resonance of a well-played organ? After all, a hymn tune is very basic and usually easily sing-able (unless it is set too high for a choir).

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