I am fine with orthodox hymns that reflect stem from any culture of people of any skin color. But they shouldn’t be segregated into a hymnal just for those people. Call it Christians Hymns for Divine Service and put it in every congregation. Don’t make a black hymnal for black peoole served by the black clergy caucus educated at tne black seminary. It was a bad idea then and a bad idea now.
My 8th grade class is in D.C. this week. Eleven are black, ten are white. None, I hope, care one way or the other. We didn’t send two buses, schedule separate tours for them, or plan a segregated graduation ceremony like so many progressives these days seem to like.
So, what do you suggest, Peter? Come out with a new edition of LSB thicker by say 200 orthodox hymns gleaned from TFBF? Or just tell our constituents who like and wish to use African-American style worship and hymnody that their hymnody isn't suitable for Lutheran worship, or at least we can't be bothered to curate and produce a suitable selection?
Or just keep doing what's been done all this time, which is allowing This Far By Faith to be resource available in the LCMS for use with guidance? Which it is and has been.
Most of the dialog here on the downside has given the impression that TFBF is "less than", and that people who use it with guidance are "less than" those who don't.
Gosh, we're supposed to respond, we didn't understand that TFBF is not considered a doctrinally pure hymnal by convention imprimatur, but only a hymnal for use with guidance. Thanks for letting us know.
And gosh, we're supposed to respond, we didn't understand that an African American Resource for Worship is a description that makes the hymnal doctrinally impure, because the impression given by using that description is that it's a black hymnal. Thanks for letting us know.
The impact is to drive people to less variety in worship, er, the liturgies and hymns of The Divine Service, and to hone in on the phrase "exclusive use."
Dave Benke