Negative Space: modern bowdlerism
- Depersonalizing God in modern hymns
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Hymn publishers seem to be hell-bent on removing God and faith from the hymns we sing during mass. Where Charity and Love Prevail has removed almost all personal pronouns, and implies that our faith can change with the whims of the day.
- Light a candle for Christmas hymns
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While the holidays brought more examples of bowdlerized lyrics they also brought, at least to our church, a lit candle for the darkness, in the form of a new hymnal that retains sound Catholic theology.
- Our parental unit, who art, somewhere, maybe
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God’s Blessing Sends Us Forth; We Are the Light of the World; With a Shepherd’s Care. Is there room for God the Father in the modern church? Are the bowdlerizers creating a first-contact crisis?
- Though the Darkness Hide Thee
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Removing mankind from hymns makes them less inclusive and more self-centered. The new language almost always destroys the universality—the catholicity—of the older language. It also has a tendency to deny the necessity of God’s grace.
