The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 14)

p>Keep up the great work. br> -- Chris Hall br> Knoxville, Tennessee /p>

I'm one of those "falling away Methodists." I suppose I have an excuse as I work Sunday mornings. When I am fortunate enough to show up, I don't recognize the church in which I grew up.

Mostly, I miss the music. I was raised on the Wesley Brothers, Sir Isaac Watts, "Fountains Filled with Blood," "Old Rugged Crosses," and congregations who sang all the verses, lustily, in four parts as John Wesley instructed. If the message from the pulpit was mushy, the music wasn't.

The traditional hymns that remain have been stripped of references to anyone male, in order to be "inclusive." We seldom use the traditional hymnbook, probably just as well. Even the responsive readings and the Call to Communion have been stripped of their poetry. Instead we have new-agey songbooks with tuneless, unpoetic songs with only the melody line in print.

p>The Assembly Folks have the Gaither family. The Catholics have Brother Joncas. Methodists have music now written by politically correct committees. br> -- unsigned /p> p> WONDER WELD br> Re: W. James Antle III's

topics:
Taxes, Education, Medicaid, Abortion, Books, Movies, Iraq, NATO, Communism, Oil