Pet Peeve -- Re-Writing Hymns

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David_Zampino

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Is it just me, or are others out there annoyed with the re-writing of classic hymns in order to make them “gender neutral”?

I find it especially annoying during the Christmas season, when favorite hymns and carols are “edited” – sometimes to the point of absurdity.

Anyone else out there?

Blessings,
 
We are adult converts. When we go back to our home town for Christmas, we do not have a home parish for Midnight Mass. There is one Parish that has been scratched from our list because they used “gender neutral” carols. GRRRRRR.
 
I am with you. I sing th e"correct" words loudly and enthusiastically. Some of the older parishioners sing without looking at their books so I am not alone.

My worst “peeve” this year was in Joy to the World, they changed “let men, their songs employ” to “let us, our songs employ”. :mad: Not just a gender change, it changes the meaning and I do not comply. 😉
 
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kage_ar:
We are adult converts. When we go back to our home town for Christmas, we do not have a home parish for Midnight Mass. There is one Parish that has been scratched from our list because they used “gender neutral” carols. GRRRRRR.
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We’re adult converts as well (well, my wife is a revert) – and one thing that really frustrates me is this “gender neutral” business. Yes, I realize that most of the newer Protestant hymnals have done similar things, but the “missalettes”, etc. seem to be worse.

The one Christmas hymn I hate the “gender neutral” stuff the most is “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” – one of my favorites.

Blessings,
 
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Corki:
I am with you. I sing th e"correct" words loudly and enthusiastically. Some of the older parishioners sing without looking at their books so I am not alone.

My worst “peeve” this year was in Joy to the World, they changed “let men, their songs employ” to “let us, our songs employ”. :mad: Not just a gender change, it changes the meaning and I do not comply. 😉
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In the Episcopal church I attended in college, I sang the “correct” words to hymns. Eventually, the priest asked me to sit on the other side of the church, as I was “confusing” the music ministry!

I agree with “Joy to the World”.

Today at morning Mass, we sang what used to be one of my favorite Epiphany hymns “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise” which had all the "thee"s changed to "you"s which, of course, messes up the poetry of the verse structure – AND the line “God in man made manifest” got changed to “God in flesh made manifest”. Also, references to God the Son as “he” were changed to “Christ”.

YUCKY!!!

Blessings,
 
I remember in a baptist church I used to go to the hymn book change “Thine be the glory” to “Yours be the glory”. Most people sang ‘Thine’ anyway. Of course, there are plenty of worse changes than that.

My pet peeves:

Hymnbooks that refuse to include any hymn with warfare language. Don’t they agree we are in a spiritual battle?

Hymns and choruses that misquote scripture. There are plenty of them.

Generally I find people laugh at me if I point out that a hymn misquotes scripture thus changing the meaning. Don’t people think that faithfulness to the Bible is important?
 
I loathe this tendency to muck about with the old hymns. Oregon Catholic Press is the enemy of church music.
 
I hate it when they change the words! Leave it alone! and I love thee and thy! Don’t change them!
 
You can count me in on the hate, despise, loathe and even detest the mutilation of hymns to horrific “gender neutral” versions. (No, I don’t feel strongly about that at all 😛 as you can tell by the mildness of my language choice.) I find “gender neutering” to be patronizing at best, theologically wrong at the worst, and always awkward.

If someone really is offended by a line like “pleased as Man with men to dwell” let him write his own hymns and leave the originals alone. (Yes, I am a thoroughly unreconstructed refusnik when it comes to gender-neutering the language.)
 
David Zampino:
We’re adult converts as well (well, my wife is a revert) – and one thing that really frustrates me is this “gender neutral” business. Yes, I realize that most of the newer Protestant hymnals have done similar things, but the “missalettes”, etc. seem to be worse.

The one Christmas hymn I hate the “gender neutral” stuff the most is “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” – one of my favorites.

Blessings,
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YES!!! That bothers me soooo much!!! We can’t say “born that men no more may die” anymore!!! And it’s one of my favorite hymns too!!! Another one they’ve changed is “Good Christian Men, Rejoice.” Now we have to say “Good Christian Friends Rejoice.”

Then there’s all the hymns that have changed “Thee” and “Thy” to modern English. Which is better than changing the words to be all inclusive, but I really don’t care for some of the classic hymns being modernized.
 
this isnt hymns, but there is a parisioner at the U of Wa newman center that says God instead of He through the entire mass. It really bugs me.
 
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Brain:
this isnt hymns, but there is a parisioner at the U of Wa newman center that says God instead of He through the entire mass. It really bugs me.
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Ah, yes, those people who view pronouns with repugnance when associated with the Deity. I always want to sit next to them and say wicked things, like “HE was concieved by the Holy Spirit…on the third day, HE rose again from the dead…” AND let’s not forget “for us MEN and our salvation, HE came down from heaven.” Tiresome cranks.
 
And sometimes, they even start balking at “man” when in reference to an actual adult human male. For example, I once heard a reading of account of the conversion of Cornelius in which they changed Peter’s words from “Arise, I myself also am a man.” to “Arise, I am only human.” :banghead:
 
David Zampino:
Is it just me, or are others out there annoyed with the re-writing of classic hymns in order to make them “gender neutral”?

I find it especially annoying during the Christmas season, when favorite hymns and carols are “edited” – sometimes to the point of absurdity.

Anyone else out there?

Blessings,
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Only in my old parishes. :rolleyes:

I’m a female and I’ve never taken to gender-inclusive language. It’s absurd. I think I’m smart enough to grasp that the expression “man” is often referring to mankind, which includes women.

It’s just another way to dumb-down Catholicism.

For decades, during the Creed, I recited “for us and our salvation” instead of “for us men and our salvation” because the entire congregation omitted the word “men”. If you said it, you were a word behind.

When I switched to Assumption Grotto, it too time for the habit to break. Of course, I attend the Latin Novus Ordo 95% of the times so that cured it altogether.

👍
 
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JKirkLVNV:
I loathe this tendency to muck about with the old hymns. Oregon Catholic Press is the enemy of church music.
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Hear, Hear!!!
 
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THutch04:
YES!!! That bothers me soooo much!!! We can’t say “born that men no more may die” anymore!!! And it’s one of my favorite hymns too!!! Another one they’ve changed is “Good Christian Men, Rejoice.” Now we have to say “Good Christian Friends Rejoice.”

Then there’s all the hymns that have changed “Thee” and “Thy” to modern English. Which is better than changing the words to be all inclusive, but I really don’t care for some of the classic hymns being modernized.
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I agree on both points. I dislike the “gender neutral” in the extreme – but I also dislike the re-writing of old hymns because the editors seem to think that the congregation is too stupid to understand a “thee”. Such changes really mess with the poetry of the hymn text.

If the PC crowd wants new hymns – no one is stopping them from writing them. Just leave the classics alone!

“Mortals Join the Mighty Chorus
Which the Morning Stars Began
Father Love is Reigning O’re Us
Brother Love Binds Man to Man”

Blessings,
 
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Brain:
this isnt hymns, but there is a parisioner at the U of Wa newman center that says God instead of He through the entire mass. It really bugs me.
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I hate that just as much! I got that in grad school – “God revealing God’s Self” etc.

GROAN!
 
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Lux_et_veritas:
Only in my old parishes. :rolleyes:

I’m a female and I’ve never taken to gender-inclusive language. It’s absurd. I think I’m smart enough to grasp that the expression “man” is often referring to mankind, which includes women.
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Agast!
Are you calling feminists less smart than you?😉
Yeah, me too!
 
netmil(name removed by moderator):
Agast!
Are you calling feminists less smart than you?😉
Yeah, me too!
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I’m all for equal pay, equal access to employment, but totally against dumbing down requirements and standards in order to enable that equal employment (like, I don’t believe weight limits should be dropped so that females can serve a branch of the army or get a fireman’s role).

I see gender-inclusive language as just another way to dumb things down. Not only that, it serves to build pride. I know women, and nuns, who for years spent more time trying to figure out how to make the language of the Mass and hymns more gender inclusive than they did just being nuns (figuratively). It was a joke.
 
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