Yes, We Can Still Sing “Onward, Christian Soldiers”
By Jonathon Aigner The war against the once-beloved “Onward, Christian Soldiers” is decades old. When the United Methodist Church was revising its hymnal in the mid-80s, it made the mistake of trying to drop this hymn from what would soon become the current United Methodist Hymnal. Good Methodists and Methodists are good people. They started a war of their own, essentially inundating the hymnal committee with correspondence which, according to Carlton Young, made it “impossible for the committee to go on with its work.” Suitable for those lovely Methodist saints. Other denominations have long since dropped it like a hot potato. “Onward” hasn’t been in a mainline Presbyterian hymnal for 50 years. Other traditions still have it in their hymnals, like the Episcopal church, but I would guess that few Episcopal churches would use it lest they make those among them with little Scripture knowledge uncomfortable. On the one hand, I understand how militaristic language can be complex. It can be