Not A Christian Hymn

by Al Benson Jr.

Many year ago now, when we lived in West Virginia, the church we attended used a hymnbook that contained “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” At the time I didn’t know much about that song (I won’t call it a Christian hymn because it isn’t) but when folks got to choose what hymns they wanted to hear in the Sunday evening service that song was often chosen. At that time the pastor in that church was from Georgia, and I can imagine he cringed every time that song was chosen in a service. I remember one time, one of the congregation said to him, in jest, “We can’t sing Dixie. It’s not in the hymnbook.” If the truth be known The Battle Hymn of the Republic should not have been in a Christian hymnal either, but unfortunately it is still in many.

I ran into the same situation years later in a church in Illinois. By that time, I knew the background of that song and I explained to the pastor there that Christians should not be singing this song and I ended up mailing him some information as to why they shouldn’t. He was completely in the dark about this song, as most Christians are. In fact, most Christians, and lots of others too, are completely in the dark about most of our history in general. What they are taught for “history” in most of our public schools by public school teachers, with a few exceptions, is verbal gobble-de-gook.

At any rate, The Battle Hymn of the Republic was written by a Unitarian and abolitionist, Julia Ward Howe. She and her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe were Transcendentalists (radical Unitarians). Julia’s husband was a supporter of abolitionist/terrorist John Brown. In fact, the tune for the “Battle hymn” was taken from the song “John Brown’s Body” which song sought to glorify John Brown’s efforts at terrorist abolitionism. For those who want an in-depth view of the Battle hymn, check out https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/understanding-the-battle-hymn-of-the-republic/

I would have thought that those who publish Christian hymnals would have done some homework as to checking out the backgrounds of some of the hymns they publish. If such is the case then they really blew it with this particular song. Anything written by Unitarians does not belong in an orthodox Christian hymnal. It might be fitting for something published by the National Council of Churches, an organization that was top-heavy with clergymen who were members of Communist front groups.

The National Council of Churches is also famous for the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. To get an idea of where that version is coming from check out its wording for Isaiah 7:14 where it substitutes “young woman” for “virgin.” There is no doubt that our faith in this country, and others as well, has been tampered with. Another glaring example of that has been the Scofield Reference Bible, originally published in 1909 with its strong emphasis on national Israel instead of on Jesus Christ. I’ve written about this before and so have others.

Most of our young folks today, even my generation, which cannot be called young by any means, have no grasp of our true history. I recently ran across a young lady who bought a couple of my Western paintings, who had attended a Christian school, and she knew about the Unitarians, so whatever school she attended must have taught her something, but I’m sure she’s an exception to the general rule of things. Most Christians today don’t know doodly-squat about who the Unitarians were and how they decimated the Christian faith in the North before the War of Northern Aggression. So much of our history has been either neglected or distorted that it’s hard for us to learn from history because we really know so little of it–and that’s not accidental by any means.