Periodically someone or another will issue a call to remove hymns with militaristic themes or martial music from the hymnbook, or at least rewrite them to make them overtly pacifistic. The sentiment is noble and understandable, but mistaken. The new hymnbook may reduce the number of martial hymns or soften their edges, but I hope the new hymnbook keeps at least some of them. Especially in troubled times, the martial hymns are one place I can find peace.
The usual objections to these hymns are that militaristic imagery is incompatible with the gospel’s message of peace; that anything associated with armed conflict is inherently shameful; and that militaristic imagery or music in the hymnbook will make congregants susceptible to authoritarian rhetoric.
But militaristic language and imagery can be found throughout the scriptures, and the gospel cannot be reduced to pacifism. The Prince of Peace is also the Lord God of Armies. Jesus instructed us to turn the other cheek, but also said he brought not peace but a sword. The Psalms celebrate the Good Shepherd, and also God’s vanquishing of his enemies. Jesus saw in the centurion an example of astounding faith. The Church has numerous members in the military, and treating their profession as inherently shameful, like drug-dealing or prostitution, when Jesus himself did not think so, strikes me as arrogant self-righteousness. The notion that martial hymns will predispose us to enlisting in wanton violence or authoritarianism is far-fetched speculation with nothing to support it: People who march for fascism do so because they like the lyrics, not because of the catchy beat.
War itself is of course an obscenity that should be stricken from the face of the Earth. Although it’s easier to look away from the awful reality, if you take even a brief glance beyond your borders, you’ll discover that several parts of the world are currently scenes of appalling horror. And if you look within your borders, you’ll likely find a bleak scene offering little support to the notion that history will bend towards justice, or that mercy and righteousness have any constituency.
So with an unsparing view of the vicious tyrants who currently rule over vast swathes of the planet, the war hymns bring me peace and hope by reminding me that Jesus is the true God of Armies, and that one day he will sweep aside all the bloodthirsty pretenders.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible, swift sword
We wage an individual battle against sin and in our hearts, and we are commanded to love and accept one another. This is true.
Strike for Zion, down with error;
Flash the sword above the foe!
But it is also incomplete. A gospel that consists solely of an individual, internal battle against sin is one that is impotent to accomplish anything of lasting value in the world. The good intentions of individuals are not enough to ensure that all the hungry children are fed. Building Zion requires coordinated collective action. You need the boring but effective work of a smoothly-functioning organization where everyone knows their part and performs it. The Church is good and does good, and it can do more and be better with more people who are better prepared and better organized. And the war hymns are some of the best reminders of that. They are not “I” songs, but “we” songs.
Haste to the battle, quick to the field;
Truth is our helmet, buckler, and shield.
Stand by our colors; proudly they wave!
We’re joyfully, joyfully marching to our home.
Even at a crass physical level, the war hymns serve as a reminder that some things – the religion, freedom, peace, and families that Moroni referred to – really are worth fighting for, in the old-fashioned sense of applying violence to resist threats while putting one’s life and health at risk. We grew up in a mostly peaceful world that managed to dramatically improve the living standards of countless billions thanks to the sacrifice of millions of earnest suckers who fully accepted the myth that they were fighting fascism for the sake of their country. Slavery was ended by rubes who felt honor-bound to show up when their government called on them. The children of Sarajevo were rescued by the careful application of NATO bombs. What made all that possible and kept those wars from becoming more hideous than they were was the willingness of a great number of people to serve as asked in roles they didn’t choose in the service of ideals that are never fully realized in this world. And that seems like something worthy of an occasional reminder in our hymnbook.
Us metal fans can attest to this. I mean, Creeping Death by Metallica? Come on. Should have been added to the new hymnbook.
I’m of two minds about these hymns. On the one hand, I largely agree with the OP. On the other hand, I have experienced multiple situations where the use or overuse of these hymns felt a range between mildly inappropriate to deeply wrong.
I recognize that any piece of music, played to excess, will engender contempt. For me, my mission played and sang “Called to Serve” far past my threshold of annoyance and deep into my dungeon of disgust. I still feel painful dissonance two decades later.
But I can also see that many people find “Called to Serve” profoundly moving, and full of positive emotional connotations. Even if to me it conjures up shades of a Wehrmacht marching song.
I guess my main desire is that we reward and cultivate a wide range of hymns, and the ability to play and sing them in the Church. And to make sure that we do not cycle through the same thirty hymns, but expand our personal and congressional canon.
I think your final paragraph hits on the themes that make the “war-like” hymns so valuable–to me at least. We moderns live in (comparatively) very comfortable circumstances–and we wouldn’t be were it not for the blood, sweat, and tears of our forebears.