I am a walking stereotype of the English teacher who silently judges everyone else’s spelling, punctuation, and grammar. It is a heavy cross to bear from day to day.
But it’s not just Facebook and email. It’s Sunday morning worship too.
In particular, contemporary praise songs. And I am not just talking about typos on the overhead screens. (Our church has a pretty sharp PowerPoint proofreader, so that’s a relief.)
No, I am talking about the lyrics themselves.
It’s one more reason for me to prefer the old hymns over the K-LOVE stuff that now dominates American worship services. The old-timers knew their conventions of standard English as well as they knew their theology. Modern Christian lyricists struggle with both.
Here’s a test to see if you were paying attention in 8th grade English. What is wrong with the following lyric:
.jpg)
1) Shift in audience. It starts by addressing God: “Lord, I confess”. But then it switches to speaking of Jesus in the third person. Is Jesus not Lord?
2) Mixed metaphor. Is there a prison in the story of the prodigal son? Nope.
3) Frustrating ambiguity. What in the world does “death came to life” mean? The context implies it is a positive thing, but how can that clause be read in a positive sense? Maybe the author meant “death became life”? I don’t know.
Nobody knows.
It’s sloppy song-writing. And worship should not be sloppy.
Leave a Reply