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#728: Blest Are They
Jan. 17th, 2021 11:51 pmSo I have no idea how I stumbled across this a couple months ago, maybe it was on a hymn page I was Googling for this blog or a synod page I was Googling for something else. But it turns out that the composer of this hymn (and a few other hymns in this volume) is a repeated sexual harasser. D:
Lots of churches and church bodies are making the choice to not sing his compositions, going forward. I think this is a great decision! If he were thrown in jail without a trial or prevented from publishing lyrics on his own blog, sure, that might be a violation of freedom of speech, but the opportunity to have your works performed in a public setting is a privilege, not a right. There are plenty of good hymns out there. And given the choice between performing a song by "this guy who is a known repeated sexual harasser" or "how about someone else," I think "someone else" wins every day of the week and twice on Sunday. (Which is when you're usually performing hymns anyway.)
However, I also think this might be a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Because in several of those posts/announcements, the context has been along the lines of "we don't want to perform his songs because they may be triggering to people who he abused." I certainly hope no one would be deliberately attempting to trigger survivors of abuse! But the thing about triggers is, in many cases they don't behave "rationally" or along predictable lines. A song by an innocuous person could be triggering to someone if it was associated with a traumatic event, just like any other kind of sensory stimuli linked with that traumatic event could be triggering. Should we refuse to sing (insert whatever song here) because it might be someone's trigger? This may be slippery-slopey, but I feel like emotional versions of the heckler's veto are increasingly common in the circles I run in and I don't want that trend to continue. (And again, nobody should feel like they ought to perform this guy's songs just 'cause, just like nobody should feel like they need to screen a movie by a known harasser at a film festival just 'cause! It's just this reasoning that seems specious.)
--
On "hymns in the wild," we did in fact sing "Lift Every Voice And Sing" today, and the pastor even suggested we stand for it (on zoom), which is obviously the first time we've been like "stand for the hymn!" in months and months. :D
Lots of churches and church bodies are making the choice to not sing his compositions, going forward. I think this is a great decision! If he were thrown in jail without a trial or prevented from publishing lyrics on his own blog, sure, that might be a violation of freedom of speech, but the opportunity to have your works performed in a public setting is a privilege, not a right. There are plenty of good hymns out there. And given the choice between performing a song by "this guy who is a known repeated sexual harasser" or "how about someone else," I think "someone else" wins every day of the week and twice on Sunday. (Which is when you're usually performing hymns anyway.)
However, I also think this might be a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Because in several of those posts/announcements, the context has been along the lines of "we don't want to perform his songs because they may be triggering to people who he abused." I certainly hope no one would be deliberately attempting to trigger survivors of abuse! But the thing about triggers is, in many cases they don't behave "rationally" or along predictable lines. A song by an innocuous person could be triggering to someone if it was associated with a traumatic event, just like any other kind of sensory stimuli linked with that traumatic event could be triggering. Should we refuse to sing (insert whatever song here) because it might be someone's trigger? This may be slippery-slopey, but I feel like emotional versions of the heckler's veto are increasingly common in the circles I run in and I don't want that trend to continue. (And again, nobody should feel like they ought to perform this guy's songs just 'cause, just like nobody should feel like they need to screen a movie by a known harasser at a film festival just 'cause! It's just this reasoning that seems specious.)
--
On "hymns in the wild," we did in fact sing "Lift Every Voice And Sing" today, and the pastor even suggested we stand for it (on zoom), which is obviously the first time we've been like "stand for the hymn!" in months and months. :D
