The Rise of the Gay Hymnal

The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada (formerly “The Hymn Society in America) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage, promote, and enliven congregational singing. This organization was founded in 1922, and is committed to promoting hymns in churches.

The society has recently taken on a new project. They are creating a hymnal designed to help those in the homosexual community feel more comfortable in church. According to their website (https://thehymnsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Songs-for-the-Holy-Other-2020.pdf), “This collection emerged from a desire to make queer hymns — hymns by, for, or about the LGBTQIA2S+ community — accessible to a wider range of congregations.”

The new hymnal contains such hymns as:

• All Colors of the Rainbow,
• God of Queer, Transgressive Spaces,
• Queerly Beloved,
• Quirky Queer and Wonderful,
• The Kingdom of God is the Queerest of Nations,
• and many others.

While the hymnal idea is relatively new, the impetus behind its creation has been a long time in the making.

Bible believing churches, of course, hold a belief that EVERY individual in existence is a person of worth, created in God’s image and deeply loved by Him. At the same time, every person is a sinner who, because of their sin, is separated from Him – no matter how large or small the sin may be thought of in the eyes of man. It was God’s great love that prompted Him to provide a way for a person’s sin to be forgiven so individuals could be made right with Him – all of this so that an eternal personal relationship between God and man could exist.

But the fact of God’s love and His provision to solve the sin problem does not mean that His forgiveness is automatically imparted to every individual. God never forces Himself on anyone. But those who are willing to repent of their sin and receive His forgiveness will have it. Still, all of this must be done on God’s terms. Those not willing to walk His road will be allowed to live separate from Him. He has specifically spelled out what that means to mankind in His personal revelation of Himself and His ways in the Bible.

But there are many churches that have moved away from biblical teachings and now base their beliefs on theological positions that do not come from the Bible. These theological views are popularly referred to as “liberal theology,” but their foundation is based squarely on naturalistic philosophy. Naturalism is the belief that the natural universe, operating by natural laws, is all that exists. To be sure, many of these people will say they believe in God, but they have created an understanding of God that is based on their own personally created value system, rather than accepting the values expressed in the Bible. In other words, they have created their own God.

In our modern day, a couple of the primary values that are promoted in this false belief are “tolerance” and “inclusion.” What this means to them is that even sinful values, like an approval of homosexuality, are accepted by God. This belief, of course, is nowhere found in the Bible. Rather, they attempt to read naturalistic philosophy into the biblical text by ignoring some Scripture passages and reinterpreting others using out of context interpretations.

But the consequences of this go much deeper than merely the creation of a gay hymnal. It has resulted in entire Christian denominations straying from the truth of the gospel, and taking millions of people with them down a road to eternal separation from God. Even right now there is a massive split playing out within both the Church of England and the United Methodist Church. There are established powers that believe the lies that woke theology is promoting. By the same token, there are many who are resisting it. And the divide is so great that reconciliation is impossible. The liberal churches are completely sold out to a naturalistic philosophy that rejects the actual meaning of the biblical text, while the faithful believers are not willing to go down that road.

Essentially, what the “liberal” churches have done is to create a new, false religion. It is a religion that totally ignores, or reinterprets, the teachings of the Bible in ways that are totally incompatible with what is actually in the text. It is exactly the way virtually all cults get their start.

Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

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