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PCUSA Minister Calls FBC Dallas Choir Number Blasphemy

Jerome

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www.newsweek.com/trumps-independence-day-tweet-features-maga-choir-singing-just-him-631644

"Last weekend the First Baptist Church in Dallas performed a new song penned in honor of the president at the “Celebrate Freedom Rally” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The piece is titled: 'Make America Great Again.'"

"'they shout it out with nationalistic fervor,' writes Jonathan Aigner, Director of Music Ministries in a Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas....'they pray a blasphemous prayer to a red, white, and blue Jesus.'"
 

MennoSota

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You know...Jesus was born and raised in Texas...[emoji48] [emoji56]

The only time when I could imagine greatness in North America is during the time of the Great Awakening, which was in the colonial days. Other than that, the US has a lot of repenting to do. A lot of repenting.

I agree with the Presbyterians on this one. That is a cringeworthy song. It kinda gave me the shivers.
 

Rob_BW

Well-Known Member
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According to the internet...

Lyrics in full:


Make America Great Again

Make America Great Again

Lift the torch of freedom all across the land

Step into the future, joining hand in hand

Make America Great Again

Yes, Make America Great Again

Make America Great Again

Make America Great Again

Lift the torch of freedom all across the land

Step into the future, joining hand in hand

Make America Great Again

Yes, Make America Great, each and every state

Make America Great Again

Make America Great Again
 

rsr

<b> 7,000 posts club</b>
Moderator
Why would any choir sing a song based on a campaign slogan? But I guess that's what passes for "worship" these days. Don't ask for forgiveness, for mercy, for God's provision in the midst of our sinfulness. Don't ask to be a light to the nations or a refuge. Ask God to make America great again. Gag.

Given that it's Jeffress' church, I can't say I'm surprised.
 

Jerome

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Certainly a different message than what that church was putting out years ago. Contrast this selection from a 1970s patriotic program by the FBC Dallas Rainbow Youth Choir:


The time has come, let us begin
With all our voices joining in
To sing of love and brotherhood
And people doing WHAT THEY SHOULD!
To help their fellow man be free
And fill this land with harmony
The young, the old, the rich, the poor
Making sounds never heard before!

La la la la la, Harmony! Harmony!
Let's all join in harmony
Sing away the hurt and fear
A great new dream will soon be here!
 

MennoSota

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
According to the internet...

Lyrics in full:


Make America Great Again

Make America Great Again

Lift the torch of freedom all across the land

Step into the future, joining hand in hand

Make America Great Again

Yes, Make America Great Again

Make America Great Again

Make America Great Again

Lift the torch of freedom all across the land

Step into the future, joining hand in hand

Make America Great Again

Yes, Make America Great, each and every state

Make America Great Again

Make America Great Again
Kinda sounds like someone from Hillsong wrote the lyrics. Zero theology and lots of repetition. Classic modern day worship! [emoji23] [emoji24] [emoji6] [emoji41]
 

MennoSota

Well-Known Member
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Certainly a different message than what that church was putting out years ago. Contrast this selection from a 1970s patriotic program by the FBC Dallas Rainbow Youth Choir:


The time has come, let us begin
With all our voices joining in
To sing of love and brotherhood
And people doing WHAT THEY SHOULD!
To help their fellow man be free
And fill this land with harmony
The young, the old, the rich, the poor
Making sounds never heard before!

La la la la la, Harmony! Harmony!
Let's all join in harmony
Sing away the hurt and fear
A great new dream will soon be here!
Still sounds like Hillsong...
Must have been a Gaither classic... [emoji23] [emoji6] [emoji41]
 

Reynolds

Well-Known Member
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Kinda sounds like someone from Hillsong wrote the lyrics. Zero theology and lots of repetition. Classic modern day worship! [emoji23] [emoji24] [emoji6] [emoji41]
Maybe some people are just not old grouches. Everything does not have to have deep theology.
 

MennoSota

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Maybe some people are just not old grouches. Everything does not have to have deep theology.
Every song teaches. Why would we not teach about God in our churches?
If I want a nationalist song, I go to a 4th of July concert in the park and listen to John Phillips Sousa marches. If I want a God-centered song, I go to church and listen to songs that teach me about God's attributes.
It's a sad world when unsaved people are writing deeper lyrics about God than the lyrics supposed church leaders are writing.
 

HankD

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How about

God bless America,
Land that I love,
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above;

From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.

Ever sang that?

Believe it or not we sang this song/hymn in the public grammar schools in East Boston Massachusetts in the late 40's, early 50's.

This one as well:

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion’d stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

Then the Pledge to the flag.

No one, I say no one EVER complained about these songs or the pledge.

Innocence LOST!

the blood of the innocent?


HankD
 
Last edited:

Salty

20,000 Posts Club
Administrator
According to the OP - this concert was :
at the “Celebrate Freedom Rally” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The piece is titled: 'Make America Great Again.'"

It was NOT at a church - it was a secular event.
 

Rob_BW

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I'm curious about the entire event. Was this song just some type of opener, and they sang more "substantial" hymns later?
 

Reynolds

Well-Known Member
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Every song teaches. Why would we not teach about God in our churches?
.
The same reason that on some Saturdays our mens group gets together to cook and eat. Just good fellowship. The same reason we sometimes go to the river and have a church picnic. Just for fun.
 

MennoSota

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The same reason that on some Saturdays our mens group gets together to cook and eat. Just good fellowship. The same reason we sometimes go to the river and have a church picnic. Just for fun.
So go to the Legion or VFW with your buddies and sing your patriotic songs. But, let the songs in church be God-centered songs that teach about His attributes.
 

Deacon

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Did they actually say "a red, white and blue, Jesus"?
Reminds me of a Christian fiction I read recently, "My Imaginary Jesus: The Spiritual Adventures of One Man Searching for the Real God"
Here's a section:
A swarm of denominational Jesuses trampled New Age Jesus in their hurry to get to me. Catholic Jesus and Protestant Jesus argued the whole time. Baptist Jesus was dragging an enormous bathtub full of water behind him. The various Orthodox Jesuses were carrying tasty treats from Russia, Greece, Romania, and all over the world. Stern Jesuses, laughing Jesuses, Emergent Jesus and Emerging Jesus (like good and evil twins, I guess . . . but I can never remember which is which), a few Jesuses who barely fit the description like Universalist Jesus (dressed like Buddha, six arms like Shiva) and the six-inch-tall Bahai Jesus, and all of them wanted a piece of me. Health Nut Jesus came running out of the health section wearing tennis shorts and a headband.

I pulled away from them all and raced into the Purple Room, the mob of Jesuses on my heels. A few more Jesuses from the archaeology section joined us. One from the 1800s was strenuously disagreeing with another from the 1970s about whether the Hittites existed. A Jungian Jesus came barreling up from the philosophy section, Political Jesus and all his friends came from the politics section, and then the Military Jesus crowd joined in, loudly declaring their passionate approval of whoever was victorious in war. Gay and Lesbian Jesus came along too, assuring us that he didn’t care about sexual orientation and that he would gladly talk about it to the exclusion of any other topic. There must have been fifty of them now, babbling, yelling, pushing, shoving. I ran down the stairs to the Rose Room, where the scientific Jesuses marched behind us, doing their best to prove their own existence. “Scientific evidence proves that Jesus exists and is God!” they shouted. Perpetually Angry Jesus shouted them back down. In the back of the crowd someone had found Feminist Jesus, and she was biting Patriarchal Jesus in the shoulder. He yowled in pain but wouldn’t hit a woman in public. All of the children’s book Jesuses swarmed around us, their strange, incomplete stories and simplified theology shining through their white, simple faces. Their scars were hard to see, but they loved children and had a consistent message. “Obey your parents!” one of them screamed, while Liberation Theology Jesus screamed in frustration, “Parents should not create a lesser, unempowered class out of the children!” We burst through the automotive section and, like water spewing through a pipe, shot into the Orange Room. CEO Jesus came running toward us, saying I wasn’t organized enough with my time and didn’t I want Jesus to bless my business. Feng Shui Jesus offered to rearrange my house so that the spirits would be pleased, and Cooking Jesus grabbed me by the arm and said, “If you follow my first-century dietary tips, you can live a long and happy life!” I shook him frantically and shouted, “You only lived to be thirty-three years old!” We crashed like a tidal wave into the Gold Room. Some of the superhero Jesuses popped out of the graphic novel section in the Coffee Room: Super Jesus and Godman. “We’re strange visitors from another planet,” they cried. “Let us use our superior powers to help, you poor, backward earthling. Your primitive emotions and tiny problems baffle us, but we’ll help get the cats out of your trees.”
Mikalatos, Matt. My Imaginary Jesus: The Spiritual Adventures of One Man Searching for the Real God (pp. 181-183). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Rob
 

Reynolds

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So go to the Legion or VFW with your buddies and sing your patriotic songs. But, let the songs in church be God-centered songs that teach about His attributes.
No, we will sing them at Church around July 4th and Memorial day.
 

MennoSota

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Site Supporter
No, we will sing them at Church around July 4th and Memorial day.
Too bad. But, I am glad I don't attend your church. God is not a US citizen.
I have noted on mission trips that no churches have ever sung patriotic songs during their services. Not once have they gloried in their nation when they are worshipping God. It seems to be a prideful thing we Americans do. It seems that we imagine God sees the US as the center of His universe. Such pride makes me shake my head.
 
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