From the Organ Bench (May Church Newsletter)

Questions arose from a few in the parish regarding the appropriateness of the choir offertory during Bishop Iker’s visit. A few complained that “I Will Follow Him” was not “holy music.” This is an easy misunderstanding to clear up. (By the way, the Bishop loved it.)

Christians have always re-claimed popular music for worship and praise. In the Middle Ages, so-called secular music was often brought into the church and given sacred lyrics. Manfred F. Bukofzer writes in the New Oxford History of Music:

Only recently has it been recognized how frequently such interchange took place, and the more we learn about medieval music, the more important it becomes. The practice of borrowing a song from one sphere and making it suitable for use in the other by the substitution of words is known as "parody" or "contrafactum."

Some believe the Wesleys used tavern songs to accompany some of their hymns. Turns out the “bar music” they borrowed doesn’t refer to drinking establishments but to a kind of poetry. But many hymn writers did use songs from contemporary sources. Fanny Crosby wrote over 9,000 hymns (although none appear in our Hymnal), among them “Blessed Assurance,” “Tell Me the Story of Jesus,” and many other Christian favorites. She used Scottish and Welsh popular music as well as music written by Stephen Foster. General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, used many parodies. His music minister once quipped, “Why should the Devil have all the good music?”

“I Will Follow Christ” was a parody Dan Woods and I put to the music from the movie, Sister Act, based on the original tune performed by Little Peggy March.

I will follow Him, ever since He touched my heart I knew,
There isn't an ocean too deep,
A mountain so high, it can keep,
Keep me away, away from His love.

To sing these lyrics about anyone other than Christ is ludicrous. Romans 8 says, “Neither height nor depth … can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Now, that's holy music.