Hard "s" vs. Soft "s"

I'll say it again, and you can quote me on it. My conclusion for all the critics of the modern use of music and style is that "those with the biggest criticisms have the shallowest hearts."

Just because someone is intelligent, does not mean they are sensible. DON'T waste your time reading this: Chris Tomlin’s Worship Songs: We Have Got to Do Better. I got caught and ended up reading eighty-some responses, all the while full of disgust and increasing anger...adding to my disdain for the scholars and the intellectual elite (not to mention wasting a LOT of time). There's too much to respond to, and as the author states, I probably don't have the education to do it properly (nor would I do it in love).

"Thank you Lord, for giving me heart and sense, rather than intellect."

Unfortunately, I probably can't tell you NOT to do something and still have you think about it... and again, I don't have the intellect to respond properly, here nor there, so let me commend the pure in heart (not the high in mind) while providing at least the center of his ranting:

"My suspicion, in fact, is that these songs “come to him” and he then records them with little or no alteration. Surely he can’t be crafting them with the diligence of a serious poet. For if these are the best he can do after working and reworking them, he simply needs to get someone else to write the words. They’re just that bad.

Strong accusations? You bet. Proof? Let’s pick one of his more recent songs, “Praise the Father, Praise the Son”:

O sov’reign God, O matchless King–
the saints adore, the angels sing
and fall before the throne of grace
to you belongs the highest praise.

Note: “Grace” has a hard “s” while “praise” has a soft “s.” No big deal, you say? Okay, but how big a deal is it to find a rhyme for either “grace” or “praise”?

Let’s go on. Next stanza:

These sufferings, this passing tide
under Your wings I will abide,
and every enemy shall flee;
You are my hope and victory.

We have rhymes this time–hooray! But now we have a metaphor malfunction. If sufferings are passing over us like a tide, it’s not going to do us much good to be under Someone’s wings, is it? We’ll still drown. This is a common feature of Tomlin’s mix-n-match approach to imagery, a kaleidoscope of fragments that happen to occur to him and yet don’t make any sense once they’re set down together.

Then the refrain:

Praise the Father, Praise the Son.
Praise the Spirit, Three in One.
Clothed in power and in grace
the name above all other names.

Here we go again: still can’t think of a rhyme for “grace” and now we have “names” instead. [Shudder]

And what is “the name above all other names”? That name would be “Jesus,” wouldn’t it (Phil. 2), which doesn’t actually appear in the song so far? Or perhaps YHWH (Ps. 138), which also has yet to show up in the lyrics?

Next stanza:

To the valley, for my soul;
Thy great descent has made me whole!
Your word my heart has welcomed home;
now peace like water ever flows.

What’s with the “Thy”? Is that supposed to make the lyric more sacred because (slightly) archaic? Or what? It’s weird, that’s what it is, because the very next line has another second-person possessive, but now it’s just “Your.”

Next line: Who’s on first? Is the sentence saying, “Your word has welcomed home my heart”? Or is it saying, “My heart has welcomed home your word”? Who knows? Does it matter? Is Tomlin concerned to provide us with a clear thought here, or just vague evocations of blessedness?

And the last line offers this rhyme for “home”: “flows.” Say it with me, now: “Home, flows. Home, flows.” Nope, no rhyme there. Not by a mile.

I’ll stop now, because I can’t go on. This avoidance of simple lyrical craftsmanship shows up over and over and over again in Chris Tomlin’s songs."

What chaps me even more is that he's out there teaching. His accolades, which it seems he's quite proud of are here. I was glad to see another seminarian (Dean of Chapel, Asbury Theological Seminary) chide him back in a tactful response (#58). Although, the "good doctor" did not respond with the same character.

Even St. Benedict, the definitive monk of the 5th and 6th century, in his Rule stated, "We must know that God regards our purity of heart and tears of compunction, not our many words." (48)

Ugh. I'll stop now. I don't believe this will end until Jesus returns, will it...??