78 thoughts on “The “Hash Chorus””

  1. Something tells me that guy wouldn’t be creepily hooting and hollering if that was three guys up there singing.

  2. [relief] I’m always half-way worried when I see you’ve posted a video of girls singing–wondering if today will be the day the Schaefer Girls of years gone by will make an appearance on this blog. Glad we escaped today. But I must admit to singing this one many, many times.

  3. I’ve documented enough fundy abuse cases that the guy’s voice saying Amen and all that gives me the creeps. I hope his admiration was innocent.

  4. @Bassenco I sure hope so as well. I’m prob not as keen on picking up the creepiness, but it didn’t seem that creepy to me.

  5. Okay, is there something sacred in fundy circles about the wooden “in rememberance of me” tables to set the communion elements on?

  6. @RJW it makes it painfully clear that they don’t believe in transubstantiation, or consubstantiation. Should be on the floor & w/o barrier between the audience/corpus & the table indicating there’s no ontological difference between the pastor administreting the distribution ceremony and the individual believer receiving the host. It’s all based on reformation theology about the eucharist & the priest/administrator/server and what communion is. It spoke pretty powerfully in the 1600s, and probably the 1700s, nowadays most poeple just think it’s the way it’s supposed to be w/ no real idea of why.

  7. The “In Remembrance Of Me” table (altar) in fundy circles has nothing to do with the Lord’s supper (communion). The IFB church I attended had one observance in the 4+ years I attended. Notice what the table holds – offering plates. A subtle reminder to bring all your tithes & offerings into the storehouse.

  8. I was deeply offended by the laying on of papers on the communion table. 😉 I remember singing those those on the bus to Sunday evening service @ BJU back in the day. They can stay back there, too. Although, I could make an argument that this was the forerunner to the modern day mash up.

    Hannah, please post something of you and your sisters singing.

  9. I don’t think the guy was being creepy.

    There were women in my church that would sing along with the choirs, say amen when she agreed, and make other comments about agreeing with the words. It wasn’t as loud as this dude, but they did it to everyone, men/women/boys/girls.

  10. @ Richard Sullivan, how could your Baptist church not observe communion? (or only once in four years?) Baptists believe in two ordinances: baptism and communion. What justification could they possibly have for ignoring this? Thankfully, my childhood IFB church as well as the three churches I’ve attended since college have all had communion once a month. BTW, the only time I missed communion was during my years at BJU.

    Sorry for the hijack! I just couldn’t get over Richard’s comment about the scarcity of the Lord’s Table. Wow!

  11. I realize I’m a big nerd, but . . . didn’t every fundy girl grow up hanging around the piano singing this thing to the point that you could improvise any one of the “parts”? I found myself mindlessly humming the alto and the switching to the “tenor” part too just now while I was listening. Didn’t we all do this? Couldn’t *one* of the girls have done a second part? IN HER SLEEP?

    What’s this world coming to . . . . 😉

    1. I know I could sing all 4 parts to this by the time I was 6…Every Sunday morning and evening on our way to and from church. So glad our family has developed some music taste since then…

  12. @Pastor’s Wife
    That is one of the separation issues in the rural fundy camp of churches that I grew up in. They observes the Lord’s table once maybe twice a year so that there is no way we (there is a Freudian typo… should read “they” not ‘we”) could be confused with Southern Baptists who do it the 5th Sunday of any month that has a 5th Sunday, or weekly like the Church of God folks or, heaven forbid, the Presbyterians in our area. It was usually tied to a message about getting back to the Old Paths or getting sin out of the Camp. Once in four yeas is not suprising. It becomes a control tactic to make sure everyone is “right with gawd”… meaning the rules are dutifully being followed. (In my own experiences, I snarkily add, usually it was observed when the “pastor” was feeling holy enough to administer it or more to the point when the “pastor” wanted everyone to think he was holy enough to administer it. Or sometimes when he wanted the group to think they had achieved some measure of holiness worthy of being allowed to partake of the Lord’s Supper.)

  13. Yeah, Camille, you’re not alone… I was usually the one playing the piano, but there wasn’t anything that warmed the cockles of certain authority figures’ hearts more than seeing a group of kids singing weird mashups around a piano.

  14. I just read about this this morning in _Hoosier Faiths_, Don. Two-seed Baptists, Separate Baptists, Hardshell Baptists — whatever you call ’em. They all share that trait.

    So yeah . . . ::shudder::

  15. @Don maybe it was one of those “pastor requests” so they sing it all the time. How many times did we sing Hallelujah What A Savior?? Or perhaps it could be the only song they know…

    @Bassenco- I agree definitely the amening is creepy and I listened to one of your documentaries yesterday and it was heartbreaking and moving. I plan on listening to the other one today. Thanks for working to expose the dark underbelly of fundamentalism. We had a guy in our church that everyone knew you didn’t hug, even the underage girls. He never crossed any physical lines per say but the attitude and motivation were less than pure and nothing was ever done.

  16. @alm517 Thank you for tuning in. Shifflett was brutal and sexually abusive, and Williams is just insanely brutal. I’ll be grateful to hear your review(s)

  17. RE: Baptists and ordinances. My mother used to say marriage was a Sacrament. I would remind her that she was Baptist and Baptists didn’t believe in Sacraments. Yeah, I was one of “those” kinda kids.

  18. The fundy church in our area believes that communion means you are in communion with your fellow church members and you have to examine yourself to see if you hold anything against anyone else. “This is My body” means “the church that I attend”.

    Is this a common belief?

    It does not believe that you are in communion with the Lord or mentions repentence in regards to Him as far as I can tell.

    The emphasis in Protestant circles is the phrase “in remembrence of Me” and in the Catholic Church is the “Do This”. Do what? Why, partake of the Lord’s Supper!

  19. @Bassenco I’ve heard of Don Williams & HH thanks to commenters on this blog, but am unfamiliar w/ “Shifflet”. You got a link or mind enlightening me?

  20. @ Don, thanks for the insight. I find it humbling and beautiful to be reminded of Christ’s sacrifice during Communion. It also reminds me to confess my sins before taking it. I can’t be nourishing grudges in my heart against my husband or annoyances at my children if I want to take communion. I surely wouldn’t want to wait four years or more to share in what Christ told us to do.

  21. Let’s not fight guys, no matter how often a fundie church takes communion, we can all agree that it’s still totally creepy to symbolically eat the flesh of and drink the blood of your savior.

  22. it’s still totally creepy to symbolically eat the flesh of and drink the blood of your savior.

    I don’t get it.

  23. Nobody gets to heaven apart from eating his flesh and drinking His blood. He said so (John 6). You might be creeped out, but that’s because you don’t comprehend to how deep a level we need our Savior. Shocking sinners need some shocking metaphors to tell them the shocking reality of their sinful condition.

  24. @BASSENCO I’ve seen that Jeri post on here before, is she also the narrator/interviewer of that Lambs of Culpepper? Compelling/enraging stuff. Makes me wish there were a Sinead O’Connor ripping up pics of Jack Hyles on SNL, as well as the pope for all the coverups related to these child abuses.

  25. @Rob – you might want to educate yourself on the Pope’s so-called coverups related to child abuse. Basically the Pope did everything humanly possible both as a Cardinal and as Pope to see to it that the abuses are exposed and that it never happens again. I am sick of hearing about 30 or 40 year old cases suddenly coming to light when there is a cash payout for those who claim abuse. Notice I said “claim” not “prove” that they were abused.

    http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/reports_blaming_pope_for_mishandled_sex_abuse_case_are_inaccurate_church_judge_reveals/

    http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/fr._lombardi_explains_vatican_response_to_sexual_abuses_by_wisconsin_priest/

    http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/papal_letter_to_ireland_urges_abuse_victims_to_look_to_jesus_christs_healing_power/

  26. What I found funny about this was that they didn’t hold a microphone – just like every other fundy church. It would be way too worldly! 🙂 And heaven forbid they believe and enjoy what they’re singing about!

  27. @ free – LOL! I know what you mean! God forbid we look joyful! After all, joy isn’t a fruit of the Spirit is it?

    As for mic holding, a few years ago, my husband asked a choir member to sing a verse as a solo while the choir joined in on the chorus. He asked her to hold a microphone, leaving at her side when she wasn’t doing her solo. Immediately an old lady soprano started in on my husband about how it was sinful to hold a mic and how he was wrong. I was blown away by her nastiness and audacity. After all, if she was so concerned with being “godly”, why wasn’t she 1) going to an “erring” brother in private not reaming him out in front of everyone and 2) respecting him as a pastor and following his lead? Wouldn’t you think someone so old-fashioned would have an old-fashioned view of “women being silent in the church” or something? But no, mic holding was so wicked it justified her calling out a minister in front of the entire choir. (My husband was gracious to her, but held his ground.)

  28. Didn’t really mean to make it about Catholics, was wishing Sinead had ripped up a pic of Hyles.

  29. And on an only slightly-related note:
    Hash makes any fundie church service about 10 times more interesting.

  30. “You might be creeped out, but that’s because you don’t comprehend to how deep a level we need our Savior.”

    I guess it’s just me, but if I need help from someone, eating them is just not the way I’d imagine thanking them.

  31. I think the guy amening, etc. was my pastor in the 1980’s. No, I am serious. He is now in AL. I’m wondering where this church is that this comes from?!?

  32. I just saw the back of his head at the end. That is indeed my pastor from about 1982 or 83 through 1992. SMALL world.

  33. RE: Holding a microphone. That was very hard for me, partly because of my Funyland upbringing and partly because of my classical vocal training. I think I’m over it now.

  34. “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world ismy flesh.” John 6:50-51 ESV

  35. “I guess it’s just me, but if I need help from someone, eating them is just not the way I’d imagine thanking them.”

    Perhaps obeying them as a thank you. Jesus himself is the one who told us to do this. It’s not about eating him; it’s about the object lesson he used with bread and wine.

    Luke 22:19, 2 Corinthians 11:25-26

  36. @jordan: “I guess it’s just me, ”

    Yes, it’s you. Millions have comprehended the metaphor. Sorry you cannot.

  37. I never said I didn’t comprehend the symbolism, I just said that the symbolism is creepy. But can’t you understand where I’m coming from? I mean, what if communion was some tradition of another religion that you didn’t ascribe to? As an outsider, would you not be the teeniest bit creeped out that the followers of this religion were symbolically eating the flesh and drinking the blood of their savior?

  38. As an outsider, would you not be the teeniest bit creeped out that the followers of this religion were symbolically eating the flesh and drinking the blood of their savior?

    The Romans certainly thought it was weird–weird, as in uncreepy. They were so used to mystery religions like those of Cybele, Dionysus, Isis, Mithras, and the Eleusinian Mysteries–whose rites sometimes involved literally bathing in the literal blood of a literally slaughtered bull–that some of them assumed actual cannibalism was going on in Christian rites. They couldn’t comprehend a religion in which people sat down for a meal and sang songs without any weirdness going on. If you find communion “creepy,” it’s only because we’ve gotten used to cynical irreligion.

  39. The Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus founded and the gates of hell will never prevail against her.

    Funny how no one speaks of protestant clergy abuse. It’s just so much easier to attack the Catholic Church because it is a visible target. It is hard to make a big scandal over one abusive youth ministier at, say, “Second Baptist Church of Orlando”. Over the past decade and under the leadership of our current Pope there are such safeguards against abuse that for all of 2009, only 6 credible cases (out of thousands of clergy) have been reported in the US. Of course this is the Pope who “doesn’t care” (roll-eyes). I know in my parish and archdiocese, every person who works with children is required to take annual training in regards to keeping children safe. And everyone who works with children undergoes a background check.

    How many cases of child abuse in 2009 were commited by protestant clergy? school teachers? scout masters? coaches? step-fathers? fathers against their own children? “friendly” neighbors? uncles? There are always going to be a creepy population of sex offenders who will do horrible things in secret until they get caught, and this goes through all occupations.

    The abuse scandal of the Catholic Church was horrible, sinful and wrong and I don’t defend that. The cover-ups were wrong. Trusting the word of priests who claimed to be rehabilitated was wrong. Not fully investigating claims was wrong. But the Church has learned from these mistakes and won’t let it happen again. Most cases occured 30-50 years ago, and in many cases the men who commited them are dead. The payouts have gone out to the victims and their lawyers. The Church humbly asks forgiveness for the sins of those who hurt others. What more can they do?

    Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

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