Whatever else they may be, fundamentalists on the whole are very, very tired people. They’re told that they must rise before the dawn to do lengthy devotions and commit themselves to prayer. The men must go to their jobs early and stay late in order to be pleasing to their masters while the women are busy cooking, cleaning, teaching, sewing, organizing, and serving.
Then there are church duties to be maintained; church work days to attend; church projects to complete. Soul-winning and bus ministry are hours out of each week even when there aren’t one countless special services, conferences, and revivals that go on through the year. Even brief vacations carry the requirement of finding a church to attend.
So when the weary fundamentalist finally reaches that day of rest and gladness on Sunday and drags himself into his pew he will find there no more rest for his soul than he has had rest for his body. For all his labor will not be enough to sate the son of a horseleach who stands in the pulpit and screams “Give! Give!” as if the people in the pew have are not already fully spent. And so those hapless souls repair once again to their grindstones to see if they can appease the angry god who’s yoke and burden are heavy indeed.
There may be no rest for the wicked but the ultra-righteous would seem also to find little respite for their bodies and souls.
It seems bizarre in retrospect that this song made it into the canon of acceptable music in so many fundy churches. Here we have a contemporary song sung in an “emotional style” by a singer with long hair who eventually came out as gay — all things that should have completely made this song off limits. Yet none of these anathemas stopped fundies all over the country from cleaning up this song and featuring it in their missions conferences.
I think the redeeming quality that made fundamentalists want to give this particular musical selection a pass was simply that this is an extremely man-centered and guilt-inducing song. Essentially it’s telling you that if you give your last five dollars in the offering plate RIGHT NOW then people will come up and thank you when you get to heaven. Otherwise it will be YOUR FAULT that they aren’t there.
If you ever want to send former fundy missionary kids running screaming from a church service just have someone get up and sing this as a special.
Multiple readers have informed me that FBC Hammond is voting in a new church constitution that includes this little gem for its members on page 21:
Here’s the truth: you can’t give up your right to sue. I know because my alma mater tried something very similar to this with its students but they still got sued on a regular basis. This is merely theater to squash dissent from those who don’t know any better.
You would think that if these catalogs bothered this guy so much he would ask them to stop sending them. Then again, some folks do seem to thrive on outrage.
The video description says “I will boycott ANY professing “Christian” catalog that sells pro-Catholic materials.” And I’m sure they’re really feeling it, pal. Well done.
A silly blog dedicated to Independent Fundamental Baptists, their standards, their beliefs, and their craziness.
