The songs Christians sing are really important. They don't just express our faith, they form it too. That's why Charles Wesley was so significant in Methodism: his brother John was the organiser, but Charles gave the Church its voice. Songs teach us doctrine – and they reinforce doctrine, because music is so powerful. Congregational singing has an energy and persuasiveness all of its own.
One of the developments in recent years that's helped spread Christian music across different congregations and denomination is the Christian copyright licensing organisation, CCLI. Churches can pay a flat fee and copy or project any song covered by the scheme. And one of the newest is really worrying.
According to Jonathan Aigner – who has commented pithily on it – the song was sung on Saturday at the Celebrate Freedom event for veterans on Saturday night. One of the sponsors was Robert Jeffress' church, First Baptist, Dallas. and the song, by the church's former minister of music Gary Moore, went like this:
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,
And make America great again,
Yes, make America great again.
(repeat)
Make America great,
Each and every state,
Make America great again.
It won't be lost on readers that this is President Trump's slogan, and yes, he was the main speaker at the event.
And there's something deeply, deeply troubling about this. We know exactly what modern Christian congregational music sounds like – it's rolled out and sold by the yard, and this is exactly that. It is, in short, worship music, but it's not God who is being worshipped, or even a country: it's one man's vision of a country, and it's not a pretty one.
The shortcomings of President Trump have been too often documented to need further comment. Even during these last few days, his latest Twitter war, with Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, has left even his own party aghast.
The idea that this song is being promoted for use in churches is horrifying.
Evangelical Christians have been Trump's most loyal backers, seeing in him –however unlikely it may seem – a champion of causes dear to their hearts. But when they sing him a worship song, it's time to say, 'Enough.'
Curiously enough, at about the same time Christians were singing praise to their president on Saturday, a newspaper in Saudi Arabia was publishing an apology for a columnist. One Ramadan al-Anzi had praised the country's leader, King Salman, using attributes usually reserved for God. Horrified, the king ordered him suspended.
Saudi Arabia is not a model of democracy; that's supposed to be America. And it is the most Islamic of states, while America is supposed to be one of the most Christian. One would have to be very dull not to see the irony: that it's the ruler of the former that models humility and a proper attitude to God.
Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
