RETHINKING LYRICS IN AMAZINGGRACE

Amazing Grace is a well-known and beautiful hymn from the 1770s. Many of us can quote the lyrics to it. However, not all of us have the same reaction to the lyrics. Many disabled people hesitate to sing the line, “I was blind but now I see.” Why? First and foremost, it communicates that having sight is superior to being blind, which is eugenics. Eugenics was used to justify genocide during the early 20th century. Or one could see the above lyric as spiritual blindness, which still equates blindness as inferior to sight. Furthermore, if one sees it as spiritual blindness it may motivate them to try and heal blind people. Blind people bear the image of God as they are and do not need healing imposed on them.

When Amazing Grace was written, it was not uncommon to use disability as a metaphor like the one above. Disability being used as a metaphor still exists to this day, using words like “crazy, insane, blind, deaf, lame” etc. to describe something is an example. There are several problems with this metaphorical language. These words were used to institutionalize, kill, and further harm disabled people for centuries. Using these words metaphorically is ableist language.

A lot of people do not know the history behind these ableist words. Now that we know some of the history behind the language, we can change it to be more inclusive.

Here these words from Disability Theologian Stephanie Tait about how she feels about the line and her suggestion to change it:

“A polite heads up that there are a lot of ableist metaphors used in worship songs/hymns. The most common tend to use blindness as a representation of ignorance, sin, aimlessness, hopelessness etc and gaining sight as a marker of wisdom, wholeness, faith, and being “saved.”

If you’re abled (meaning if you are nondisabled), you may feel like that’s being “nitpicky” or “just looking for something to complain about.” But when you’re disabled, you hear *yourself* being used as a metaphor for everything we’re hoping not to be, and everything we’re saying Jesus came to correct and undo.

I’ve seen some progressive churches/conferences change lyrics to songs to remove harmful theologies or to be more gender inclusive. I’ve never seen one change a lyric to remove ableism though. Whenever I sing [Amazing Grace], I change the ableist lyrics “was blind but now I see” to “was bound but now I’m free.” Communicates the same message but without using anyone’s disability as a way to communicate being ignorant, broken, or less than whole.”

Her suggestion of changing the language to “was bound but now I’m free” is not the only option. Personally, when I sing Amazing Grace, I omit the line altogether. I think Stephanie Tait is on the right track with her critique of ableist language in hymns and songs. Changing ableist lyrics would go a long way in making disabled people feel more welcome in church spaces.

As a child, when I sat next to my mother in church, I noticed she did not join in the prayer of confession: “There is nothing good in me, O Lord, have mercy upon me, a miserable sinner.” When I asked why, she said she considered herself to be a good person who had not committed a terrible sin. Repenting, to her and to many of us, implies being judged, and why should we be scolded when we haven’t done anything really bad?

She would have been glad to read As If the Heart Mattered: A Wesleyan Spirituality by Gregory F. Clapper, the book on which our “Amazing Grace” sermon series is based. Clapper uses hymn verses, Bible stories, and popular references to explain that “if you want to know what a person truly is, you have to find out what they love, what they hate, what they take joy in, what they fear, and in what they find peace. . . If Christianity does not affect a person on this most elemental level, then it has not really taken root.”

John Wesley’s “religion of the heart” does not involve being scolded for our sins, “as though God were a parent who is always telling us to ‘Stand up straight’ when we would rather slouch,” writes Clapper. In contrast, “Repentance is an understanding that does not crush the human spirit, but instead gives us new life in surprising and powerful ways.”

To gain new life, in the Wesleyan tradition, we need to know ourselves. “Wesley’s use of self-knowledge offers insight into the human heart: we do not truly know who we are until we confess our sinfulness.” The author quotes Bob Dylan to illustrate the idea of repentance as selfknowledge. In “When He Returns” on the album Slow Train Coming, Dylan sings, How long can you falsify and deny what is real? How long can you hate yourself for the weakness you conceal?

“When we are completely honest with ourselves,” writes Clapper, “we cannot help but know that we are not holy, and it is liberating to speak this truth. . .When we repent, instead of denying ourselves, we name the truth of who we are.”

In another chapter, the author uses the character of Valjean in the novel and the musical “Les Miserables” to show “how forgiveness of our sins can lead us to a life of love.”

I’m looking forward to reading and rereading this book to get a better understanding of how Wesley’s “religion of the heart” can help me find more opportunities to understand God’s grace. It’s short, just 111 pages, including a glossary of often misunderstood terms like “holiness,” “works of piety,” and “orthodoxy.”

It’s well organized. After explaining why anyone should care about a “Wesleyan spirituality,” Clapper explains the “architecture” of a metaphorical House of Religion: The Porch of Repentance, the Door of Faith, the House of Holiness, and Living a Heart Religion in the World Today.

As If the Heart Mattered: A Wesleyan Spirituality, by Gregory F. Clapper. Paperback available on Amazon for $20, $8 used, or $9 on Kindle.

Pictured Above: From Princeton UMC member and former pastor Kathy Burt, “I’ve seen Wesley’s House illustration most often called ‘House of Salvation’ or ‘House of Grace.’ Clapper’s term ‘House of Religion’ is new to me. With this ‘House’ illustration I am trying to get away from the very common, very confusing term “preventing” often heard in presentations of ‘grace.’ I find the house illustration more clear. It is not perfect but hopefully it is clear.

Sources:

John Wesley’s Sermons, An Anthology by Outler/Heitzenrater. Abingdon, Nashville.

The Story of American Methodism by Frederick A Norwood. Abingdon, Nashville.

You are encouraged to take an “Amazing Grace” slip or two from the church pew each week to take home and record your grace experiences this week.

Put them in a jar to create your own little space for grace at home!