Our hymnals open to Page 555, the congregation begins to sing “Forward Through the Ages,” and suddenly I am transported back to the church of my youth. It is the old familiar melody except in this particular memory, the congregants of my childhood church are filling the sanctuary with the words to “Onward Christian Soldiers.” My ears hear the same musical notes and chords; it’s the words that are different.
Later as I am pondering the Sunday service, I am reminded of that one melody with its two separate lyric. I consider how long “Onward, Christian Soldiers” has been a part of my musical DNA. From childhood, from the very beginning of my memory — I attended a church where we sang that song. It was simple and stirring for a young boy. It was a march, and what child doesn’t like a march?
As a young teenager I didn’t stop the questioning and debating within myself, but I decided church attendance wasn’t for me. I left the songs and rituals and stopped going. It wasn’t until decades later when I realized what I had been searching for all those years, found it and then resumed my place in the pews. A lot had changed in that time between, including, it seems, the church’s attitudes toward this particular hymn.
Certainly not all denominations under the wide wings of Christianity voiced concerns about “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” but enough did so that beginning sometime in the later years of the 20th century the song became controversial. Alas, in these times, controversy often expresses itself in battle lines, barricades and ideological redoubts. Curiously, it became somewhat of a cultural war skirmish about a purported war song.
The hymn has an interesting backstory. The lyrics were composed by an English clergyman, Sabine Baring-Gould, in 1864 as a simple processional song for children to sing as they crossed the village of Horbury Bridge to the parish church. The words were first set to a tune, St. Alban, based on a work by Haydn. In 1871 the tune was changed to St. Gertrude. According to one commentator, “Sung to St. Alban, one can assume a certain innocence. With St. Gertrude, one cannot ignore the nationalistic and militaristic overtone…”
Perhaps because of its power to evoke rousing emotions in singers and listeners, “Onward, Christian Soldiers” has been used to call people to action for various causes and campaigns. In 1955-56, it was appropriated by the American Civil Rights Movement to “rally the troops” during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It is, some might argue, part of the American Songbook.
But as time went on, as the horrors of the 20th century’s wars and factional fightings began to weigh on people, the militant, almost aggressive aspects of the song caused some to question its appropriateness for Christians who follow a Prince of Peace. Others point out the lyrics’ obvious metaphorical meaning. They cite 2 Timothy where Paul urges Timothy to be “a good soldier of Christ Jesus” as well as the extensive military imagery one finds throughout the Bible.
The song has, in fact, been dropped over the last few decades from various denominations’ hymnals. But not all. In 1989, the United Methodists Church was set to omit the hymn, but the deciding committee received so much backlash from members all over the country that it relented and left it in the hymnal where it remains to this day. (Full disclosure: I attend a Methodist church.)
The controversy over “Onward, Christian Soldiers” is nothing new nor is it all that unusual. Race relations among Christians was at one time a major topic of controversy. Christians still debate the roll of women in the church. Today the ordination of gay people and the acceptance of gay marriage is a contentious issue that threatens to divide some churches.
But through all this the church continues to survive. It continues its march, as the song reminds us, like a mighty army.
