Woke Evangelicals Considering Removing Hymn “Amazing Grace” from Church Services

“It happened one Saturday”.  A leader of the Woke Religious Sect of Evangelicalism, Don Fleming, was looking for something to watch on Netflix or Amazon Prime.  As he scrolled through the categories (a deep search) he decided to watch a documentary.  In the documentary he came across one about John Newton, the writer of one of the most beloved hymns in church history “Amazing Grace”.

In an interview over the phone, he explained that he was watching a dramatized account of the life of John Newton.  Now, he was only half listening while he was doing some work on his laptop.  “About two thirds of the way through, Mr. Newton recounts his time as a slave trader.  Now, he wasn’t the actual trader of the slaves, nor did he capture them, he just transported them to the plantations of the New World.  And that was all I needed to hear.”

What happened next, I asked him.

“Well,” he answered in exasperation, “since I had my laptop open, I fired off an email to my fellow activists explaining that we must eliminate that deplorable hymn from our churches immediately!”

Taken aback by his intensity, I mentioned it is one of the most beloved hymns in the recent history of the church.

“IT DOESN”T MATTER!”, he yelled into the phone (I had to pull the phone away from my ear).  “HE WAS PART OF THE SLAVE TRADE, AND THAT IS ENOUGH FOR ME!”

But, I countered, Mr. Newton may have written “Amazing Grace” in light of his slave trading past. In addition, Mr. Newton only transported the slaves, and he did his best to treat them humanely. Mr. Fleming’s response was part indecipherable and part unreportable as he launched into a tirade about my apparent ignorance.

I gave Mr. Fleming a moment to calm down while I collected myself.  I asked him what the status was of the action he wanted taken and he explained that the motion was in a sub-committee of a sub-committee of the Committee of Hymnal Directories, and it may be a while in deliberation.