Church Rejects “White People” Hymns

First United Church of Oak Park is standing by its decision to “fast from whiteness” for Lent, despite a significant backlash.

First United Church of Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, “will not be using any music or liturgy written or composed by white people,” according to their website. They are “fasting from whiteness.” Instead, they will use the “voices of Black people, indigenous people, and people of color.” The church, which is pastored by a white man named John Edgerton, “values people of all races, ethnicities, cultural identities, gender identities, sexual orientations…” A biblical church doesn’t choose hymns on the basis of the skin color of the composers. A biblical church cares absolutely zero about skin color, knowing that all men are one blood and there is no such thing as “race.” But a biblical church cares deeply about biblical morality and doctrine. A biblical church believes the Bible’s teaching that God made man male and female. A biblical church chooses hymns based on whether they glorify Jesus Christ as God and Saviour and whether the doctrine is sound according to the faith once delivered to the saints.

(Friday Church News Notes, April 15, 2022, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)