Controversy sells. It sells newspapers, journals and movies. It may even sell conference registrations, to judge from the frequency with which I\u2019m asked to speak at such events about \u201ccontroversial issues\u201d\u009d that confronted the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song (PCOCS) as it worked on the denomination\u2019s new song collection Glory to God.<\/p>\n
Does controversy also sell hymnals? I\u2019m not sure. But the Presbyterian Hymnal of 1874 came out in the midst of a controversy so intense that pamphleteers took to writing about the War of the Hymn Books. The war they had in mind was a campaign launched by disaffected members of the official hymnal committee who seceded to create a rival publication. In response to this campaign, the board of publication for the denominational hymnal took pains to report (in the January 1875 edition of the Presbyterian Monthly Record): \u201cIt will be gratifying to our Presbyterian constituency to know that the persistent efforts to prevent the adoption by the churches of the new Hymnal . . . fail to arrest its sale.\u201d\u009d Indeed, by June of 1875, the rate at which congregations were adopting the new hymnal was reported to be \u201cwithout a parallel in the history of hymn and tune books.\u201d\u009d So maybe controversy does boost sales, even where hymnals are concerned.<\/p>\n
Still, I am relieved to note that the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song has experienced nothing as dramatic as a secession and threatened publication war. The most animated disagreements we experienced within our group were over matters of theology; our most animated disagreements with people outside our group have been over issues of musical accompaniments and (not surprisingly) of language.<\/p>\n