Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 21:2 (Fall 2016)
Article: Holy Women, Holy Words, Holy War: Investigating The Use Of Military Motifs In The Prayer Songs Of Women In Scripture
Author: Todd R. Chipman

JBMW 21:2 (Fall 2016) p. 18

Holy Women, Holy Words, Holy War:
Investigating The Use Of Military Motifs In The Prayer Songs Of Women In Scripture¹

Todd R. Chipman

Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Kansas City, Missouri

It turns out that the raucous Republican primary debates may have an effect on the songs sung in some churches.1 On February 18, 2016, Baptist News Global posted an interview with Brian McLaren regarding his songwriting ministry and especially his recent re-wording of Sabine Baring-Gould’s 1865 hymn, “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” “I had started a rewrite of Onward, Christian Soldiers lyrics awhile back,” McLaren said in an email to BNG. “But after watching one of the Republican presidential … debates and hearing several candidates in one breath speak of Christian faith and Jesus and in the next breath speak of carpet bombing and the like, I felt it was time to finish some alternative lyrics.”2 Baring-Gould’s hymn begins:

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before!
Christ the royal Master leads against the foe;
Forward into battle, see His banner go!
Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.

McLaren’s first verse reads:

JBMW 21:2 (Fall 2016) p. 19

Onward, all disciples, in the path of peace,
Just as Jesus taught us, love your enemies
Walk on in the Spirit, seek God’s kingdom first,
Let God’s peace and justice be your hunger and your thirst!
Onward, all disciples, in humility
Walk with God, do justice, love wholeheartedly.3

One week after Baptist News Global posted its interview with McLaren, Russell Moore, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, posted on his blog an article titled, “Are Our Hymns Too Warlike?”4 Moore argues that in many hymns and choruses “the warfare imagery is derived not from our hymnbooks but from our Bibles.”5 Moore notes that some of those sympathetic to McLaren’s views reject the Old Testament narrative and the pervasive Holy War metaphor of the Hebrew Scriptures. And I suggest here that women’s voices play no small role in the Holy War tradition surfacing in both testaments.

Holy War And The Songs Of Deborah, Hannah, And Mary

Moore’s comme...