Church Panel Censors Hymn
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A United Methodist hymnal revision committee has voted to exclude “Jesus Loves the Little Children” from its new songbook because of references to race.
The hymn refers to races as “red and yellow, black and white,” which offends some and excludes others, committee members said.
“Most Asians don’t want to be called yellow,” said Hope Kawashima, a Japanese-American from Flushing, N.Y., who is on the 25-member panel.
“It has bad connotations. Yellow means cowardice. If anything, we’d prefer gold, golden or tan. A song like that can make children too color-conscious. But children tend to accept that we are all children of God. Children aren’t as color-conscious as adults.”
Raquel Achon, of Long Beach, Calif., said the array of colors in the song fails to include a place for brown people.
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