LDS cherish carols of many faiths

There are a lot of things to like about Christmas. But what I like most, I think, is the amazing variety of songs. We have carols that were written 300 years ago and carols written three months ago. Some carols have a history that is almost as touching as their message. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, for instance, conceived his poem "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" on Dec. 25 while consoling his son, who had been wounded in the Civil War.

But what I like most is the array of color and insight that Christmas carols bring to a worship service — including LDS worship services. Some people will tell you that the LDS faithful are not open to input from other religious traditions, but just listen to their songs — especially at Christmas. It's not hard to imagine an LDS sacrament meeting that would have:

Opening hymn: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (by Charles Wesley, a founder of Methodism)

Sacrament hymn: "I Believe in Christ" (by Elder Bruce R. McConkie)

Congregational hymn: "Once in Royal David's City" (by Cecil Francis Alexander, wife of the Church of England's archbishop of Ireland)

Special number: "Silent Night" (by Catholic Joseph Mohr)

Closing hymn: "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" (a hymn by Edmund H. Sears, often called the "humanist hymn" because it stresses peace on earth, not Jesus, Mary or the manger)

That's a lot of music from a pretty good cross section of believers. And the messages in those songs are taken to heart by LDS people because they were written from the heart by people of faith — people in touch with the light.

I think the early Saints may have been even more used to such cross-pollination. Brigham Young even stressed it.

"Whether a truth be found with professed infidels," he wrote, "or with the Universalists, or the Church of Rome, or the Methodists, the Church of England, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Quakers, the Shakers, or any other of the various and numerous sects and parties, all of whom have more or less truth, it is the business of the Elders of this Church (Jesus, their Elder Brother, being at their head) to gather up all the truths in the world pertaining to life and salvation." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, Page 283).

I see that happening among the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today. I sense a true reaching out from the pews.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell was fond of telling people to bring their light and knowledge to the LDS Church and have it added upon. But I also hear — and tend to feel — the next, implied step: "Bring the light and knowledge you have to the LDS Church and enhance our appreciation of such things."

We certainly find that to be true at Christmas, when LDS faithful sing songs written by "Universalists, the Church of Rome, the Methodists and the Church of England."

In fact, the last verse of "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains" (by LDS composer and poet John Menzies Macfarlane) sums up the hope I have not only at Christmas, but every week in every column.

"Hasten the time when, from every clime, Men shall unite in the strains sublime."

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E-MAIL: jerjohn@desnews.com