Good God what are we doing? – a hymn in a time of war and remembrance of Hiroshima
Good God what are we doing
upon this harrowed earth,
with children starved, or banished,
a hell has to come to birth?
And even now the mid-wives
see nurtured babies die,
while politicians hunker
and hide behind a lie.
If God is good the image
that we uphold and bear
is marred beyond cognition,
humanity lacks care.
A spark of holy presence
becomes a fading shard
while hopeful grace is damaged,
love’s clarity is barred.
Good God forgive indifference
that lets our children die,
raise up again a spirit
of grace beyond a sigh,
until we cradle babies
and nurture them with love,
until war’s hawks are banished,
peace settling like dove.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 2026 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd
Metre: 7.6.7.6 D
Tune: PASSION CHORALE
Tag: babies
A hymn published in 1997 still pertinent in a world torn by war and carnage – with tune by John Kleinheksel
Lives like yours and mine, contorted – as we live in a world contorted by war and hatred, during a week remembering Hamas action of 7th October 2023 and living with Israel’s response, together with war and carnage in so many places on our planet.
1 Lives like yours and mine, contorted:
Genocide has been reported,
Wrong seems right, it's all distorted;
Christ! What would you do?
2 Seeing babies starving, bleeding,
Hearing mothers' desperate pleading,
Would you wring your hands, unheeding?
Christ! What would you do?
3 Watching buildings ruined, burning,
Hearing tank tracks rumble, churning,
Would you walk on by, not turning?
Christ! What would you do?
4 Sensing fear that chills the city,
Families threatened without pity,
Would you pray your prayers, so pretty?
Christ! What would you do?
5 We have seen it, all the sorrow,
We will see the same tomorrow,
Must this pattern always follow?
Christ! What should we do?
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 1997 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd. Originally published in Blinded by the Dazzle https://stainer.co.uk/shop/b840/
Metre: 8 8 8 5
Tune: THERE’S NO GREATER NAME THAN JESUS (Complete Mission Praise)
John R. Kleinheksel Sr has composed the following tune which may be used with acknowledgement.
This tune is now to be acknowledged as Copyright Stainer & Bell Ltd address as for the text.
An audio file of the tune is at the link below.
Body Bag, Body Bags
22 years old, dead in a bag.
‘Just down there’ casual words from a ‘reception’ desk.
Cold.
But, then, a mortuary is a chilling place.
‘Chill out’, we say.
Then rows of babies follow where my son has gone.
He departed by train at night.
Limp hands, recognisable like my own.
Cold, lifeless.
An accident.
None to blame.
But these babies, gone before time?
No excuse.
Death by choice, of the vulnerable and truly innocent.
Few are truly innocent.
Time compounds circumstance and reason
to churn us into who we are.
Some curdle, I suppose.
But death at birth has no rhyme or reason.
Don’t multiply your guilt by pointing fingers.
Don’t seek to assuage hell
by washing your hands of your complicity.
Wringing your hands won’t dry the blood of your hypocrisy.
But remember also, neither will it erase the all encompassing love
of the God you claim to worship,
yet who through obscene action you blaspheme at every turn.
Copyright Andrew Pratt 19/11/2023
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