100 Years of "The Old Rugged Cross"

Special Installment: Good Friday
One of the most well-known hymns of the church -- ever -- is 100 years old this year. What better time to take a closer look than on Good Friday?

It is "a monstrous blasphemy."

That's how Erik Routley, who some consider the greatest hymnologist of the last century, described the well-known hymn "The Old Rugged Cross." Routley, who was also a composer and minister, explained his comment by saying, "I believe it to be wrong, misleading and spiritually wicked to treat the Cross as affectionately as that lyric does."

Well! No cherishing the old rugged cross for him!

Routley made that comment in a 1967 publication, more than 50 years after the hymn had been introduced to the public. His opinion had little impact because by that time, "The Old Rugged Cross" had become a favorite hymn and was being widely used in churches across America. In a radio poll taken about 20 years after the song was written, "The Old Rugged Cross" received over 6,000 votes more than its nearest competitor, "Nearer My God to Thee," and a survey conducted by the Christian Herald magazine in the 1950s said it was number one of the "fifty favorite hymns." It's...