When I was a lad, my parents sent me to Camp Greenwood, a UPCUSA Church camp, for a week most summers. At camp we learned a song, The Ash Grove, how graceful. It was sung to a very nice Welsh tune. The song concluded with the words, "and others were there looking downward to greet me, the Ash Grove, the Ash Grove again is my home." When I came home and sang it; my father concluded that it was pagan, and I was forbidden from singing it.
Recently, a guy I went to school with, recalled the same song; and expressed horror that we were taught it at church camp. He equated the ash grove with the groves that were associated with the false religion that Judea and Israel so often turned to in times of apostasy.
Were the pagan groves that were a snare to Israel of the same nature as the Welsh enchanted ash groves?
What is the nature of the groves that were associated with the pagan worship of the peoples in Palestine?
Was this a kind of pantheistic worship?
Recently, a guy I went to school with, recalled the same song; and expressed horror that we were taught it at church camp. He equated the ash grove with the groves that were associated with the false religion that Judea and Israel so often turned to in times of apostasy.
Were the pagan groves that were a snare to Israel of the same nature as the Welsh enchanted ash groves?
What is the nature of the groves that were associated with the pagan worship of the peoples in Palestine?
Was this a kind of pantheistic worship?
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