It Was on a Friday Morning

"It Was on a Friday Morning", sometimes called "Friday Morning", is a song by Sydney Carter about the crucifixion of Jesus. It is written from the perspective of the Thief on the Cross, who blames God for the injustice of the situation with ironic lyrics such as "It's God they ought to crucify / Instead of you and me, / I said to the carpenter / A-hanging on the tree." Citing lines like "To hell with Jehovah," critics branded the song blasphemous; controversies arose on several occasions, most notably when it was included in the 1974 government-published Book of Worship for United States Forces. In that instance, congressmen demanded the song's removal, and conservative Christian groups organized mass letter-writing campaigns against it. The military chaplains responsible for the hymnal resisted these calls, which they viewed as demands for censorship that threatened the separation of church and state and their independence from political pressure. The song was not excised from most copies of the hymnal, although it was replaced in subsequent printings. For his part, Carter saw "Friday Morning" as "a device to make something happen" rather than a hymn appropriate for congregational singing.