I think there's a difference between songs that are meant to serves some moral or spiritual purpose (e.g. hymns, and some political songs) and older songs with implied values which may or may not correspond to those of a modern singer and audience. I don't have a problem singing a song about going hunting or awaiting the return of a brave soldier from battle, because to me such songs are products of their times, and reflect they way people once lived and thought. The underlying emotions (delight in a gallop across the fields, anxiety and then relief when the soldier returns - albeit from some futile battle) are universal and not difficult to identify with. I can sing them with some sort of "belief". But if someone produced a modern song about why we should bring back hunting or send more troops to the Middle East, I wouldn't want to sing it.

The main point coming across in this discussion, though, is the importance (to most of us) of thinking about the words you sing, and feeling that they matter. You don't get so much of this in other genres of music, and it's one of the things that makes folk and traditional song special.

Marje