I'm comfortable singing songs with elf-knights and the like in 'em. Belief in the subject matter wouldn't stop me singing any good song with feeling.

WYSIWYG, not that I am very informed about spirituals (more now, as I read the permathread materials), but would regional speaking accents come into the perfomance issues you are addressing? In the case of 'Sing Aho', or 'Sing-a O', I tried singing the sylables aloud and concluded, with my discernible Cape Breton accent, that I would be more comfortable leaving the 'h' sound out. Or am I making no sense out of ignorance?