Former President Donald Trump raised his hand in a salute during the performance of "Amazing Grace" before the NASCAR Coca ...

(RNS) — James Walvin, a former Church of England choirboy and professor of history at the University of York, doesn’t remember encountering “Amazing Grace,” in song or in his hymnal.

But at the Nashville ceremony that ushered him into the Country Music Hall of Fame, he held the audience in his palm with one brief, ragged verse of “Amazing Grace.” It was a heroic gift of ...