Comment by sk8eycat on December 8, 2011 at 7:04pm

It's Wisconsin; Gov. Walker is now fighting a recall petition drive, and thinks he can make points with the fundies by renaming the State Holiday Tree a Christmas Tree.  Like most Dominionists, he hasn't a clue that the indoor greenery is a world wide (Northern Hemisphere, anyway) pagan tradition that goes back thousands of years before Saul invented Christianity. 

At least the Jehovah's Witlesses understand that.

Comment by sk8eycat on December 8, 2011 at 7:15pm

@ Paula T: When I was in high school, and still straining my brain trying to believe, going to church 3 times a week, and all that, we were told to take our buybulls to school with us and carry them around with the rest of our books during the day...(ostentatiously) read them in the cafeteria at lunchtime.  I was too embarrassed by the idea to even consider doing that. And I don't know of anybody who did, except one geek who was planning to become a minister, anyway.  Nobody paid any attention to him. And I don't know whatever became of him.  Tee-hee!

That was back in the mid-1950s.  Can you imagine the presssure being put upon believing teens today?  I pity them. Sort of.

Comment by sk8eycat on December 9, 2011 at 1:52am

Steph: I am a genuine "Valley Girl," so my usual reaction to ostentatious public political piety is, "Gag me with a spoon!" People can pray in their homes, churches, any other private place, but when they do it in government buildings, public schools, or any other taxpayer-supported place, it's pure arrogance.  "I'm/We're better than you are."  I sincerely doubt that.

I gag whenever any politician ends a speech with "GBA."  How many of them know that the man who wrote that song was an atheist?

Comment by Peggy Henderson on December 9, 2011 at 8:17am

What struck me about the post was the passage from Jeremiah.  Attended church most of my life and if I ever once heard that passage preached I don't remember.   So they should all get rid of their decorated trees! NOW!  And the sheer insult of calling them CHRISTmas trees!  [Though. . .Maybe the PLASTIC ones don't matter. . .there was that bit about an ax. . h'mmmmm]

Comment by Natalie A Sera on December 9, 2011 at 1:42pm

Ok, Sk8es, I'm game: who wrote the song, and why would an atheist write a song like that? :-)

And I'm CLOSE to being a valley girl -- I was raised in the Westchester/Inglewood/Ladera Heights area! :-)

Comment by Steph S. on December 9, 2011 at 2:19pm

Sk8eycat I think "gag me with a spoon" as well.

Comment by sk8eycat on December 9, 2011 at 4:12pm

Natalie, "Gawd Bless Uhhhmare-eee-ca" was written by Irving Berlin.  He was a lifelong agnostic.

http://www.ffrf.org/day/view/05/11/#irving-berlin

The celebrated composer of 1,500 popular songs wrote "God Bless America" as a show tune in 1918 for the musical " Yip, Yip Yaphank," but discarded it. He later revived and revised it when Kate Smith was looking for a peace anthem to sing in 1938.

If you remember the lyrics, it's NOT about ghod...it's about America.

In Dan Barker's latest book, The GOOD Atheist, he lists an amazing number of atheist or agnostic composers and lyricists who wrote hymns, masses, and other "religious" music.  Mostly because they needed the money!  The same reason there are non-believers preaching sermons and leading prayers every Sunday all over this country; they have families they need to support, and they have no other marketable skills.

PS: I lived the first 5 years of my life on The Strand in Hermosa Beach.  I remember it vividly, and feel kinda panicky when I get too far from an ocean.

Comment by Steph S. on December 9, 2011 at 4:14pm

Dan Barker is the best! I just love his books!

Comment by James M. Martin on December 9, 2011 at 6:51pm

I am told that Hector Berlioz was an atheist, although he grew in provincial surroundings where most were "village Catholic."  His father wanted him to go into the family business of doctoring, but he struggled on his on (they cut him off) and he had to compose a great choral work to win the Prix de Rome, where his friend Mendelsohn was a fellow.  I had my doubt about Berlioz being anything but religious until I realized that the "Fantastic Symphony" was inspired more by the Lyonnaise Satan who would be depicted by Huysmans in La-Bas.  And then I heard Berlioz's Requiem and I knew for sure: the man was a freethinking rationalist.  Doubt can be just as spine-tingling as belief is made out to be.

Comment by Regina Goodwin on December 9, 2011 at 6:58pm

@Peggy Henderson - someone from the Nation of Islam told me about the text on xmas trees in Jeremiah.  I never heard it in church.  I have not put up a tree since I was 9 y.o.  A friend of my late mother tried her best to get me to put up a tree and I finally told her to shove it and damn a xmas tree.

She finally backed off. 

Comment

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• …
• 29
• Next ›
• Page