Good Things From Here & There

Via Freedom 4um, a (mercifully) shorter Bush Administration:


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"The Ballad of the Green Berets" is one of the two songs that immediately jump to my mind as being popular targets for lyric substitution (the other is the title song to the ancient TV series "The Beverly Hillbillies"). I recall a "Green Berets" rewrite from the height -- depth? -- of the Clinton years making fun of that whole "don't ask, don't tell" thing (Fighting fairies from the sky / I broke a nail, now I could cry ... ). This week, Grace Nearing passed along an excellent contemporary version. A brief excerpt:

Trained to lie, by Leo Strauss
Trained to lobby Senate and House
In Iraq some men today will die
Not one of them from the A.E.I.

American flags upon their lapel
These are men with wars to sell
One hundred ways to tell a lie
Senior Fellows at the A.E.I.

You'll need to go there for the rest.

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And the Internet Monk expresses, as he often does so well, something that's occurred to me more than a few times:

Mainline churches….we’re having a moment here.

Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Disciples of Christ…do you know what I mean? We’re having a moment, and it’s slipping right by.

What moment?

We’re having a moment when thousands of evangelicals are getting a bellyful of the shallow, traditionless, grown up youth group religion that’s taken over their pastor’s head and is eating up their churches.

It’s a moment when people are asking if they want to hear praise bands when they are 70…or if they will even be allowed in the building when they are 70. It’s a moment when the avalanche of contemporary worship choruses has turned into one long indistinquishable commercial buzz. It’s a moment when K-Love is determining what we sing in church and that’s not a good thing.

It’s a moment when some people are wondering if their children will ever know the hymns they knew or will ever actually hold a Bible in their hand at church again. It’s a moment when a lot of people are pretty certain if they hear the words “new,” “purpose” or “seeker” one more time, they may appear on the evening news for an episode of “church rage.”

Well worth your while, if you have any interest in the subject.

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Update: One of my fellow bloggers from the Fort Wayne area, Robert Rouse, is participating in a "blogathon" to raise money for an organization called the Alliance for Climate Protection. This conflicts me some. On the one hand, I have much admiration for Robert's willingness to get busy and participate according to his convictions, and want to support that. On the other hand, I'm a climate-crisis skeptic, and I don't think I can write a check to the Alliance for Climate Protection, which -- as far as I can tell -- is apt to be lobbying for laws that I would oppose. I think, then, I might propose an alternative to Robert: to make a gift to the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission in honor of his blogging commitment. Meanwhile, why not stop by Left of Centrist and see what Robert's up to ... you may not share my skepticism, in which case you might want to participate a little more directly.