Re: WSO's spirituals

On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 07:01:27 -0500, Donnieb78 wrote
(in article <1146398486.995502.155340@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>):

Thought for a Sunday morning: While listening to WSO:TSS yesterday, I
realized we haven't talked much about the inclusion of several old
spirituals.

And whether Bruce intended to or not, it seems to me that they make an
important point.
Religion has been a political tool of the far right only for the past
quarter century or so.

For most of this nation's history, progressive movements have usually
had strong ties to the church. Think of the abolitionists and the
civil-rights movement, peace movements, the labor movement, the groups
that strove for social justice, settled our immigrants and fought
poverty in our inner cities for most of the past two centuries.

The kind of people who see the Sermon on the Mount as the essence of
their faith, rather than the Left Behind series.

I know Bruce is ambivalent at best about organized religion. But we
also know he doesn't do anything (like recording "Jesus is an only
son") without thinking about the statement it makes. It seems to me
that, whether he means to or not, this claims faith and religious
belief back from the whackos who've hijacked them.

This album reminds us that these songs and many hymns like them gave
voice to the strugglers and the strivers and the dreamers in our
history. It says that faith also belongs to those who want to make
people free, not just the ones who want to lock up their minds.


"On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no
position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There
is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God,
or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful
weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The
religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their
religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders
into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these
religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten
you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the
political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I
want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do
they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to
dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator
who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some
God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am
warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to
dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of
conservatism."

Barry Goldwater, 1981

.

Relevant Pages

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