So, will they be burning crosses on Jewish and Unitarian families' lawns in Lake Wobegone next?
With thanks to jonquil for the link, here's a seriously disappointing (and extremely un-Christmas-y) rant by Garrison Keillor:
Unitarians listen to the Inner Voice and so they have no creed that they all stand up and recite in unison, and that's their perfect right, but it is wrong, wrong, wrong to rewrite "Silent Night." If you don't believe Jesus was God, OK, go write your own damn "Silent Night" and leave ours alone. This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism and we Christians have stood for it long enough. And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write "Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we'll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah"? No, we didn't.
Christmas is a Christian holiday -- if you're not in the club, then buzz off. Celebrate Yule instead or dance around in druid robes for the solstice. Go light a big log, go wassailing and falalaing until you fall down, eat figgy pudding until you puke, but don't mess with the Messiah.
0_ô
Dear Mr. Keillor,
Winter Solstice is a pagan holiday -- if you're not in the club, then buzz off. Celebrate Pentecost instead or drag your cross down the street for the passion. Don't light up our Yule log, or go singing Saturnalia Mummer carols door to door until you fall down. On the 25th, go eat communion until you puke, but don't mess with the Mithras.
Or, as one astute commentor (pinkoursula) put it:
Hey, if you're going to nit pick (in the spirit of Christmas), don't go translating a perfectly lovely German song into English. English speakers need to write their own damn carols. So please, keep your Englische hands off our Stille Nacht!
Oh, and by the way: 'This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism and we Christians have stood for it long enough'??? You might want to take the briefest look at your own religious history there, mate. Pot, meet kettle.
Q
has spent the last twenty minutes trying to come up with a funny quip about a Lutheran bashing the Unitarians, but really, the fact in itself is so ridiculous it doesn't even need a joke to make it funny