The campaign against secular holiday ads finally jumped the shark this year, and with only a few weeks left in the season, the ‘09 Christmas War was shaping up to be a real dud. But then, an unlikely culture warrior stepped into the fray.
Garrison Keillor, writer and host of NPR’s Prairie Home Companion, was panned this week for a syndicated column he wrote about his visit to First Parish in Cambridge.
The author, speaking Monday during a promotional tour for his new book, took inspiration from a handful of Unitarian audience members who altered some of the words in Silent Night at the end of his appearance.
You can blame Ralph Waldo Emerson for the brazen foolishness of the elite. He preached here at the First Church of Cambridge, a Unitarian outfit (where I discovered that “Silent Night” has been cleverly rewritten to make it more about silence and night and not so much about God), and Emerson tossed off little bons mots that have been leading people astray ever since.
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.
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.
Most of his column was taken from the first ten minutes of his speech, which opened similarly with a spoof on Unitarians. He also altered the lyrics of the folk song “Angels Watching Over Me” in the middle of the program to take another poke at Unitarian theology.
If you’ve spent any time listening to Prairie Home Companion, then you know that Keillor’s tongue-in-cheek religious humor is usually pretty innocuous, and Lutherans are just as likely to be the butt of the joke as Unitarians. But the reference to Jewish song writers was probably ill-advised. In the context of a get-your-damn-hands-off-my-holiday column, even when it’s satire, the line comes off between curmudgeonly and genuinely anti-Semitic.
“What happened that caused Garrison Keillor to pen such a goofy and confusing piece?” wondered one reader. “He ought to apologize whether he means it or not,” suggested another. The Minneapolis Star Tribune, which ran the article on Dec. 16, followed up with a blog post the next day asking readers if the Old Scout had, indeed, gone too far.
We tried to get in touch with the head minister and music director at First Parish to get their reactions to Keillor’s column, but we haven’t heard back yet.
Update 12/21: I received an e-mail today from Rev. Fred Small, the head minister at First Parish. He said that he submitted a response to Salon.com, one of several sites that published the column, and he’s waiting on their reply.
What’s the point? The guy created a show that promotes the banjo.
yeah, seems like the unitarian church SHOULD be more open to humor, right? seems like with religion, folks can dish it out, but cant take it. Its garrisons show, and he can do whatever he wants.
ben soles: it’s the unitarians’ church, and they can do whatever they want.
Is he still alive? He hasn’t been funny since, well, ever. This song was too long for most of his audicene, most of whom fell asleep if not died as he sang it.
I don’t see the problem. They sang Silent Night with him. Those that didn’t want to sing didn’t. Those that sang but substituted words seemed fine. Those that slumped over and slept 30 minutes into his talk were OK too. Why would he get such a bug up his ass? He was in a room filled with like-minded people. People that want to worship in their own way with others that want to worship in their own way, without killing each other.
I thought GK understood Christ. Guess not.
So let me start with full disclosure. I’m a Unitarian Universalist (not a Unitarian). I attend First Parish in Cambridge — the church where Garrison Keiller spoke to a room of ardent fans and where he was offended by a rewritten version of Silent Night but didn’t let that stop him from selling his new book to the eager crowd. So there’s my bias, out on the table.
I’m going to try not to flame Mr. Keiller, the way he flamed us. I agree with his feeling that Christmas has been ruined by crass commercialism. And since I work at Harvard — until possibly the next round of lay-offs — I’ve got no problem with anyone impugning Larry Summers’ economic savvy. For goodness sake, don’t blame us UUs for him!
But I can’t quite understand Mr. Keiller’s vitriolic stinginess about Christmas (or his vicious anti-Semitism towards Jewish songwriters). Although I am not now a Christian, I was raised one. Christmas is woven into the fabric of my being. It’s down in there at the cellular level and it won’t quit me, regardless of whether or not I believe in Christ as my personal savior. It is not only a Christian holiday, as Mr. Keiller suggests. It’s my holiday too. It’s the high holy time for my family, when we come together no matter what keeps us apart the rest of the year. It’s the time of year when we try to be the best version of ourselves. It’s the month when even cold Bostonians smile and nod and wish each other well. The entire season is a constant reminder that while there is dark in us, in all of us, there is light too, a light that we can fan with mindfulness. The season we are reminded that everyone else in the world carries that light inside them too. Even Garrison Keiller.
I am, of course, going to have to take a moment here to point out the irony of being angry at UUs for co-opting Christmas when Christians are the ultimate co-opters. Mr. Keiller is a smart guy. He’s got to know that scholars generally agree that Jesus was not born in December. That it was the Christian church that co-opted the solstice holidays of Romans and other pagan tribes. Oh, and that “Silent Night” has already been rewritten once, from the German (Stille Nacht). Ok. I’ve gotten that out of my system.
Maybe it’s because I live in a big city that I’m more open to the various ways humans seek to commune with the divine. Within four blocks of my apartment is a Roman Catholic church, an African-American Methodist church, a synagogue, a mosque, and a Baptist church. That’s the reality of my world. And pretty soon, it will be the reality for most of America. Variety will be the spice of our lives. So what if some church thousands of miles from Mr. Keiller’s changed the words to a Christmas carol to better reflect its beliefs? At First Parish we have people who identify as Christian and atheist and Jewish and Muslim and humanist. And together, we are all Unitarian Universalists, supporting each other’s free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
Mr. Keiller brings up Ralph Waldo Emerson. Mr. Emerson also said: “Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.” As UUs we look to and respect many wisdom traditions, including Christianity, but we don’t cling to them by rote repetition of approved language. As Mr. Keiller points out, although we have ethical principles we try to live up to, UUs don’t adhere to religious creeds or dogma. Sometimes this means we take an old classic that speaks to our heritage, and change the language to speak to our contemporary beliefs. (And yes we also have an entire hymnal of songs we made up for ourselves.) As Emerson also said, “God enters by a private door into every individual.” I’m sorry there isn’t more generous room for that in Mr. Keiller’s Christianity. All I can say is I’m certainly glad I’m no longer a member of that club.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by thathottness: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus … and he’s super pissed at the Unitarians in Cambridge — http://tinyurl.com/ycusmnu...
Tracy, I’m a Unitarian as well, and think that you make a lot of excellent points. That said I don’t really understand the rationale behind modifying the lyrics to “Silent Night”. I suspect that the traditional language speaks to the “contemporary beliefs” of many Unitarians (specifically Unitarian Christians) while it may not speak to the beliefs of Unitarian Humanists and others. Making the song less about the biblical story doesn’t make it more inclusive — it simply makes it more reflective one of perspective and less reflective of another. There are songs in the hymnal with little religious content, and others with quite a bit. Singing a variety of songs seems more inclusive than neutering certain songs on a random basis.
I am also a Unitarian Universalist and I couldn’t relate more to what Tracy said…about what Mr. Keillor said, and about the role of Christmas in my life. At our church, we use “Singing the Living Tradition” which has both the modified version and the original version (the true original version which includes the German words and the English translation, which I never heard sung by anyone). However, on Christmas Eve, which is recognized to be the service for our Christian members (and anyone else who cares to visit) we sing the original American words, complete with Christian religious overtones, not the modified words out of the hymnal. That’s the beauty of our religion, as Tracy mentions–we have room for all faiths and traditions. That’s why I love it!
The author mentions that Mr. Keillor’s article was meant as satire; sadly I found it to be cranky and upsetting. I missed the satire completely, which is rare for me. Since I relocated from Minneapolis several years ago, I truly hope that he meant this as satire and doesn’t believe what he wrote.
Frankly, I found it odd that they blame the UU’s of Cambridge–are the lyrics credited to them specifically? Because the wording is in the hymnal.
Happy holidays, all!
PeteM’s comments are right on the money. This (thoroughly secular) UU Humanist doesn’t agree with “child of God” or “yon virgin mother” (both still in the StLT version) any more than with “Christ, the Saviour is born” or “Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth” (both banished from the StLT hymnal.)
I still like to sing (and listen to) Silent Night, no matter what version. Given the choice, I’d rather go with the original (English) version. And why not? I doubt many of our parishioners (even among the Christian UUs) take the lyrics absolutely literally (esp. the part about the “virgin mother.”) And if we can take THAT metaphorically rather than literally, then why not the part about “Christ, the savior”?
What really upset me, though, was that our hymnal doesn’t even mention that the lyrics have been changed. When I first read about Keillor’s complaint, I looked up hymn #251 and went, “No way, those ARE the original words.” Now I know better, but I wouldn’t know it from reading the hymnal, where the only attribution re lyrics is given to “Words: Joseph Mohr, 1792-1848.”
Merry Christmas, ho, ho, hUU!
As a Unitarian Universalist myself, I thought Garrison Keillor’s column was funny. I enjoy humor directed at our faith, because it usually highlights the very things I relish about it: independence of thought, our individualism, our cherished doubts, our embrace of the spiritual without quite trusting it. I noticed that Mr. Keillor, in his Cambridge performance, teased the Lutherans, as he often does, about being rather the opposite. I’ve always looked forward to his Unitarian jokes. This may not be his best, but it is amusing and does parody Bill O’Reilly’s crusade against those who choose to recognize that there are faiths other than Christian with holidays in winter. Although we UUs need to lighten up about this, Rev. Small’s response was an inspiring defense of our faith. If we take ourselves too seriously, however, we will deserve some hearty laughter at our expense.
I attribute it to this time of the year. Mr G k for reasons known only to him appeared to be depressed. Who knows maybe he is bi polar and off his meds. In any case I’m waiting for his column of explanation which I’m sure will be witty and enlightening .
Silent Night is the iconic Christmas hymn full of emotion and meaning for Christians and sung at very specific times during Advent and Christmas. With all due respect to the UU’s of Cambridge–it is after all your church and you may do as you like–but perhaps another song would have been the better choice. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, for example, was written by and for UU’s with no offensive “savior” language. Just a thought.